Mayhem peaked at the 2024 Copa America even before the Argentina-Colombia final kicked off. Colombian fans invaded the Hard Rock Stadium in bunches of thousands to get inside without tickets and watch the coveted final. In a déjà vu of the Colombia-Uruguay semi-final, Argentina players’ families got caught in between the mayhem created by Colombian fans. Reports also suggest quite a lot of fans including children picked injuries due to the overcrowding at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Per renowned journalist Roy Nemer, who is close to the Argentina team, striker Alejandro Garnacho’s brother tweeted that their family has been with Marcos Acuna’s family and are struggling to enter the stadium to watch the final. Meanwhile, fellow Argentina forward Alexis Mac Allister is seemingly finding himself in Uruguay’s Darwin Nunez’s shoes. Per the Instagram page Blaugrana, Mac Allister’s mother said she and her family were caught in the crowd of fans, unable to reach the venue. She added a tense Mac Allister left the team locker room to try and help his family overcome the chaos in Miami.

Meanwhile, reports also suggest that Argentina’s young midfielder Enzo Fernandes rushed to his family from the locker room and is helping them outside the stadium to avoid further chaos. Have these unfortunate incidents at the Hard Rock cafe prevented the three aforementioned Argentina stars from starting in the final against Colombia? Let’s find out.

Did Alejandro Garnacho and others start for Argentina after the match got delayed?

Alejandro Garnacho has not started for Lionel Scaloni’s side in tonight’s final. Well, it is perhaps not because of the mayhem that happened before the game. Garnacho often starts on the bench for Argentina and graces the pitch mid-game as a substitute. Meanwhile, both Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernandez are on the pitch, having started the game right from kick-off. So we can hopefully conclude that their families are safe and the uncanny overcrowding chaos did not harm their dears any further.

The Argentina-Colombia game kicked off an hour and 15 minutes later than the original schedule. Given the gravity of the fan-created chaos during the prelude to the final, the Copa organizers and security personnel will have to go the extra mile to contain the situation post-game. This Copa has already attracted quite a negative light for such fan incidents that went out of hand. The recent incident prompts fans to wonder if the US could host the upcoming World Cup, given the Copa has gone this awry.