How Argentina fans dominated Miami’s World Cup match, before play even began

It looked something like a white-out inside Hard Rock Stadium on Friday as fans of Argentina — and of the team’s star player, Lionel Messi — blanketed the stands in the match against Cape Verde.

Argentina colors are sky blue and white, in contrast to the deep blue color scheme of Cape Verde, that mostly looked clumped around a few sections of the sold-out stadium in Miami Gardens. The singing of the national anthems confirmed the imbalance: joyful belting booming during Argentina’s, and solemn standing during Cape Verde’s.

Then came the Argentinian futbol fight songs, echoing across the stadium as each section seemed to be packed with ticket holders who seemed to know the Spanish lyrics by heart.

The sweltering hours before the 6 p.m. match also had Argentina fans blanket the parking lots outside the stadium. There were exceptions -—some die-hard Cape Verde fans, and some just there to support anyone but Argentina.

Cape Verde fans: outnumbered but loyal in the Miami heat

While vastly outnumbered, a smattering of Cape Verde fans were in the crowd. Like everyone else on this sweltering day, Marc Pina was searching for cold beverages in the Fan Fest area. He has dual nationality with Cape Verde and the United States, but his allegiance was obvious as he beamed with pride, hoping this would be the latest chapter of a David slaying a Goliath.

“Everybody loves the story of an underdog,” he said.

His wife, Diana Pina, also of Cape Verde ancestry, said “we want to shock the world.” She said her dream was that Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha blocked a penalty kick by Messi in today’s game. The couple was with two other friends, also Cape Verde supporters.

Cape Verde’s team also had fans from Brazil.

Talita Salioni, 22, was decked out in her country’s colors - yellow and green. She was with her sister, Carolina Flores, 28, and her brother-in-law Joao Flores, 27. The three Brazilians, who live near Brasilia, had flown up to Miami for a holiday and decided to attend their first World Cup.

Asked who they were supporting, Salioni replied, “Cape Verde, of course!” Pressed to explain why, she said “because I don’t like Argentina.”

Brazil and Argentina are historic rivals, especially in soccer. Even with Messi’s ongoing brilliance, Brazilians still consider Pele the greatest soccer player of all time.

This tournament though, they have added incentive. Cape Verde’s popular goalkeeper, Josimar José Évora Dias, who goes by Vozinha, has become a huge sensation in Brazil. That’s in part because he was named after a famous Brazilian soccer player, Josimar Higino Pereira. Brazilians have been instrumental in boosting his social media following and the country’s news program Fantastico sent a reporter and crew to Cape Verde to profile his family. Many in Cape Verde speak Portuguese.

Vozinha is said to love Brazilian telenovelas and the singer Ivete Sangalo.

Cape Verde’s goalkeeper “is very famous in Brazil,” said Carolina Flores, at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday.

Can the underdog win?

“Yes, they have a chance,” said Flores.

Under punishing heat, on crutches, this Argentina fan says no time for shade

The feels-like temperature was 103 degrees ahead of the match, prompting many men to go shirtless outside the gates and a few to dunk their heads in a reflecting pool by the main entrance.

Then there was Felix Olivero, wearing a purple Argentina jersey and matching hat, leaning on his crutches under the hot sun on the scorching blacktop of a Hard Rock parking lot.

“I’m drenched,” he said, surrounded by friends. Born in Argentina but living in Miami, Olivero hurt his knee in a rugby match and said it was a 30-minute walk to get to this spot shortly before 5 p.m.

Don’t you want to sit down in the shade?

“It’s Argentina!” he replied.

In Miami Gardens, breaking out in Argentinian futbol fight songs

This isn’t Gonzalo Matti’s first time in an Argentina jersey singing “Ole Ole Ole” at the top of his lungs before a World Cup match this year.

But he’s confident this is where there will be a reliable chorus of true fans wherever he goes.

The 30-year-old Buenos Aires native went to see his team in Dallas. Lots of white and blue jerseys there. But Marti, now a Miami resident, noticed something: the Argentina fans there didn’t seem to know the national futbol fight song — like a true lifelong fan would.

“It’s the futbol fight song you learn when you’re a toddler,” he said after his father, Mariano, led an Argentinian-heavy coach bus through a few verses of “Ole Ole Ole” on the way to Hard Rock Stadium from the Golden Glades transit hub. “It’s easy.”