Following the tragic events of LaMia Flight 2933, which took the lives of 22 Chapecoense players, 23 staff and board members and a total of 71 people, the club have now begun the difficult process of returning to the field with a new squad and manager.
From this tragedy, however, we have been inspired by the three players who survived the crash: Neto, Alan Ruschel and goalkeeper Jackson Follman, who lost part of his leg due to the accident. They were awarded the Copa Sudamericana trophy, and the surviving players were given the trophy before a friendly match against another Brazilian team, Palmeiras.
"The kids, they are waiting for their father to come back from a long trip," surviving Chapecoense player says https://t.co/Iho16PGOhb pic.twitter.com/cL5IBrtkBW
— CNN (@CNN) January 24, 2017
This was the first game that the Chapecoense team had played since the disaster, having starting to rebuild the team. Nearly all of the new players are being loaned from other clubs. The team has also hired a new manager, Vanger Mancini.
Despite the tragedy and the new players, the team managed to pull off a 2-2 draw against Palmeiras.
In another show of unity, Brazil played Colombia in a friendly match to raise more than £300,000 for victims of the plane crash.
Brazil edged Colombia in a charity match for the Chapecoense families.
More than £300,000 was raised.Read more: https://t.co/u3Lj68ukkp pic.twitter.com/5Bwc3lcSJp
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) January 26, 2017
The world is uniting around this team. They will continue to fight and play on.