Copa America results
In an earlier post I mentioned that Copa America was kicking off in Venezuela and I predicted Argentina to win it all (mainly because a couple of Brazil's main stars decided not to show up). Well, in the final, Brazil prevailed 3-0 over Argentina to win their 8th Copa America. Sadly, the good old US of A finished dead last, 12th place, losing all 3 of its group games (to Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia). Although Ecuador also finished with 3 losses and 0 wins, the US's goal difference was a pathetic -6 vs. Ecuador's -3. It's obvious why the US doesn't show up to particpate in this event too often. It had only participated twice before, in 1993 when it also finished 12th and in 1995 when it amazingly finished 4th. I couldn't find out why it didn't participate in the 4 other ones between 1995 and 2007.
Results can be seen at www.copaamerica.com
Results can be seen at www.copaamerica.com
posted by Kevin at 7/24/2007 07:07:00 PM
1 Comments:
In theory, you're supposed to actually win your way into Copa America, but they always end up inviting a few other countries to play as well. The U.S. wasn't originally scheduled to play in this one, but U.S. Soccer somehow bullied their way into an invite fairly late in the game.
As it turned out, getting the Copa invite made very little sense. The U.S. had all its best players on the pitch for the Gold Cup (and I don't know if you caught the final against Mexico, but it was the best U.S. game since the 2002 World Cup, by far). Then, they essentially chose an Under-23 team--an Under-23 team without the best players Under-20 mind you, because they were all playing in the Under-20 World Cup (where the U.S. reached the quarterfinals, beating Brazil along the way)--to play Copa America. The best we were hoping for was some excitement from the young guys, but once the roster was announced we all pretty much knew we had little-to-zero chance of winning a game, let alone advancing. If the U.S. ever plays Copa America again, they should show some respect to the tournament and send their best guys. (That 1995 tournament was fantastic!)
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