Copa America 2015

Chile looked p good last night, though only made the breakthrough with a softish penalty. Sanchez dribbling game was on point which is more than can be said for his finishing and decision making. Jefferson Montero was good down the left for Ecuador, Enner Valencia not so much.

Argentina - Paraguay was a little cracker y'day. Arg. strolled into a 2 nil lead courtesy of a nice Aguero finish where he rounded the keeper after a catastrophic back pass, and a Messi penalty awarded after Di Maria conned the referee by knocking it past the defender and then swerving to initiate contact then going down. Paraguay got one back after an hour and then fresh off the bench Lucas Barrios equalised just before the end. Glad to see his career back on track after a good 2nd half of the season in France.

Didn't see Uruguay game but they 'only' beat Jamaica 1-0.

Brazil mostly trash but Neymar was superb, setting up the stoppage time winner for Douglas Costa (who was good when he came on from the bench). Coutinho injured in training so he didn't play which was a shame because I was looking forward to seing what he looked like for the national team. Dunga prefers CB pairing of Luis-Miranda with Thiago Silva the odd man out on the bench. Fred 2.0 started out wide to minimal effect. Firmino only got the last 10 mins.

Colombia lost to Venezuela. Is it still too soon to declare Falcao done? Guess he's 'only' had one full season since his injury so next one the determining one.

Chile-Mexico was good fun the night before last. 3-3 with a couple of corking headed goals from 10 yards+ out.

Arg-Uru was p bleak fare, especially the first half. Arg rotated the ball a bit better 2nd half and the winning goal was a peach of a diving header from Kun, assist by Zabaleta.

Uruguay didn' offer much and I wasn't that impressed by Diego Rolan who had a decent season with Bordeaux but missed a sitter last night and generally struggled to make much impact.

Chile's star midfielder Arturo Vidal was driving under the influence of alcohol when he crashed a Ferrari in the outskirts of Santiago and has been held overnight, police said on Tuesday.

The Juventus player suffered minor injuries in the crash and is being held until Wednesday morning when he'll face a local judge, said Chilean national police Colonel Ricardo Gonzalez.

"Unfortunately I was involved in a traffic accident," Vidal wrote on his Twitter account, in Spanish. "Luckily we are all well and calm. Thanks for worrying."

cool yr jets neym

Colombia p comfortable over Brazil last night. Coutinho came on at half time to little effect, Firmino missed an open goal. Neymar and Alves tried to satrt fights all over the pitch. The DM for Colombia, Sanchez was absolutely superb.

Yeah that was extremely encouraging to see, here's hoping it becomes a semi-regular thing

Just enjoyed watching Jamaica/Argentina rerun.

Can the WIkipedia page on Group C possibly be correct about the chances for advancement?

um

You watching?

Ya, Chile-Uruguay was such a shitfest. Uruguay seem to be involved in a high number of ugly chippy games and this was a prime example. Catching up on Arg-Col right now as I was working during the game. This is pretty chippy too, aguero and james booked for dissent in the first 20 mins. Arg on top for these first 40 mins but no goals thus far. Osprina with a miraculous double save from di maria and messi (although messi should have buried the header). Otamendi has looked p good for Arg, and Zapata solid at CB for Colombia.

Didn't realise that there is no extra time at the copa and that they go straight to pens after 90 mins.

And penalties it is. Osprina with a nice tip onto the post in the 2nd half. Colombia offered practically nothing and were desperately poor.

Biglia misses the pen that would have won it for Argentina. Zuniga then misses for Colombia. Rojo steps up...misses. Well that's 2 chances to win it blown by Arg. Tevez yet to take one puzzlingly. Colombia miss AGAIN. 3rd match point in a row for Arg. Here comes Tevez.....SCORES.

Argentina join Chile in the last 4.

More penalties. I knew about the no OT since they kept talking about it not sure if that was always the rule or just this year.

Brazil are still shit

MARCA @marca
#Chile2015 Jara a Cavani: "Tu padre se va a comer 20 años de cárcel"

Ray Hudson is losing it.

beautiful goal wrongly ruled out

peru working chile

excellent own goal from medel

the cross deserved it though

chile looking more comfortable after an amazing vargas goal

\0/

Now I'm scared of Argentina in the final :c

Preparados

Listos

¡Ya!

My Argentinian colleague and I get into arguments over which of our teams is more likely to lose in the Final. My pessimism, I contend, has a sounder empirical and historical basis.

Nice shot

Was referring to Yordy Reyna's early attempt.

Anyway. I liked that Peruvian side.

Less than ten minutes to go.

This is a great match so far.

The Chilean anthem was something else.

Yeah, good game so far. The Argies look that bit stronger tho.

*bites nails*

well done ref for not giving Rojo a yellow there. he had eyes on the ball

first Chile penalty maybe the best penalty ever

yeah that was incredible.

Who won the Golden Ball? I didn't see.

messi won player of the tournament but refused to collect it so the trophy was taken off the plinth surreptitiously. top scorer was eduardo vargas.

unbelievably delighted by this! if chile were ever going to win the copa america it was this time. best ever generation of chilean players with a number of them in the prime of their career, relatively weak competition - brazil are bobbins, uruguay too, argentina is one of those golden generations that never wins anything - and at home. almost cried at the end. wished i was with my dad, or that i could have skyped with him, but he's on his holidays.

are this argentina missing something key? they need a pirlo or a xavi or something. the messidependencia is too much. he was stifled tonight and they seemed to rely on set-pieces and breaks. they should be trying to take charge in this kind of game.

gratifying to see a tournament won by a non-revisionist bielsista

cheers jim, I thought of my dad as well. he grew up in San Felipe and was an avid hincha of La Roja. He lived long enough to see this generation in the sub-20s, and I remember how breathlessly he would tell me about them.

I'm not sure what Argentina are missing, but the obvious head-scratcher for me tonight was Tevez left on the bench. Truly puzzling.

my mother grew up close to the Estadio Nacional, by the way, and my grandmother lived in that house forever. Between that, its role after the coup in 1973, and now this Final, that stadium holds charged memories for me, of all kinds (sol y sombra, as Galeano might say).

Game started well but dropped off p quickly imo. Called the Higuin penalty miss, he must have missed 4 or 5 for Napoli this season. First Chile pen was awesome.

Peru's striker Guerrero impressed me a lot.

Indeed. He shared the Golden Boot with Edu Vargas, which award he also won last Copa, first back to back winner since 1924.

Don't believe this tournament had a Golden Ball.

Argentina offered nothing in attack, really

my mother grew up close to the Estadio Nacional, by the way, and my grandmother lived in that house forever. Between that, its role after the coup in 1973, and now this Final, that stadium holds charged memories for me, of all kinds (sol y sombra, as Galeano might say).

― never have i been a blue calm sea

yeah, feels v weird to be cheering on chile's greatest victory when it happened in the estadio nacional. my dad (who like yours is from central chile, though he's from a couple hundred miles from san felipe, from the city of curico) was held as a prisoner there, one of the youngest prisoners at 19 years old, and was tortured (if i remember correctly they were taken away from the stadium to be tortured to a building nearby but close enough). he was there when delegates from fifa came to inspect the stadium due to the complaint from the ussr that socialists were being held prisoner there. the prisoners were in the basement, threatened to keep quiet or be shot. so fifa gave the all clear for the game to be played there, and when the ussr didn't come then chile played the phantom game where they kicked off, ran up the field and scored, and then that was the end of the game (though the game happened after the prisoners had all been released or moved).

i like the memorial in the stadium, the part of the stand behind one of the goals kept empty, and kept with the style of the 1970s with the old benches for seats, and the message "un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro" at the top, and there's a really good picture, that i can't find now, of the players running in joy as alexis' penalty goes in with the writing in the background above their heads. was hoping, though expecting to be disappointed, that one of the players would make a reference to the stadium's use as a concentration camp, and thankfully jean beausejour did. http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/deportes/beausejour-y-la-memoria-en-un-lugar-donde-hubo-muerte-hoy-le-dimos-una-alegria-a-chile/20150704/nota/2836043.aspx really love him for it. he's also outspoken in support of the mapuche cause, as he's half-haitian, half-mapuche, and just generally seems to be a decent dude with a social conscience - fairly rare in a footballer sadly.

shit, amazing. sad, but amazing. all of your post rly.

Great post

also my dad didn't even watch the whole game! he watched the first half but was probably going crazy as he usually does, and was making my mum anxious, so as they're on holiday he decided to just check the minute by minute on his phone and let them get on with going to dinner etc. then when it got to penalties he couldn't stand the tension and turned off his phone and went to bed(!) only found out this morning when he turned on his phone and saw all his relatives status updates and photos of the partying in Santiago.

thanks, guys!

20th century chilean history seems kind of astonishing even by 20th century standards, will have to find a good history at some point. presumably bolano has written well of it

or jim could do a thread and i'll pay him in otms idk

wish my knowledge of chilean history was stronger. know a reasonable amount post-1970 i suppose.

sadly, in the egregiously horrendous latin american context, chile is an extremely stable country, with a longstanding democratic tradition, and relative paucity of political violence :/

wonder if the copa america centenario will take place next year?

I'll do a little investigation next few weeks about this (good reads on Chilean history) and will let you know if I find something good.

Jim, I wonder about the Centenario as well. My slightly more plugged in friends strongly doubt it.

Btw the Vidal transfer rumours are really messing with me. I was really excited at the prospect of him joining Alexis at Arsenal (yeah I know, they have a glut of attacking midfielders, I don't care), but now it's Real maybe (blech), maybe not...?