Peru beat Brazil 1-0 to advance to the quarterfinals of Copa America Centenario, eliminating Brazil in the process. And they did it with a blatant handball that the referee took an eternity to not disallow.
Category: Copa America
Bearded Leo Messi casually dominates 10-man Panama, jumps atop Copa America scoring list
When we last saw Lionel Messi on the pitch, he was walking off with an injury and a bit of Beckham-like stubble on face. Exactly two weeks later, a fully bearded Messi made his belated first appearance in Copa America Centenario and promptly scored three goals and set up a fourth in a span of 29 minutes to lift Argentina to a 5-0 win over 10-man Panama and become joint-top scorer for the tournament with Brazil’s Coutinho.
Luis Suarez had a tantrum after learning he couldn’t play against Venezuela
Luis Suarez missed Uruguay’s Copa America opener due to injury, making him all the more eager to appear in their match against Venezuela — especially after missing Copa America 2015 due to his World Cup bite ban.
Colombia-Paraguay coin flip proves Copa America Centenario is cursed
This is it. Definitive proof that Copa America Centenario has been cursed by the football gods for being an orgy of greed and incompetence.
Prior to Colombia’s 2-1 win over a 10-man Paraguay, there was the coin toss. And on the first attempt, something unusual happened: the coin landed on its edge. IT LANDED ON ITS EDGE.
The match officials and captains had a giggle about it, but this was surely the nervous laughter of men frightened to their core by the supernatural occurrence they just witnessed with their own eyes.
This is what happens when you charge $40 for parking, price fans out of being able to fill the stadiums, disrespect national anthems, and have kitmakers who can’t even spell their partner countries names’ right. This is a warning! The tournament will be smited for these egregious offenses! Repent! REPENT!
Jurgen Klinsmann, U.S. team are basically the greatest ever now
An uninspiring performance in an expected loss to Colombia to begin Copa America Centenario fueled a familiar rise in angst over the state of the U.S. team and calls for Jurgen Klinsmann to be sacked. Hours before the U.S.’s second group-stage match against Costa Rica, federation president Sunil Gulati legitimized these calls by telling reporters, “We have to win games … no one has ironclad job security. Jurgen’s already said, for coaches and players, it’s about results.”
Adidas misspells Colombia on promotional material
Seriously, @adidasfootball – IT’S COLOMBIA, not Columbia! Colossal mistake for such a brand. Unacceptable @adidasCO pic.twitter.com/Xvapv2i2RD
— Eña Ossa-Eslait (@EnaOssaEs) June 7, 2016
The comedy of errors related to Copa America Centenario apparently extends far beyond national anthem goof-ups.
Emotional Angel Di Maria dedicates Copa America goal to his late grandmother
Angel Di Maria scored Argentina’s first goal in a 2-1 win over reigning Copa America champions Chile, getting a bit of payback for last year’s final. To celebrate his goal, Di Maria held up a T-shirt that read “Grandma, I will miss you a lot.”
Copa America Centenario isn’t off to the greatest start
lmao they played Chile’s national anthem instead of Uruguay 😂. Look at the face of GK Muslera loool pic.twitter.com/yXlWLeZz2g
— Shujaat (@DrakesWriter1) June 6, 2016
The special 100th anniversary edition of Copa America hosted by the U.S. was supposed to be a showcase to further strengthen a potential 2026 World Cup bid. But so far it has only been an exhibition of greed and poor planning.
Playing Chile’s national anthem for a confused and angry Uruguay ahead of their match against Mexico at For-Profit University Stadium in Glendale, Arizona was an embarrassing flub that follows a string of poorly attended matches. And the excessive cost to attend these games probably has something to do with that.
Neymar is building his brand in the U.S. instead of playing in Copa America
Instead of playing in Copa America Centenario in the U.S., Neymar will represent Brazil at the Olympics in Rio later this summer. While choosing the event being held on his nation’s home soil better serves Brazil’s national interests, one might think that it would prevent him from building his profile in the U.S. — the Copa America host nation. But not playing in the U.S. might actually be giving him a greater opportunity to increase his name recognition within the country than anything he could possibly do on the pitch.
The opening match of the Copa America Centenario is now a thing that has happened
At a purely objectively level, few people thought the U.S. would open the Copa America Cashgrabenario by beating Colombia. Though FIFA rankings are deeply flawed, this was still the No. 31 team in the world facing the No. 3 team in the world.
But memories of advancing through a difficult group at the 2014 World Cup and months of hype leading up to a special tournament designed specifically to be played in the United States encouraged a uniquely American brand of optimism to grow in the lead-up to the tournament’s first match. And then an underwhelming Colombia beat the U.S. 2-0, with goals from a corner kick and a penalty that resulted from a handball. Oh, and James Rodriguez left with an injury in the 73rd minute.