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When we heard that the 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament would be held in nearby Pereira, Colombia, we jumped at the chance to get tickets.
Introduction to the 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament
The 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament decided which nation’s football team would qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. All ten CONMEBOL member under-23 national teams would play their first group stage games in the cities of Pereira and Armenia. Our game of choice was to see Colombia vs Argentina on a Saturday night. Ecuador vs Chile was the first match of the evening.
Arriving at the Stadium
We arrived at Estadio Hernán Ramírez Villegas in Pereira about an hour before the first match and took our time to walk to the gate. There was one queue for men and another for women as security personnel performed checks on everyone entering the stadium.
Unfortunately, we had an argument with one of the ushers who wouldn’t let Marisol into the stadium because she was seven months pregnant. Nowhere on the ticket did it say pregnant women would not be allowed to attend the match, and nobody said a word to Marisol when she bought the tickets a week before. Apparently it’s CONMEBOL policy but they failed to communicate it to fans. She ended up talking to another pregnant women who had been denied entry and they found a way in at another gate.
Once inside, we decided to grab something to eat before heading up to our seats. There was a good variety of delicious Colombian street food, sandwiches, hot dogs, and other treats available, but the queues were ridiculous between games and at halftime. We made the right choice in getting our food early.
Ecuador vs Chile at the 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament
After settling into our seats for the first match between Ecuador and Chile, we enjoyed the changing colors of the sky as the stadium slowly began to fill with spectators dressed in yellow Colombia shirts. The match itself wasn’t particularly exciting and was dominated by Chile, who easily won 3-0. They were helped by a red card picked up by Ecuador in the first half, and scored all three of their goals in the second half.
By the time the final whistle blew, the stands were a sea of yellow and the crowd grew louder and louder.
Colombia vs Argentina at the 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament
About a half hour later, the host team and Argentina walked onto the pitch for the pregame ceremonies. As expected, the raucous partisan crowd belted out a stirring rendition of the Colombian national anthem.
The game itself started out with excitement, as Colombia’s Jorge Carrascal picked up an early goal seven minutes in. Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister managed to equalize only four minutes later. The rest of the match was marred with some ugly play and mistakes by the officials.
Adolfo Gaich scored for Argentina at 51′ to grab the lead. Colombia had a chance to draw level after Mac Allister picked up his second yellow card near the end of the game, but the crowd went home unhappy with the hosts falling in defeat 2-1.
