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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2007 
Mexico Claims Third Place After 3-1 Win
 Goal.com
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| | Bonito celebration. Brazil's Daniel Alves, left, reacts as he is held in celebration by teammate Vagner Love after scoring against Argentina during the Copa America final in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on Sunday.( AP) |
Mexico came from behind to defeat Uruguay 3-1 to claim third place of the Copa America. Diego Lugano's sending off in the first half greatly affected the Uruguayans.
First Half
Mexico, who came from a 3-0 semifinal loss against Argentina, started the stronger of the two sides, and dominated Uruguay early on in the match.
But as things settled down the Uruguayans began to keep the ball between them, while the Mexicans looked to speedy counterattacks.
In the 21st minute Uruguay took the lead through Sebastian Abreu. 'El Loco' outjumped his marker and headed the ball into the back of the net, after a good ball from Maxi Pereira from the left wing.
In the 35th minute Ramon Morales struck the crossbar with a freekick, and Mexico was awarded a penalty from the rebound after Diego Lugano fouled a Mexican player in the box. Lugano was given his marching orders in the process.
Cuauthemoc Blanco stepped up to the spot, and put Mexico on level terms with a good finish.
Despite playing with one man less the Uruguayans continued to be the better side, and came close to going infront once again with a Andres Scotti header from a corner.
Second Half
The Mexicans dominated the start of the second period, but couldn’t make the most of their numerical advantage.
They created several goalscoring opportunities, but couldn’t capatilise, either because of a lack of ideas or poor finishing.
In the second half Uruguay was the team looking to the counterattack, obviously because they were playing with only ten men. And Mexico took full advantage of this when Omar Bravo put them in the lead with a powerful effort from outside the area in the 68th minute.
In the 75th minute Andres Guardado added Mexico’s third goal with a brilliant long distance effort that went in off the crossbar.
Uruguay had several good opportunities to pull a goal back, but couldn’t beat Guillermo Ochoa in the Mexican goal.
Lineups:
Uruguay (1): Fabian Carini, Carlos Valdez, Diego Lugano, Andres Scotti, Jorge Fucile, Maximiliano Pereira, Pablo Garcia, Ignacio Gonzalez, Cristian Rodriguez, Diego Forlan and Sebastian Abreu. Manager: Oscar Washington Tabarez.
Mexico (3): Guillermo Ochoa, Israel Castro, Francisco Rodriguez, Jonny Magallon, Fausto Pinto, Fernando Arce, Gerardo Torrado, Ramon Morales, Jaime Lozano, Cuauthemoc Blanco, Omar Bravo and Nery Castillo. Manager: Hugo Sanchez.
Goals: Sebastian Abreu (21'), Cuauthemoc Blanco (37'), Omar Bravo (68’), Andres Guardado (75’).
Red Card: Diego Lugano (35’).
Referee: Mauricio Reinoso (Ecuador). Linesmen: Felix Badaraco (Ecuador) and Juan Carlos Arroyo (Bolivia).
Stadium: Estadio Olimpico Universitario de Caracas, Venezuela.
Brazil Scores Big Upset to Repeat as Champion
Lou Castro - Florida Today
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Our summer international soccer season has practically come to an end, except for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup still running for at least another week but without the U.S. squad that was knocked off by Austria.
Two continental tournaments - the Gold Cup and Copa America - provided top-level entertainment.
There is no doubt that for good or bad, U.S. soccer had begun a competitive phase in different fronts of the sport.
I'm not talking about its participation at Copa America, but about its overall development and advancement in the international arena.
A goal-heavy quarterfinal weekend in Venezuela saw 22 goals scored in four matches and gave way to expected rematches from previous tournaments for this year's semifinals.
Brazil and Uruguay started off this stage with the "canarinha" taking the early lead and surprisingly playing a better team game - for the first 15 minutes - than it showed in its previous tightly contested matches.
After a forced interval when part of the lights went off, Uruguay balanced the game and went after the equalizer - taking advantage of imprecise defense and accurate Alvaro Recoba crosses.
The untiring Diego Forlan brought Uraguay back, a reward after the team outplayed Brazil in the first half but still trailed on the scoreboard.
Uruguay leveled the score in the second half and pushed harder to take the victory. With penalty kicks beckoning, Brazil brought on Afonso and Fernando - two players that contributed nothing to the game. As a matter of fact, both missed their penalty kicks during the shootout.
As fate would have it, Uruguay went out on penalties - just like in 2004. But this time it hurt more for on Diego Lugano's kick, Doni (Brazil's goalkeeper) moved forward a good two yards.
I was astonished to see that the referee did not order the kick to be retaken, and Brazil was presented with the opportunity to defend its title against Argentina. No wonder the Uruguayan coach complained bitterly.
Subsequently, the Uruguayan Futbol Association (AUF) has requested to CONMEBOL that referee Oscar Ruiz of Colombia not be assigned to any future Uruguay matches.
For the second semifinal, I would like to start by reminding the readers about Mexican goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez's comments at Peru in 2004.
Argentina had crushed Ecuador 6-1 in the opener, and its next game was against Mexico. When Sanchez was asked about the Argentineans, he responded, "they have already scored all the goals, they won't score against us."
And indeed they did not, as Mexico won 1-0.
Something similar happened in Wednesday's semifinal. Mexico took advantage of a self-destructing Paraguay (6-0) in the quarterfinals and then ran out of goals for the match with Argentina.
Prior to the semifinal, Mexico had played weak defensive teams - including a drooping Brazil - and except against Chile, they had taken an early lead which allowed them to control the game.
Playing the role of a weak team, Mexico came out to counter attack and placed two lines of four players to defend a talented Argentina squad.
Although for most of the first half the game was fairly even, with equal opportunities to open the score, the initiative always belonged to Argentina, and to Juan Roman Riquelme in particular - who lectured on how to play and control the ball.
Argentina gradually, diligently and patiently took control of the game and shortly before the interval went ahead in the score. From then on, except for a couple of Mexican opportunities to score, it was all Argentina.
Riquelme, Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez became a nightmare for the Mexican defense that had not had the experience to play behind in the score. Its frustration was visible, especially on Rafael Marquez (a defender that when he must mark a skillful forward has the tendency to foul).
Argentina did not allow Mexico to have the ball, using all of its resources by spreading the field wide and managing the clock. There was no way it would lose the game. Argentina wanted Brazil next.
The third-place match went Mexico's way.
Coach Hugo Sanchez's team, whose "revised" objective was to finish in the top four, defeated Uruguay in a fairly even game that tilted in favor of Mexico - once again, like in the Paraguay match, with a penalty and an ejected defender.
Up to that point, Uruguay was leading and controlling the game more effectively. The Aztecs took advantage of the extra player and eventually finished in third place.
However, Uruguay was in the game until late in the match, only lapses in concentration and a clear midfield mistake opened the way for its defeat.
And now, to what counts, the final.
And if there is logic in soccer, the two teams that played it were the obvious finalists.
Prior to the start of Copa America every pundit, myself included , stated that Argentina was the team to beat since it had looked far superior to every national squad it played and in general is the best team in Latin America along with Brazil - which did not have the best of starts as its "jogo bonito" looked lost in time.
So the final could not have been disputed by any other teams.
Brazil reserved its best game for the final, helped by an early goal, and gradually imposed its rhythm. Argentina started to lose composure with Riquelme closely marked and Messi not having room to maneuver.
It was surprising how firm Brazil's defense played by fighting for every ball, and goalkeeper Doni had an inspired afternoon.
Brazil brought a team that improved with every game, although it was distant from those powerful squads from 1970, 1982 and 2002.
The fact that Brazil won the Copa America this time is one of many surprises in soccer. Its triumph reminds me of the losses from Hungary (1954) and Brazil (1982) when both nations were the best teams in those respective World Cup tournaments.
Now Argentina must wait for the 2010 eliminating games or the next Copa America - most likely to be held in Argentina - to exact revenge.
The best player of the tournament, in my view, was Messi because he showed what super players are made of, scored magnificent goals and in comparison with other upcoming stars, he was more incisive with a better control of the ball. Additionally, tough defenses were not able to stop him. |
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