CHAPECO, Brazil -- On a rainy Saturday, 20,000 people filled a tiny stadium to say goodbye to members of the Chapecoense soccer club who died in a plane crash.
The accident Monday in the Colombian Andes killed most of the team's players and staff as they headed to the finals of one of Latin America's most prestigious club tournaments. Seventy-one of the 77 people on board died, including 19 players on the team.
About 20,000 rain-soaked mourners jammed into the stadium, with a crowd of four or five times that many outside -- about half the population of the southern Brazilian city of 210,000 -- to pay homage to a modest club that nearly reached the pinnacle of Latin American soccer.
Thousands lined the roads as the coffins of crash victims were driven in a procession from the airport to the stadium memorial.
"I've been here since early morning," said 19-year-old Chaiane Lorenzetti, who said she worked at a supermarket frequented by club players and officials. "I'll never see some of my clients again. It's a devastating day that will last forever."
Soldiers wearing berets carried the coffins on their shoulders and walked into the stadium, sloshing through standing water and mud on a field filled with funeral wreaths, club and national flags, and other tributes.
A tent, with the coffins placed underneath, stretched across the width of the soccer field. On top of the white tent, a sentence from the club's anthem was written for all to read.
"In happiness and in the most difficult hours," it said. "You are always a winner."
Family members and friends wept under the tents.
Hundreds of banners, flags and handwritten messages hung around the stadium -- in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
One sign in Spanish addressed the Colombian officials who helped with the rescue. Six people survived, including three players.
"Colombia, Thanks For Everything," it read.
Tatiana Bruno, who stood inside the stadium in the rain, wearing a plastic poncho, said the victims "deserve a farewell of champions."
Indeed, there were some big names in attendance at the ceremony. Brazilian President Michel Temer made an appearance after seeing the arrival of the bodies at the airport. He was joined by Gianni Infantino, the head of FIFA -- the world governing body of soccer.
New Brazilian national team coach Adenor Leonardo Bacchi -- known as Tite -- was met with enthusiastic applause. He has led Brazil to six straight victories since taking over, becoming a national hero.
Ivan Tozzo, the acting president of Chapecoense, told fans that the club would continue on, and he reminded them that "it was here on this field where this club fought the good fight."
"This team taught us that everything is possible," he added, recalling that the team rose in less than a decade from the depths of Brazilian club soccer to the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, the No. 2 club tournament on the soccer-crazed continent.
Ahead of the memorial, the bodies arrived in Chapeco on overnight flights from Colombia.
Staff members at the Jardim do Eden cemetery, where some victims will be buried, said Friday that they were used to the business of death, but not a tragedy of this size.
"We bury two people every day. I've done this job for a long time, but this is different," said Dirceu Correa, caretaker of the cemetery. "It is a tragedy for the families, for the club, and also for us because we are a part of the city."
A Section on 12/04/2016