{"id":5680,"date":"2026-06-27T21:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5680"},"modified":"2026-06-27T21:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:03:51","slug":"colombia-fans-return-to-hard-rock-stadium-nearly-2-years-after-chaotic-scene-at-copa-america-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5680","title":{"rendered":"Colombia fans return to Hard Rock Stadium nearly 2 years after chaotic scene at Copa America final"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By ALANIS THAMES and ZACH PASCUZZI<\/p>\n

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Juan Nicolas wants this time to be different.<\/p>\n

The Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, native saw the scary scene two years ago during the Copa America final as thousands of ticketless fans breached the security gates at Hard Rock Stadium to watch Colombia face Argentina. <\/p>\n

Read more World Cup final day of group play will set the field for the round of 32<\/a><\/p>\n

Colombia\u2019s soccer team will play Portugal on Saturday in a World Cup group stage match, returning to the stadium for the first time since that incident \u2014 this time with heightened security and multiple checkpoints.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we\u2019re here, I feel a little pressure just to show myself better and like to show a better country to the world,\u201d said Nicolas, who said he was not at the match in 2024. \u201cColombia is new now. Colombia has new stuff to give to the world. We\u2019re a different country, so now we have to show that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd trouble began hours before the July 2024 match. Supporters \u2014 many of them wearing Colombia\u2019s yellow and red colors \u2014 rushed the gates at the home stadium of the NFL\u2019s Miami Dolphins, leaving fans terrified and bloodied as security struggled to contain the rush.<\/p>\n

Screams could be heard in the background of many videos circling social media, and posts showed some fans trying to climb through air vents to gain entry.<\/p>\n

Questions were sparked on how to handle two more years of major soccer tournaments in the United States \u2014 the Club World Cup last year and this year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There was increased security last summer at the Club World Cup matches held in Miami, which served as a preview of the ticket-screening measures to expect on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Fans must pass through three separate checkpoints that enclose the entire campus before getting close to the stadium, and parking passes are checked well before entry. Steel fencing is also set up around the perimeter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a layered approach that people have to go through,\u201d said Andrew Giuliani, executive director of President Donald Trump\u2019s World Cup task force, which is overseeing the tournament\u2019s multiagency security effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure that everybody is on their guard ready to go that day in particular,\u201d Giuliani added, \u201cjust making sure that there are no issues. \u2026 We\u2019re leaning in on the 27th to make sure we can talk about the action that happened (on the pitch).\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Oviedo High WR Jordan Donahoo commits to Ohio State<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Giuliani said there will be a \u201cstrong federal presence\u201d both around the stadium and city on Saturday, declining to answer if that includes more than a typical match day. There have been three World Cup group matches in Miami so far. Each has seen a heavy police presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we like showing up for our team, and some people take it a little bit too far,\u201d said Lucas Gaviria, a native of Manizales, Colombia, who attends Florida Atlantic University. \u201cThat has to do with our culture. We care about it too much, we have a \u2018any means necessary\u2019 type of thinking. \u2018I need to see this game, even though I know I don\u2019t have the money for it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s match has been in high demand, both because of South Florida\u2019s large Colombian community and the draw of Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo. Tickets on the resale site StubHub were listed from around $3,000 to more than $5,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have tickets, you shouldn\u2019t be on site here,\u201d Giuliani said in January, when he and other members of the task force visited the stadium during the College Football Playoff national championship. \u201cIt\u2019s not like an American football game where there\u2019s tailgating. This is very different. We want to make sure the security resources are here for those ticketed fans. If you\u2019re not ticketed, you have fan festivals. You have other events in the Miami area where you can go and enjoy and be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hard Rock Stadium \u2014 Miami Stadium is its name during the World Cup because of FIFA\u2019s policies about sponsorship \u2014 has not commented because of its ongoing involvement in multiple lawsuits related to the Copa America final.<\/p>\n

Those lawsuits, which list multiple defendants, claim \u2014 among other things \u2014 that the stadium and soccer officials didn\u2019t have enough security present to handle such a crowd, lacked proper numbers of Spanish-speaking personnel working at the event and didn\u2019t protect legitimate ticket holders \u201cfrom foreseeable criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday\u2019s match, Colombia supporters said they hope that moment doesn\u2019t define them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of great things that Colombia stands for,\u201d said Nadia Rodriguez, a Bogota, Colombia, native living in Miami. \u201cGreat coffee, beautiful landscapes, amazing songs, the soccer team. The darkness is in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Zach Pascuzzi is a student in the University of Georgia\u2019s Carmical Sports Media Institute.<\/p>\n

Read more Vancouver turns its Science World museum into a giant 17-story soccer ball for the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ALANIS THAMES and ZACH PASCUZZI MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Juan Nicolas wants this time to be different. The Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, native saw the scary scene two years ago during the Copa America final as thousands of ticketless fans breached the security gates at Hard Rock Stadium to watch Colombia face Argentina. Colombia\u2019s soccer [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,6,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026"],"yoast_head":"\nColombia fans return to Hard Rock Stadium nearly 2 years after chaotic scene at Copa America final - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5680\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colombia fans return to Hard Rock Stadium nearly 2 years after chaotic scene at Copa America final - Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By ALANIS THAMES and ZACH PASCUZZI MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. 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