Chile emerge as deserved winners in intriguing Copa América tournament
SANTIAGO, Chile --
As fireworks blossomed in the sky over El Nacional, Chile celebrated the end of a wait that had seemed eternal. The players boarded an open-topped bus that crawled through the capital, surrounded by cheering fans. Even in the early hours, the streets were full of cars, horns honking an endless salute, while on the pavements fans wandered in a daze of glee. Even the street-dogs, whose sleek ubiquity has been such a feature of this tournament, seemed taken by the mood, forsaking their doorways to scamper around in excitement.
There were questions about some of the refereeing, much of it irresponsible scandal-mongering. It’s true Chile was awarded two penalties and had three men sent off against it, but then it had a man sent off and three goals wrongly ruled out for offside, too. In the quarterfinal, Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani was perhaps unfortunate given how he had been provoked by Gonzalo Jara, but it’s a strange conspiracy that leads to the supposed beneficiary losing one of its two regular centerbacks to suspension for the remainder of the tournament. Referees make mistakes and often those errors favour the home team: that’s been part of football since it began.
Chile’s success was deserved, because it was more consistent than anybody else. It scored more goals than any other side and, when it came to it, defended stoutly and with intelligence. Its triumph was a victory for Jorge Sampaoli and, to a lesser extent, Marcelo Bielsa. It was Bielsa, the Argentinian who managed Chile from 2007 to 2011 who give it its modern identity, and Sampaoli, a self-confessed disciple of Bielsa, who dragged it over the line.
Most importantly, a nervous semifinal win over Peru aside, Chile improved as the tournament progressed. Its pressing became more cohesive to close the gaps Mexico exploited and limit Uruguay and Argentina going forward. It had a range of stars as well: Arturo Vidal in the early stages; Jorge Valdivia, the inconsistent playmaker who hit form at the perfect moment; Gary Medel in the final; Charles Aranguiz throughout. Claudio Bravo and Marcelo Diaz had fine tournaments as well, while Eduardo Vargas finished as top scorer. Alexis Sanchez was never quite at his very best, but he still made his darting runs and played with an assurance and composure. Those qualities shined through at the very end as he eventually converted the decisive penalty.
There are those who find Sampaoli’s hyperactive style -- including his constant berating of officials -- grating, but his success can’t be doubted. It’s true as well that he allowed Vidal to play on despite his drunk-driving charges which, along with Jara’s behavior, took away any sense of Chile as attacking romantics. His pragmatism in the final was far more palatable as he devised a defensive scheme that starved Lionel Messi to such an extent that he managed only 63 touches in normal time, his lowest tally in the tournament.
Immediately on social media there were those suggesting Messi had “bottled it,” suggesting he had done similar in the World Cup final, as though football is some simple game of black and white. Messi has never shown any sign of bottling a club final. The issue surely is that Argentina has structural failings that Barcelona does not, meaning he can be isolated at international level. “The result will not change what Messi is to the world,” said Sampaoli.
Messi’s continued standing will hardly serve as a consolation to Argentina. The 22-year drought continues despite reaching four finals in the past 11 years, and for whom the possibility grows ever larger that this most gifted of generations will never be fulfilled.
It is all the more frustrating given the pervasive Argentian roots throughout the successes in this tournament. Five of the coaches in the quarterfinals were Argentinian. As Paraguay and Peru punched above their weight, all four coaches in the semifinals were, too. Argentina remains the intellectual heart of South American football.
Language plays a part, but it says much about Brazil’s failings as a football nation that the last time a Brazilian coach took charge of a side other than Brazil at a Copa America was in 1997 when Paulo César Carpegiani led Paraguay to the quarterfinals. Brazil doesn’t produce great coaches and that fact, allied to profound failures of administration, helps explain its current diminished state.
This was another dismal tournament for Brazil. It never achieved any kind of fluidity, while demonstrating a bizarre mental fragility and, until his head-butt and red card, an almost total dependence on Neymar. Its exit may not have been as eye-catching as the 7-1 defeat to Germany last year, but it was humbling enough. That Globo, the biggest Brazilian TV station, didn’t even bother to show the final live, despite having the rights, is indicative of an insular and complacent football culture with little will for change.
And while Brazil pretends nothing is happening and Argentina licks its wounds, Chile celebrates. Perhaps the only shame is that it needed a penalty shoot-out to do it, but, after a 99-year wait, few in Santiago seemed to care.
