Argentina Jersey Blunder Costs Team A Medal Shot, Two People Their Jobs

The Argentina women’s national basketball team had to forfeit its preliminary round game against Colombia in the Pan American Games on Wednesday, losing 20-0 and screwing itself out of the medal round because the team showed up wearing the wrong color jerseys. For this embarrassing mistake, both the team manager and the director of women’s basketball development have submitted their resignations.

The problem, according to this statement on the Argentine, was that the team showed up wearing their blues when they were supposed to be wearing their whites. Colombia, presumably, was slated to wear their dark blue jerseys instead of their yellow ones, which means the clash likely looked something like this.

The Argentina team had 15 minutes to correct the mistake, but according to the ABF, that wasn’t enough time to get the proper jerseys from the Athlete Village, where they were left. (The game was in the San Borja District of Lima, Peru, and the Athlete Village is in Villa El Salvador. Google Maps gives me an approximate time of 68 minutes for a round trip.)

Argentina would rally on Thursday to beat the Virgin Islands (while wearing their white uniforms), but their 1-2 group stage record wasn’t enough to get them to the medal round, as the U.S. and Colombia both finished ahead of them. Before the game on Thursday was even played, national team manager Hernán Amaya announced his resignation, calling the forfeit “one of the saddest moments of my career.” According to the statement, Director of Women’s Basketball Development Karina Rodríguez also resigned.