The group stage stage of the controversial Copa America in Brazil has come to an end. Eight out of 10 teams advance to the knockout stage as games begin in empty stadiums across the country.
Hosts and Group B winners Brazil played out a 1–1 draw with Ecuador, while Peru's 1–0 victory ensured Venezuela's exit. Lionel Messi made further history for Group A winners Argentina by defeating Bolivia 4–1 while Uruguay beat Paraguay 1–0. Chile and Colombia sat out of this round of fixtures.
The standout so far
With only two teams with 20 games to finish, there has been a clear lack of drama and competitive intensity about the group stage of this Copa America. In such a situation, it would be redundant to think of any team so far in the tournament or the outstanding player of the group stage. But there is one strong candidate to stand out so far - Peruvian coach Ricardo Gareca.
Five years earlier it was at the centenary edition of the Copa in the United States that Gareca found his group, and consolidated a team that two years later took Peru to their first World Cup since 1982. In the 2019 Copa, he took on the same team. All the way to the finals. And here they are, at the end of the group stage, via second-place Brazil – even though they lost timidly to a 4-0 loss to the hosts, that says a lot about the lack of resources at Gareka's disposal. .
Over the years, Peru has really only fielded one world-class player - captain and center forward Paolo Guerrero - who misses out on the tournament as he tries to recover from a serious knee injury. Gareca has been lucky to find a place of sorts – the mobile, cunning Italian-born striker Gianluca Lapadula, who at 31 has decided to represent the land of his mother's birth.
It's just like he's riding. Peruvian football is providing very little to Gareca. No Peruvian team has made it to the last 16 of South America's Champions League Copa Libertadores for the eighth year in a row and 10th in the last 11. Some youngsters are being temporarily bled into the Copa - San Jose Earthquakes left-hander Marcos López played a few games, midfielder Martin Tavara came off the bench, as is striker and Alex Valera, aged 25, Who showed some promise in Libertadores. Lapadula aside, however, none of the new intakes have made any real impact on the national team yet. Gareka is stuck with the same old same old - and he keeps adding to it more than the sum of his parts.
On a bad day, it's not easy for this Peruvian team to compete - an example being a 3-0 loss at home to Colombia at the start of the month in World Cup qualification, or a 4-0 loss by Brazil. But with a little change here and a lot of common sense there, the Copa Gareca team beat Colombia and drew with Ecuador – results that seemed little before the matches or even at half-time in the case of Ecuadorian games. .
He tries to keep his team compact - hard to play without the ball, lots of passing options when in possession, and relying on Lapadula's skill in counter-attack, Andre Carrillo's dynamism and the occasional flash of talent from Cristian Cueva. . It's not a lot. But it proved to be enough for Peru to finish second in the group.
How far can they go? Perhaps the key question is whether they can emerge from the competition with renewed confidence. They are currently at the bottom of South America's table, a third of the way through the Qatar 2022 qualifiers. Gareka will hope that 2021 can be a repeat of 2016, and they can come away from the Copa, assuming their well-trained, limited resources will be enough to get them into the World Cup.
The great Neymar debate
Pele was not less than 31 years old when he retired from international football, having done it all. Neymar will be almost 31 years old to go to the next World Cup, that's all that remains to be done.
The Paris Saint-Germain star could lift his first Copa America - he was injured in 2019. But he knows very well that the World Cup is the right solution for the Brazilians. Qatar 2022 seems to be the defining moment of his international career.
Coach Tait has made it clear he places his side around Neymar - and may point to Sunday's 1-1 draw against Ecuador as justification.
Neymar was rested for a game that many would have seen without results. It was not for the Ecuadorians, who were playing for their survival in the competition. Nor was it the case for many Brazilian players. The likes of Gabriel Barbosa, Lucas Paqueta, Everton Soares and others are not certain for a place in the World Cup squad. They wanted to make an impression, and everyone would be disappointed by what they made. It just wasn't the same without Neymar.
And yet, in full force, Brazil had managed to score the previous game against Colombia - and although Neymar set the winning goal, it was not one of his better nights. Having lost in the Copa game (the elimination of the penalty shoot for Paraguay in 2011 counted as a draw in the record) only came back in 2015, when Brazil were also disappointed with Colombia. Carlos Sanchez worked a brilliant marking on Neymar, who in more frustration at the end of the game clashed with the referee and received a lengthy suspension. Six years later, Wilmer Barrios did the same thing for Colombia and Neymar's level of frustration was rising once again. They didn't boil over this time - although it would be interesting to see if Brazil's controversial equalizer was ruled out.
The point is that while the pressure on Neymar was less effective, his performance was undermined by petty controversies and complaints. Can or should there be so much hope from him in the next World Cup? Can Tite manage his star so successfully that he does his best when it really matters?
If nothing else, the group stage of the Copa showed that these would be important questions in the next World Cup.
And the eliminated side... what do they take home?
Venezuela's efforts to exit the stage with dignity are not mere face-savers. Despite their early elimination, coach Jose Pesaro can be proud of what his men have produced - as Venezuela were the biggest victims of the coronavirus-hit Copa.
There is a danger of a two-pronged attack from the Venezuelan side at full force. There's almost Salomon Rondon's combative centre-forward play. And there are sharp wings that bow to him. None of these weapons were available.
Quarantine restrictions kept Rondon in China. And all wingers were ruled out by a COVID surge that forced Venezuela to fly in new players at the last minute. Pesaro was left with no attack option. He organized a five-man defensive system early in front of excellent keeper Vuilker Farinez, and looked to stay away from the scrap. Under conditions the draws against Colombia and Ecuador were heroic, defeats against Brazil and Peru were hardly a disaster.
Bolivia was also suffering from COVID, which meant they could hardly call on their captain and all-time top scorer Marcelo Martins Moreno. But coach Cesar Farias also decided to field a team that was not in full force. This proved fatal in the opening game against Paraguay, when excellent first-choice keeper Carlos Lampe was rested in favor of inexperienced Rubén Cordano - and where teenage Italy striker Jaime Kueller disappointed the team with an absurd first-half raid. . The card helps convert a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 loss.
This proved to be the first of four straight defeats. Farias can point to the experience gained by youngsters like centre-back Jairo Quinteros and left-footed support striker Jason Chura. He can also point to the results of the last three World Cup qualifiers - home victories between two draws - which gave him a position of relative strength to experiment with.
The high point was a single-goal loss for Chile, where Bolivia fared better in the second half and deserved a draw. The low point came at the end, when Lionel Messi sliced the defense to pieces and only an inspired Lampe kept the score down to 4-1.