SANTIAGO, Chile — Just outside the gates to the field where Chile’s national men’s soccer team prepared for Thursday’s opening game of the Copa América, Cecilia Amaya, a second-grade teacher here, handed out small slips of paper bearing a list of demands.

Teachers are on strike across Chile, and on Tuesday, Ms. Amaya joined a loud group of about three dozen protesters holding signs and blowing horns and whistles at the practice. But when Thursday comes and Chile kicks off against Ecuador in the opening match of the Copa, South America’s irregularly held and now scandal-plagued regional championship, the signs will come down and the television sets will click on.

“We have no problems with the Copa América,” said Ms. Amaya, who wore the jersey of La Roja, as Chile’s team is known, and a festive red, white and blue hat. “We’re probably not going to protest during the games because we want to watch them. We want our team to win.”