17 July

The Cordillera Oriental -- one of three, northern branches of the Andes Mountains -- forks around either side of Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela.  One of the two ranges, the Sierra de Perija, serves as a natural boundary with neighboring Columbia to the west.  The other, the Cordillera de Merida, rises above the lake's southern shore before running northward to the Caribbean Sea.  Between them, the land plunges into a fertile, productive basin.

    The picturesque city of Maracaibo is at the centre of this unique peninsula.  With the mountains to the west, the lake to the east, and the Sea to the north, early settlers described the place as La Tierra del Sol Armada -- the Land by the Sun Loved.  The discovery of vast reserves of crude oil in 1914 only served to enhance the perception.

    Appropriately, Maracaibo was the site of Brazil's latest football triumph, Sunday.  In spite of having slogged through the Group Phase before narrowly edging Uruguay on penalties in the semi-final, Dunga's Selecao drubbed Argentina 3-0 in front of 40,000-onlookers at Estadio Panchencho Romero.  In so doing, Brazil merely reinforced the belief that, in football terms, it is a Land by the Sun Loved.

    Indeed, few pundits would have forecasted a Brazilian victory just a fortnight ago.  Brazil stuttered out of the gate -- dropping a 2-0 decision to invitee Mexico and narrowly defeating Ecuador in Puerto La Cruz.  And although they anihilated Chile on two occasions, they required penalties in order to advance beyond Uruguay and into Sunday's final.

    Even more disturbing, perhaps, was the manner in which Brazil were achieving their results.  They hardly looked at their flowing best.  In Ronaldinho, Kaka, Adriano, and Ronaldo, they were without four of their best, offensive talents.  The full weight of expectation, it seemed, fell on the shoulders of Robinho.  The 23-year-old Real Madrid forward was his side's only goal-scorer until Juan's tally in the 16th-minute of Brazil's quarter-final match with Chile.

    Still, even fewer would have predicted that Brazil would meekly bow out of the competition with nary a whimper -- such is the quality and repute of their magic.  And when Argentina strode cautiously and fearfully into the Parchencho Romero, they played right into Brazil's hand.

    Argentina played through the various stages of the Copa America as undisputed favorites.  Unlike Brazil, all of their marquee players reported for duty and willingly took their place in manager Alfio Basile's set-up.  Juan Roman Riquelme, the field-marshal, had a superb tournament -- scoring 4-goals and creating opportunities throughout the attacking third.  Lionel Messi's spectacular goal against Mexico in the semi-final was the moment of the competition.  For the better part of three weeks, all indicators pointed to an inevitable Argentina triumph -- their first since 1993.

    It all came crashing down after just five minutes.  Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Elano fired a lovely pass to the toes of Julio Baptista.  The Madrid forward toyed, momentarily, with Roberto Ayala, and then proceeded to blast the ball past Roberto Abbondanzieri and into the top-right corner of the goal.  Argentina were shell-shocked; and they never recovered.  From that moment, there was only ever going to be one winner.  The Albicelestes were a shadow of their former selves -- tentative and scared to death of losing another final to their arch-rival.

    Baptista's opener was made all the more overwhelming by the sheer heat of the afternoon.  At 32-degrees Celcius, the match looked destimed to be played at a somewhat plodding pace.  And with neither side interested in lightning-quick counter-ttacks and expending unecessary energy, the opening goal was always going to be of monumental importance.

    That Brazil stunned Argentina by scoring the first goal of the affair is one thing.  That they did it so early in the proceedings is another entirely.  Argentina were forced to play attacking, come-from-behind football from the outset -- a reality which, when combined with Brazil's efficiently stifling defensive play, produced an inevitable conclusion.

    Perhaps already wilting in the heat, veteran Argentine defender Roberto Ayala deflected Daniel Alves' cross into his own goal after 40-minutes.  Alves, fresh off the bench after replacing Elano in the 34th-minute due to injury, persisted in terrorizing Cambiasso, Mascherano, and Heinze throughout the remainder of the match.

    Deflated, Argentina looked resigned to playing-out the string in the second half.  The match remained a tight affair, however, as the two sides combined for 58-fouls on the night.

    It was Alves, again, who struck the final blow.  After collecting a pass from Vagner Love, the 24-year-old Sevilla right-back slotted past Abbondanzieri with just over 20-minutes of normal time to play.

    At the final whistle, the 3-0 scoreline proved an even greater victory for Brazil than their penalty shoot-out win over Argentina in the 2004 Final.  And given the weakened squad against which they lined-up, the defeat will certainly cast a depressing shadow over Argentine football for some time.

    If anything, the result demonstrated, once again, that Brazil are never to be counted out.  That squads and tactics and previous results mean little when mixed with history, reputation, and magic.  Argentina were ever-mindful of these intangibles on Sunday; and it proved their undoing.  What, they must have wondered, can stand in the way of La Tierra del Sol Armada.

12 July

The Orinoco and Caroni rivers converge at Puerto Ordaz -- a carefully-planned city in the east of Venezuela.  The largest body of fresh water in the country, Lake Guri, empties into the Orinoco at Puerto Ordaz before being dumped into the Atlantic Ocean at the Boca Grande delta at the north-eastern corner of the South American continent.  And on Wednesday, 11 July, Mexico were dumped out of the Copa America by Argentina at Estadio Polideportivo Cachamay -- home to Puerto Ordaz' local football team, Mineros de Guayana.

    Mexico manager Hugo Sanchez, celebrating his 49th-birthday, could have been forgiven for approaching the match with considerable optimism.  After all, his squad brushed-aside Brazil in the group-phase before embarassing Paraguay 6-0 in the quarterfinal.  And for much of the first half, Mexico went tit-for-tat with Argentina.

    A Juan Roman Riquelme free-kick in the dying moments of the opening period changed all that.  The Boca Juniors field-marshall floated the ball into the box where it was deflected past Mexican goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez by the left boot of Gabriel Heinze.

    The Manchester United left-back was instrumental in Argentina's second goal as well.  Heinze's superb through-ball fell squarely on the boots of Carlos Tevez before the latter passed to Lionel Messi.  The Barcelona phenom proceeded to chip an out-of-position Sanchez with a brilliant effort.

    Argentina, by now fully in control of things, proceeded to suck the life out of their opponents.  On 65-minutes, just 4-minutes after the Messi wonder-goal, Tevez appeared to be tripped-up in the box.  And although video-replays suggested that the former Corinthians marksman feigned contact, Chilean official Carlos Chandia pointed to the penalty-spot.  Riquelme's successful conversion was his 5th-goal of the tournament and spotted Argentina an insurmountable 3-0 lead with 25-minutes to play.

    It was too much for Mexico; and Argentina, pre-tournament favorites, will face Brazil in Sunday's Copa America final in Maracaibo.  Mexico will remain in Puerto Ordaz for the third-place game with Uruguay on Saturday.

11 July

The lights went out on Uruguay's quest for a 15th Copa America title, yesterday.  After 14-minutes of play in the 1st-half of Uruguay's semifinal fixture with Brazil in Maracaibo, the floodlights at the Jose Pachencha Romero Stadium failed -- leaving the players, and 40,000-spectators, in darkness.  The two sides were subsequently dismissed from the field for an early half-time. 

    The break seemed to hurt Brazil most.  Inter Milan defender Maicon had opened the scoring just prior to the power-outage; and Dunga's Selecao looked poised to ride a wave of momentum throughout the remainder of the period.  As it happened, the two teams required a further 20-minutes after the re-start in order to settle.  After 36-minutes, however, Deigo Forlan finally equalized for Uruguay.  But the scoreline was not level for long.  Real Madrid forward Julio Baptista vaulted the defending champions back into the lead just 4-minutes later.

    Uruguay seemed to carry the play through much of the following half-hour.  Their extended periods of possession finally paid-off in the 70th-minute as Sebastian Abreu restored equality on the scoresheet.

    Neither side were particularly interested in chance-taking as the minutes ticked from the referee's watch and the spectre of penalty-kicks loomed.  Forlan, recently signed by Atletico Madrid to replace the departed Fernando Torres, missed his country's first spot-kick.  Robinho's corresponding goal provided Brazil the immediate advantage.  And when Diego Lugano fluffed his effort, the entire Brazil squad raided the pitch in a frenzy of celebration.  They may have been somewhat excessive in their revelry, however, as a bust-up involving players from both sides ensued almost immediately.

    When things finally settled, Brazil manager Dunga was appropriately reflective on Brazil's turn-around at the competition.  "To be a winning team," commented the football icon, "you have to know how to suffer."  Brazil have been without Ronaldinho and Kaka for the duration of the tournament and relied on 23-year-old Robinho to carry them through the group-phase.

    Uruguay, for their part, have now gone 12-years without a Copa America title.  Ironically, that last championship came after a penalty-kick triumph over Brazil in the final in Montevideo.  In 1999, Uruguay were runners-up to Brazil in Paraguay.

09 July

Big scorelines were the theme of the weekend's quarterfinal matches in the 2007 Copa America.  Underachievers Uruguay and Brazil earned berths in the final-four by virtue of 4-1 and 6-1 wins over Venezuela and Chile, respectively.  Uruguay, two-time World Cup champions, and five-time winner Brazil will now be tied together for the first semi-final to be contested on Tuesday, 10 July in Maracaibo.

    Diego Forlan scored a brace for the Uruguaians -- 14-times the champion of the Copa America -- en-route to a 4-1 stuffing of hosts Venezuela.  After stuttering through the group fixtures with a win, a loss, and a draw, Oscar Tabarez' side finally came together -- striking twice in a 2-minute spell just prior to the interval.  Maximiliano Pereira played Forlan into space with a superb through-ball for the opener in the 39th-minute; and Juan Fernando Arango doubled the spread in the 41st.  Pablo Garcia ended all hope of a comeback just after the hour-mark; although Christian Rodriguez pulled one back with just 3-minutes of normal time to play.  Forlan completed his double in the 90th-minute.  Despite the loss, the host Venezuelans were reflective regarding the disappointing result.  Midfielder Ricardo Paez stated, "We represented the country with dignity but I'm disappointed because we could have done more."

    Brazil, like Uruguay, were looking to raise their game a notch as the knock-out fixtures got underway.  And having already defeated Chile by a 3-goal margin in the group-stage, the road looked paved to the semi-finals.  Juan opened the scoring with a header on 16-minutes -- the beginning of a torrential period of offense from the Brazilians.  Julio Baptista doubled the score-line in the 24th-minute and Robinho, his squad's only goal-scorer through the previous three matches, added a third goal just shy of the half-hour.  Far from finished, the Real Madrid marksman added his 6th-goal of the competition just 6-minutes after the re-start.  Porto's Vagner Love rounded-out the scoring for Brazil in the 85th-minute.  Humberto Suazo scored Chile's only goal of the match.

    Mexico and Argentina also advanced to the semifinals in style.  The two international heavyweights will now tangle on Wednesday, 11 July at Puerto Ordaz.  Paraguay, having impressed in big wins over Columbia and the United States, looked more the side that was victimized by Argentina in the final match of the group-phase.  In truth, Gerardo Martino's Guaranies got off to a very poor start in Maturin.  After just 3-minutes of play, defender Aldo Antonio Bobadilla was shown a straight red-card for his tackle on Mexico's Nery Castillo inside the box.  Castillo converted the resulting penalty; and Mexico were well on their way to a convincing victory.  They scored five more goals with the man-advantage -- Castillo hitting the mark again in the 39th-minute and Cuahtemoc Blanco successfully converting his side's second penalty of the night.  The Paraguay attack, so dependent on the front-two of Salvador Cabanas and Roque Santa Cruz, were non-existent -- further emphasizing the commonly-held view that Paraguay never deliver two, consistently strong performances in succession.  Gerardo Torrado, Fernando Arce, and Omar Bravo rounded-out the scoring for Mexico at Estadio Monumental.

    Incredibly, Argentina have not won the Copa America since 1993.  Ominously, they defeated Mexico in the final of that competition in Ecuador -- claiming their second-straight South American title.  Even more astonishing is the fact that the Albicelestes have failed to advance beyond the quarterfinals more than once.  Peru, as it turned out, proved little more than a bump in the road for Alfio Basile's pre-tournament favorites.  Still, for all their creativity and play-making, Argentina were kept from the scoresheet until the 2nd-half.  Lionel Messi had the best opportunity of the opening period -- hitting the bar in the 18th-minute.  After the re-start, however, Boca Juniors maestro Juan Roman Riquelme took things into his own hands.  Not only did the former