20 July 2011
19 July 2011
Grandees of Uruguayan football go head to head
Joseph Sexton says the exits of Brazil and Argentina are not the real stories at the Copa America [More]
The Copa America wrap: giants fall to master tacticians
Oscar Tabarez was the brain's behind Uruguay's elimination of hosts Argentina. Pic: © Reuters
The rising standard across the South American continent was a theme touched upon in our preview of this year’s Copa América, but nothing could have prepared us to expect what happened over the weekend.
Argentina exited on penalties to their fierce rivals from across the River Plate. A day later, Brazil exited through the same route against Paraguay. Nobody would have predicted that neither the hosts nor the holders would be present as we enter the semi-finals. And yet it speaks volumes that, in the greater scheme of things, those outcomes were the least shocking that we saw.
Tonight, Peru- the same Peru that finished bottom of the heap in World Cup qualifying without a single away point- will face Uruguay, who finished fourth in that tournament. Tomorrow, Paraguay will take on the vinotinto of Venezuela, who had won just two Copa América matches in their history prior to this years edition. Four very different teams, from very different cultures, hailing from all across the continent. Yet one strand united them all hear; superb management..................
Read the full article here on STV
Tonight, Peru- the same Peru that finished bottom of the heap in World Cup qualifying without a single away point- will face Uruguay, who finished fourth in that tournament. Tomorrow, Paraguay will take on the vinotinto of Venezuela, who had won just two Copa América matches in their history prior to this years edition. Four very different teams, from very different cultures, hailing from all across the continent. Yet one strand united them all hear; superb management..................
Read the full article here on STV
18 July 2011
16 July 2011
15 July 2011
Uruguay mull over Messi conundrum
BRAZIL went back to the future on Wednesday night to secure their passage to the quarter finals of Copa America.
Mano Menezes reverted to the attack which underwhelmed against Venezuela in their first outing, and finally we some spark. In an open attacking game they were pegged back twice by an adventurous Ecuador
team but claimed a 4-2 victory, and with it the top spot in Group B.
Dani Alves making way for Inter’s Maicon was no surprise, given the chasing the Barcelona man had been on the end of against Paraguay. Crucially, Alexandre Pato and Neymar opened their accounts, bagging a brace apiece; in behind, playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso exerted a greater......
Read the full article here on the Irish Examiner Sports Desk Blog 13 July 2011
Sluggish Brazil sweat on Copa progress
IT'S taken time, but the Copa América has finally begun to take shape over the last few days. Last night, Group C reached its conclusion. Chile sealed top spot after a last gasp winner in an ill-tempered
encounter with Peru, while in La Plata, Uruguay’s profligacy saw them ride their luck en route to another 1-0 victory over an inexperienced Mexico selection.
This leaves one quarter final pairing confirmed, and what a mouthwatering prospect that is; on Saturday night Uruguay will face hosts Argentina in Santa Fe (23:15 GMT).
The two neighbours have proceeded on differing trajectories in this tournament. Uruguay started impressively against Peru but have stuttered since. Following a disappointing 1-1 opener with Bolivia..........
08 July 2011
The Copa America wrap: Are Argentina a broken team?
Joseph Sexton rounds up the opening matches of the Copa America and finds the host nation is in crisis.
Has Sergio Batista made a rod for his own back including Carlos Tevez? Pic: © Aflo/Rex Features
‘UN EQUIPO CHIFLADO!’, read the headline Argentina’s biggest selling paper Clarín on Thursday morning- A crazy team; a broken team.
Something is very much broken with the albiceleste right now, something which runs even deeper than the two abject performances they’ve delivered to date in the Copa América. Good teams can play badly, and good players can have off days, but this something bigger, something existential.
It is a collective failure that can be traced back to Argentina’s devastating defeat to Brazil in the final four years ago, in a Copa where they had looked head and shoulders above the rest until the moment of reckoning arrived. Now, we see a team burdened, an ensemble of players who look a shadow of their true selves.
This wasn’t part of the script. They had flickered briefly in last summer’s World Cup before getting tonked by Germany in the quarter finals, the day that Diego Maradona’s side came unstuck having been overrun in midfield and just about every other department. Getting rid of El Diego was the first part of the solution, we were told. And few disagreed..............
Read the full article here on STV
This wasn’t part of the script. They had flickered briefly in last summer’s World Cup before getting tonked by Germany in the quarter finals, the day that Diego Maradona’s side came unstuck having been overrun in midfield and just about every other department. Getting rid of El Diego was the first part of the solution, we were told. And few disagreed..............
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