Copa America Venezuela 2007

Mascherano 1
Paraguay 0

Great skill and accuracy on the goal that gave Argentina 3 points.

The favorites have proven their worth tonight in a matchup between what might be the best two teams in Copa America 2007.
Argentina behind a sensational goal by Javier Mascherano (his first goal ever for his country) beat a feisty Paraguay in a close game that started with both coaches putting all their subs in the lineups but ended with all the stars on the field. With the win Argentina finishes perfect in group play with 9/9 points and will face Peru in the second round, while Paraguay get stuck with a tough Mexican team.

A lot to be happy about for Albiceleste fans

Accostumed to seeing 4 goals per game a 1-0 win might seem weak, but I felt this was Argentina’s most convincing performance in the tournament. All their players performed well or extremely well. Tevez was sensational, getting off howitzer strength shots at will. ManU fans should be licking their chops. The Hare Krishna, Rodrigo Palacios was excellent on the wings. Aimar was great orchestrating the team and passing the ball fluidly. Gago was impressive controlling the play at back and moving forward with some great shots on goal. Cambiasso and Zanetti played their best games of the cup. And the little guy Mascherano played solid all game and scored a great goal. The ball appeared in front of his feet and instead of blasting off a quick shot, he just let it sit there for a second, as if it had to marinate before cooking it softly, slowly but with a sniper’s accuracy onto the far post. A gem of a score and it could have been more but the goalposts and the Paraguayan keeper Bobadilla wouldn’t have it.

Paraguay who had their own merits, played for the tie for the most part but came alive in the second half. Roque Santa Cruz came in with 10 minutes to play but it wasn’t long enough to secure a point which would have helped their chances in the next round.

The Star

Carlos Tevez. F, Argentina.
The press, the media, the fans all love Messi, but Tevez is the real star of this team now that Crespo is gone. He was on fire tonight and deserving of a goal or two but it wasn’t meant to be.

The Ugly Duckling

Edgar Barreto. M, Paraguay.
The Guarani and NEC - Holland midfielder came in as a late sub and baffled everyone including his coach when he didn’t take a clear opportunity for a shot on goal. The team was trailing and Barreto chose to pass the pass off to his right where nothing materialized. Bonehead move, only followed up by a quick yellow card which led to time wasting by the Argentinians.

With Gaby Milito in talks with Barcelona, Andres Guardado getting bids by PSV Eindhoven and Nery Castillo getting interest from everybody else; Carlito Tevez didn’t want to get lost in the transfers news. Manchester United apparently is paying West Ham United somewhere around $70 million for the transfer of the Argentinian striker. That figure seems extremely high, but the Brits love to exaggerate everything so the real figure is probably about have of that.

With El Apache Tevez now in red, Cristiano Ronaldo will have some really tough competition amoungst the female fans for which ManU player is better looking.

Argentina’s top scorer won’t see the pitch in the remainer of Copa America ‘07.

At least he went out scoring.

Sad news for the Argies, but they won’t miss him too much with capable ‘backups’ in El Apache Tevez and Diego Milito.

3 goals and out for Crespo

Group A:
Venezuela is through no matter what happens.
The rest of the group is very much in it as the 2nd and 3rd place finishers will move on, so there is a lot at stake in their final games. Last team in the group (currently Bolivia) is will be eliminated.

Group B:
Mexico has already qualified for round 2 play.
Brazil and Chile are not mathematically in yet, but you need some crazy scenarios to happen for them to be eliminated at this point.
I mistakenly stuck the fork in Ecuador but they are still in it, as long as they beat Brazil by more than two goals and Mexico wins. Plausible if yet unlikely scenario.

Group C:
Paraguay and Argentina are through and will battle to see who is the #1 seed.
USA and Colombia are going home as long as pigs don’t fly.

By the way, if you haven’t seen how the knock out round is scheduled, it is completely laughable. Whoever gets 1st place in Group A can practically go on cruise control. Perhaps the best thing for Brazil is to finish third in their group (eek!) and avoid Argentina in the next round. That’s COMEBOL for ya, host country gets the spoils.

A brilliant Riquelme paves the way to the second round for Argentina.

Argentina again goes down early, only to come back and win by a large margin, although this time they were pressured to the very end. It was an extremely physical game in a charged and festive atmosphire and early on there were signs this could be a classic, although things didn’t quite turn out that way. Colombia played with their heart and gave a valient effort with some inspired play by Viafara and Edixon Perea, but it was not to be and they will be going home regardless of what happens against the US. They’re going home because Argentina was lethal. Well, allow me to rephrase that, Riquelme was lethal.

Without Aimar (and I don’t know why they keep under appreciating him) the albiceletes again lacked style, flair and charisma. Their game only came through Riquelme. Veron and Cambiasso looked lifeless when it came to moving the ball forward. Messi brought some touches of class but didn’t accomplish anything. Crespo got a quickie and then left injured; Diego Milito worked really hard and got on the score sheets with a sloppy goal. For the most part Argentina was mediocre and yet they managed to get four in. Thats how strong they can be.
Even still, get Aimar in there.

For the love of the game he needs to play.

The Star

Juan Roman Riquelme. M, Argentina.
He controlled the little game Argentina brought, scored twice and pretty much did anything he pleased out there including scoring on a header which is quite an oddity for him.

The Ugly Duckling

Juan Veron. M, Argentina.
Not a horrible game for Veron, but he will be remembed more for diving at the slightest form of contact (or blowing of the winds) than for anything else he did on the pitch. A player past his prime.

Copa America

Originally uploaded by satomy

Cheeky reference to this post

In his first ever Copa America (shocker, right?) Hernan Crespo sports a hair cut.

Judging by Crespo’s old hair style it might be his first haircut ever.

Fourteen years. That’s how long Buenos Aires has been without a trophy of any importance in their sport. On the fourth of July 1993 Gabriel Batistuta raised the Copa America trophy in celebration, but in fact bringing on a sequence of successive failures for Argentina.

Argentina has a rich football tradition and is often regarded as one of the best teams in the world, but the fact is that not since the days of Kempes and Maradona have they been able to win or dominate on the world stage. Frustration is always turned into optimism with the next crop of talented players, and the nonstop comparisons to who is the ‘next’ Maradona.

The Argentinian syndrome of who is “the new Diego Maradona” is perhaps their biggest problem, because you can’t replace him. The list of those who were crowned the successor and failed grows every couple of years. From Diego Latorre and Burrito Ortega in the past to Saviola and Riquelme in the present, to the new kids on the block - Leo Messi and Sergio Aguero. Messi and Aguero are carrying a burden of history and success that can not be surpassed and will be extremely difficult to equal. Both are undoubtably exciting to watch and will likely have great careers. But for the press to put the Maradona label on them at an early stage of their career will always lead to disappointment. Maradona singly handedly destroyed England (pun intended!) and brought Argentina their second and final World Cup. That earned him the highest praise and awards in the years to follow. Fastforward to 2010, where either Messi or Aguero will likely be asked to carry the nation on their back and lead Argentina to a World Cup - something they havent seen in twenty one years (1986). The pressure on them will be unbearable and that is what brings a team down early.

Remember their disaster in Koreak-Japan 2002?

The greatness of Argentinian football ended with Maradona. Since then its been team after team of world class players, cruising through the COMEBOL qualifiers only to crash and burn in the World Cup. Granted, a lot of the coaches have been pretty bad because the talent level has always been really high, but the disappointments never stopped.

Which brings us to this Copa America, where nobody at the AFA wanted to leave anything to chance. Argentina comes fully loaded. Not only ready to play, but ready to win. Because this is their big chance.

They are obliged to end the drought. The fans demand a championship and the team needs a championship to get the momentum for South Africa ‘10. They have been overshadowed by their portuguese speaking rivals for the last two decades and they know their neighbors are weak. Argentina smells blood and is out to attack. If they don’t, it will be the next on their list of consecutive failures. Because this year, they are not only favorites, they are forced to win. There is no alternative. And tonight that determination is something Colombia must be terrified about.

USA vs Paraguay at 6:30PM EDT on Telefutura/GolTV
Argentina vs Colombia at 8:30PM EDT on Telefutura/GolTV

Complete tv schedule for USA/Canada viewers here.

By the way, for those searching for Copa America on ESPN and Fox, I repeat that they did not pick up the English language television rights for the tournament. English broadcast games are on GolTV. Spanish broadcast games are on Telefutura and Univision.

Odds for todays games:

USA 4.20
Paraguay 1.72
Tie 3.25

Argentina 1.30
Colombia 8.50
Tie 4.20

Colombia is a huge underdog against Argentina and it would be a HUGE shocker to expect anything but a win by Argentina. Paraguay is a favorite vs USA but you won’t get richly rewarded by going with Uncle Sam on this one. Should be a tight match.