‘EMBARRASSING!’ Was hosting the Copa América in the USA a failure? | ESPN FC

ESPN FC’s Shaka Hislop, Herculez Gomez and Alexis Nunes join Sebastian Salazar on Futbol Americas to debate whether the USA hosting the Copa América was a failure.

[alexandermurillo]

I was there …. The organization was a disaster from the start … you could see it even getting there …. No guide lines no filter perimeters … they thought it was a Tuesday night scrimmage game ….

[jonathanc.]

I went to Argentina vs Peru in Miami and after what I saw, I knew the final game was going to be a mess. For the game I went to, there was Zero police presence in the street managing traffic. Instead, it seemed like a cheap contractor was hired to manage traffic and they were clueless. They would leave traffic lights red for 10-20 minutes straight, and when it came time to leave, we were stuck in the parking lot for 3 hours not being able to move an inch. Even churches hire police officers to manage traffic outside. Hard Rock allowed conmebol to cut corners and pocket all the money. It is the fault of the greediness of conmebol and the fault of everyone like hard rock who were happy to take their cut and pass the blame to someone else.

[REdds-wsll]

What is embarrassing are people in their thousands trying break into a stadium when they do not have ticket.

[serg]

Also, I love how they leave out the fact the Colombian federations president got arrested with his son in Miami at the game.

[ChiefOfProtocol_ZW]

Ticket prices for the sporting events in the 🇺🇸 is getting out of hand

[darealcheezer]

Let’s talk about the ref technology too. No Goal Line tech or Auto Offsides?!?! It’s 2024…

[yaarghmaargh]

American sporting events are fundamentally different from football in other countries. I just dont think the US understands that.

[acerock]

Herc Gomez is the only soccer head on ESPN worth listening to. No one wants to replay what Bielsa said because he said it in Spanish but what he said was born out in the final. Jesse Marsch was right. This was not a professionally run tournament and Hardrock is at fault as is Conmebol.

[colinwithrow]

Conmebol shifting the blame like always.

[Razormiller]

Having a 25minute half time instead of a 15min one just so they could superbowl it up & have Shakira sing = failure.... All the other stuff makes it even worse. You just know theye gonna try that 25min nonsense for the World Cup as well.

[piscesman]

Complete and utter failure, in every aspect possible. 25 minute half time is a ridiculous decision just to allow more time for sponsor advertising. $$$ rules.

[lewest]

The whole notion of going to a stadium to try to steal a seat and somebody else's money is beyond my comprehension. It is not about passion for soccer, or that this is the USA, not LATAM, Europe, blah, blah, blah. Not only that, many fans destroyed facilities, pushed children, got people hurt, got beaten by the cops. Is that "passion" for the sport too?

[davidb]

I remember when uefa tried to blame Liverpool fans with no tickets for issues with crowd control at the champions league final, it’s always easy to blame fans who are just a group of nameless voiceless people. It’s only because Liverpool fans called it out as lies that the truth came out. You have to pre check tickets en route into stadium it’s basic crowd control

[marcusnfishy]

What about this Columbian and Conmebol soccer president that was arrested for attacking event staff while children tried to pull them back.

[griseltrigo]

What these 3 gentlemen fail to acknowledge is that Marcelo Bielsa was exactly right in his declarations after the Uruguay v Colombia game. Conmebol, and anyone associated with the organization of this Copa America, were a complete and utter failure. Security for the fans outside and inside the Stadiums was a failure. The majority of the fields were unacceptable; several of them did not comply with the dimensions of the fields games are played throughout the world. The fields provided to the different teams for training and practice were awful for several of the teams. The weather conditions under which some games were played in stadiums without roofs and AC were inappropriate. FIFA, Conmebol, Concacaf, they are all a bunch of crooks caring only in making money and pursuing their powerful interests. Everything, EVERYTHING, Bielsa said was absolutely true. And yet, just wait, I am sure the corresponding authorities will sanction Bielsa, his players and the AUF, for the occurrences after their game and subsequent declarations. No one has yet apologized to the Uruguayan players for allowing their families to be in danger; no one entity has yet assumed responsibility for the lack of security provided to this group of family members. As Bielsa said, these are all a bunch of liars. Wonder why none of these gentlemen addressed Bielsa’s accusations, and the warnings Uruguayan players made as to the dangers for future matches in terms of the security of the fans; could it be that, like Bielsa also said, a good percentage of the Press is bought and paid for or are afraid to say something the authorities may dislike. This country is evidently not prepared to host a World Cup in 2 years. It would start with the acknowledgement of the authorities involved of their clear failures.

[smashonlamez]

Good on Herc for calling out the fans. No one is talking about how those ppl had to think about going there without tickets with intent to go in. Delinquent behavior. Embarrassing.

[dimitrijensk]

Most of the problems here were because of Conmebol, not US soccer.

[csrac]

Never let COMEBOL or another region take point in hosting these tournaments in the USA. They are always going to cut corners to make more money since they can't make this $$$ in their regions.

[qwert]

I had never seen anything like this in the US. The US has hosted Super Bowls, World Cups, Olympics. What caught the stadium off guard? I heard people arrived 3 hours early and still had issues entering. I feel bad for everyone that was hurt, the organizers owe the fans some kind of an apology. A couple of years ago I went to a F1 event in Indianapolis, a disaster. Weeks later I received an apology letter plus the option to free tickets if I wanted to go back the following year. The greed!!!! We all know tickets were at $1500 and up, how is that acceptable? Anyway, people need to be apologized too.

[DaddyFutbol]

7000 people went in free 7000 people left out who actually paid