On a rainy Saturday Dec 03,2016 that only accentuated the grief, 20,000 people filled a tiny stadium under umbrellas and plastic ponchos to say goodbye to members of the Chapecoense soccer club who died in a plane crash.
The accident Monday in the Colombian Andes claimed most of the team's players and staff as it headed to the finals of one of Latin America's most important club tournaments. Seventy-one of the 77 people on board died, including 19 players on the team.
Rain-soaked mourners jammed the modest stadium with 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 also lined the roads as the coffins were driven in a procession from the airport to the stadium memorial.
Brazilian President Michel Temer, who had not planned to visit the stadium for fear of being jeered, showed up after greeting the arrival of the bodies at the airport. He was treated respectfully and was joined by Gianni Infantino, the head of FIFA - the world governing body of soccer.
"This is a time for pain and suffering, not for talking," Infantino said. "No words can diminish the suffering."
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