It didn't take long after Qatar was selected to host the 2022 World Cup 14 years ago for people to start theorizing that the tournament would end up being played in the United States instead. Qatar's weather was too extreme in the summer, people said (which ended up being true, so organizers moved the games to fall). Or the stadiums wouldn't be ready, or Qatar's human-rights abuses were just too monstrous, or some combination of these.
The chaos that went down before the CONMEBOL Copa América final between Argentina and Colombia in Miami on Sunday night was essentially unprecedented in American sports, and the deeper one dives into reporting from people there, the more remarkable it becomes that something truly horrible didn't happen.
One woman, who identified herself later to The Athletic as Diana, was carried unconscious into the stadium by a police officer. She was laid down on the concrete in the area set up with medics and eventually woke up and was given water. Steven, a 34-year-old Colombian who lives in Miami and was with Diana, described the situation.
Collection
[
|
...
]