SIX players, a handful of support staff, and deep sorrow are all that remain of Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer club.

    They will still try to play again. Because they know that’s what their 19 teammates, who died Monday when a charter plane ripped into an Andean mountainside, would want them to do.

    “In the memory of those who died and to honor their families, we will rebuild this club from scratch so it is even stronger,” club director and local businessman Cecilio Hans said Wednesday. “We had material assets and human assets. Now we’ve lost nearly all of our human assets.”

    Other clubs in Brazil’s top league are offering to loan players to Chapecoense, with a proposal that the modest club in deep southern Brazil is guaranteed to stay in the top division for the next three years.

    Veteran goalkeeper Nivaldo was not selected so he could prepare for his 300th game with the club Sunday against Atletico Mineiro in the last game of the Brazilian league season.

    After the accident, the 42-year old goalkeeper said he would retire immediately, but now he wants to play in the last game to honor his fallen teammates.

    “My teammates would want us to play that match,” a teary and emotional Nivaldo said. “I just don’t know how I could stand a full stadium with people calling the name of the players that died. We will have to try, I think. But that is going to be hard.”Goalkeeper Marcelo Boeck said he and several players had deals to leave the club next year. He said they’re reconsidering.

    “We know this is a different moment, and we are part of it,” he said. “We hope we can help rebuild in the memory of our team.”

    The rebuilding could start Dec. 11, the date scheduled for the final round of league matches in the top Brazilian league. Games have been called off this weekend for a period of mourning.

    Chapecoense’s acting President Ivan Tozzo told reporters Wednesday the club hopes to play that match against Atletico Mineiro using a primarily junior team.

    After that match, there is uncertainty over Chapecoense’s future. If the team is awarded the Copa Sudamericana tittle —like its final opponent Atletico Nacional proposed — it would qualify for next year’s Copa Libertadores, the Champions League of South America, which begins in February.(SD-Agencies)