The wrong national anthem was played before Uruguay’s match against Mexico at the Copa América on Sunday night.
Rather than ‘Orientales, la Patria o la Tumba’, Chile’s national anthem was played at the game in Glendale, Arizona, and the Uruguayan players stood around looking bemused.
Well, most of them did. Captain Diego Godín seemed to sing along, and Uruguay’s fans in the stadium didn’t seem to notice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3v5nu-JuE
Tournament officials have apologised to Uruguay, blaming the mishap on human error, but, other than a few minutes of awkwardness, it was hardly enough to cause a diplomatic incident.
It was an altogether different scenario at the 2012 Olympics, though, when North Korean officials and athletes walked out as South Korea’s flag was mistakenly raised.
Óscar Washington Tabárez’s team lost the match 3-1, with El Tri striking twice in the final 10 minutes after Godín had cancelled out an early Álvaro Pereira own goal.
In the group’s other game, Venezuela beat Jamaica 1-0 through a goal from Josef Martínez.
Uruguay’s next match comes against Venezuela in Philadelphia on Thursday, and victory over the 2007 hosts will see them keep alive hopes of lifting the trophy for the second time this decade.
