Copa America – What Was It All About?
Those that have dealings with Latin America will no doubt be aware that the Copa America football tournament has just finished after almost a month of competition. The Copa America, or English translation ‘Americas Cup’, is the oldest international tournament in the world, dating back to 1916.
The Copa America was traditionally held to establish the Champions of South America, but over the years has grown to include nations from Central America, North America and the Caribbean. This year’s tournament was the 48th time the competition had been held and was hosted by the United States.
Ten teams from South America made the finals, namely Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, along with Central American teams Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama, Canada and the USA from North America, and the Caribbean’s sole representatives Jamaica.
After twelve days of group matches, the quarter finals were held between 4th and 6th July, which were all decided by penalties except Colombia’s 5-0 thrashing of Panama. Much criticism was aimed at five time world cup winners Brazil, who exited at this stage after winning just one of their four games.
Canada were perhaps the surprise team to make the semi-final stage as they were appearing in the competition for the first time, but they progressed no further when meeting serial winners Argentina and losing 2-0. In the other semi-final Colombia edged out Uruguay 1-0 to set up a final against Messi’s Argentinians.
On Sunday night, or in the early hours of Monday morning for the UK, the final was held at The Hard Rock Stadium in Miami and 65,000 fans witnessed Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 after extra time, scoring the only goal in the 112th minute. The World Cup champions of 2022 had also become the Copa America champions of 2024.
Congratulations to Argentina from the team at Envio!
