HexagonalBlog

Let the Copa begin

The Copa América begins...well, now.  And I haven't been able to write much about the players who are sitting out, the protests that are banned, the overheated response to the typical travel advisory, but I guess I have now.  And I'm just finding out that tonight's matches are on Telefutura, which is not on my hotel's cable system (which does have Univision and Telemundo).  I can never have it all.

Even so it should still be an interesting tournament.  Argentina hasn't won a major title in 14 years and really wants to win the Copa this year, but Brazil, even without their star players, could make it to the final.  And there should be some interesting subplots along the way, too.  I still don't know if Mexico and the USA have strong enough teams to advance out of the first round, but at the moment I like Mexico's chances better than the USA's.  And if the USA does advance to the quarterfinals, or even to the semis, it would be a much greater accomplishment than their fourth place finish in 1995.

So let the Copa begin.  I'll try to watch it somewhere, which shouldn't be too difficult in Miami.

The Copa America lineup

As you all know, Bob Bradley has made his selections for the Copa América, and it was notable for who was absent.  No Donovan, no Dempsey, no Onyewu, not even Michael Bradley.  When you look at the list, some observations stand out:

• Out of the 22 player roster, THREE have never been capped.
• Another FIVE players have only one cap.
• FOUR more have 2-5 international caps.
• The average number of international appearances in the squad is 11.4, and the median is much lower (3).

I recognize that Bob Bradley was in a very difficult situation.  His position has been that the Gold Cup is the more important of the two competitions -- it's the USA's continental championship, and victory gives entry to the Confederations Cup in South Africa.  And this Confederations Cup would give its participants an important head start by acquainting them with playing conditions in southern Africa.  But at the same time Copa America not only carries more prestige but also offers a higher level of competition than the Gold Cup.  So it would have been nice to have more experienced players in the lineup. 

Ives Galarcep was apoplectic about the selections at first, then calmed down later and said that this lineup still has a chance to reach the second round.  They could advance as a third-placed team, but I'm not very optimistic.  The Argentina game is as good as lost, Paraguay will be difficult, and Colombia may or may not matter by that point.

So color me underwhelmed about the Copa América selections.  And the sooner the North and South American confederations merge, the better. 

Donovan to play Copa America

The Boston Globe is reporting that Landon Donovan will indeed play in the Copa América in Venezuela this summer (hat tip: Soccer by Ives).  This is very good news for the USA's chances in the tournament, given that they will be in a challenging group with Argentina, Paraguay, and Colombia.

Copa America stadiums not ready?

After months of giving glowing assessments of Venezuela's preparations for the Copa América, the VP of CONMEBOL is reported as saying that the stadium work may not be completed in time for the start of the tournament in late June.  It's going to take a tremendous effort to get the stadiums done, as five of them are brand-new and four others will be renovated.  I also wonder about the expense involved with using nine stadiums for a 12-team tournament; by comparison, that is the same number of stadiums used in the 1994 World Cup finals in the USA -- a 24-team tournament.

One has to wonder what Hugo Chávez's reaction to this statement will be, as he is not known for reacting well to unfavorable outside assessments.

Fallout from the draw

Some interesting comments about the draw can be found in the South American newspapers.  The consensus appears to be that Venezuela got an easy draw (which you might expect from the hosts), and that the other two groups are quite even.  Argentina's La Nación described Group C as a difficult group, although some of the players don't think it's quite as complicated as people think.   I liked Fernando Gago's quote:  "To win titles, you have to beat your rivals" - very true, and there's one in particular that Argentina would like to beat more than any other.  One article from ABC Color in Paraguay described Group C as the Group of Death, but this article from Colombia's El Tiempo argues that there such a group isn't so clear-cut.  I still believe that Argentina will win the group, but the three other teams can finish anywhere between second and fourth. 

As for Mexico's group, Hugo Sánchez is taking the news in stride.  He feels that his group is the real Group of Death, but he would rather have played Brazil at the end of the group stage instead of the beginning.   He'd also prefer to meet them again in the final, but there's a long road between here and there.  And to the FMF president, whoever's in the group doesn't matter and it's up to the Mexican team to respond to the challenge.  It's the same story to Ecuador's coach, but Chile's coach Nelson Acosta sees Group B as a very difficult group for them.  The real surprise, to me, is the reaction from some of the Brazilian commentators to the draw.   I'm not familiar with SporTV's commentators so I don't know how many people pay attention to their opinions.  Dunga's still trying to decide on a first-team XI so that may explain some of the reservations that I'm reading.

The draw for Copa América

The draw for this summer's Copa América is held in Caracas right now (watching it on CNN En Español).  However the CSF announced yesterday the opening matches in the three groups, so the draw reduces to deciding the groups of the remaining six teams.   CONMEBOL will find a way to stretch the selection into an hour or two.  (And CONMEBOL President Nicolás Leoz just asked Hugo Chávez to say something, which is an easy way to do just that.  His speech is short - thankfully - and not bad, to be honest.)

1823: The draw is being conducted by Leoz, Brazilian star Careca and Venezuelan player Luis Mendoza, and the first team is drawn,  and the envelope is...empty?!?  Ahh, the slip of paper fell out.  It's Uruguay.

1824: The rest of the draw is going without incident.  Leoz really tears those envelopes apart.

1825: And that's it.  Here are the three groups (seeded teams in red):

Group A: Venezuela, Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia
Group B: Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico
Group C: Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, USA

All of the groups look even to me, but Group B appears to be the toughest so far.  Mexico-Brazil could be the match of the first round, but Chile could be a dark horse if Matías Fernández matches his form from last year.  Venezuela has two matches that they should win, and the outcome of the match against Uruguay will depend on which Uruguayan team decides to show up.  The USA could finish anywhere from second to fourth in their group (I don't see them beating Argentina), but they simply must create goal-scoring chances and take advantage of them.  It will be difficult to do so against the defenses in those three matches.

But in the end, the games have to be played, and a lot can happen between now and late June.