The football tournament Copa America is played by the South American countries. Football is the most popular sport in South America and is governed by CONMEBOL which stands for South American Football Association. It has 10 member nations thus making it FIFA’s smallest confederation. Because of how the tournament is formatted, two nations are invited every match.
The United States was first invited in 1993 together with Mexico and Costa Rica. Only seven nations have hoisted the trophy in its 42 tournament history. The nations meet to play every two years. The best indication of the quality of football in the tournament is that nations participating in the games have won nine World Cups. Brazil won it 5 times while Argentina and Uruguay won the World Cup twice.
The host of the games is Argentina. The tournament started on July 1 and ends on July 24. It was Brazil who won the cup in 2009. The invited nations this year were Mexico and Japan. Conflicting schedules among Japanese players made them decline the invitation and Costa Rica agreed to replace them.
There will be 23 players per team. The names of three players must be those of goalkeepers. The names of the match officials were chosen from a list of referees coming from the member countries.
The 53,000 seat Estadia Ciudad de la Plata was the host of the opening games. In the opening stages of the tournament, the 12 teams will be divided into three groups. Six games will be played in each group.
With three groups, 18 games all in all will happen during the group stages. Only eight teams will make it to the quarterfinal round. The qualifiers will be composed of all first and second place winners plus two third place teams with the best records.
The tournament is still at the opening rounds of play. The host country which is Argentina is in Group A and so far has drawn its first two games. Quarterfinals will take place on July 16 and three days after, four teams will be playing the semifinal round on July 19. The finals will be held at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti on July 24.
The Copa America is one of the most watched football tournaments of the world. Five time World Cup winner Brazil is the defending champion but the world’s greatest player Lionel Messi is from Argentina. It will be Brazil’s Robinho with 25 goals who will be matched up with Messi who has 17 goals. The tournament is still unfolding at the beginning stages and it is still everyone’s ball game.
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