The quarter-finals of wrath

July 18th, 2011 | by: Marty | Comments Off

Pure craziness. All four teams who won these nutty quarter-finals did so overwhelmingly against the run of play, but then that’s how incredible upsets work. Can you begrudge anyone, at a time like this? This tournament is something ripped straight from my dreams, similar to the lovely, bizarre 2004 Champions League (which featured a Monaco vs. Porto final).

Peru 2-0 aet Colombia
Sergio Markarian is evidently a good coach. He’s taken a team that for years has been a rabble, this time with injuries and all, and turned them into a team that wants to play. Their two goals here, while Colombian mistakes, were awesome shots at goal. Juan Vargas is a terrific player.

Colombia looked the goods against Argentina, but only actually beat two weak teams in the end. I think they’ll compete for WC 2014 this time, and they seem to have good young players who will tick (including some of the useful Porto team this year), but they need to be able to regularly score goals to succeed.

Peru have an unusually good Copa America record in the last 15 years despite usually having a wretched team. They always qualify for at least the quarter-finals, as opposed to Bolivia and Ecuador, who never do.

Uruguay 1-1, 5-4 penalties Argentina

I already said my piece about this one. What a shootout! What fortitude by Uruguay! What a crazy penalty by Higuain! etc etc. What convincing penalties by all five Uruguayans, especially by Martin Caceres to win the game.

Uruguay showed their value last year, and should go on to win this tournament, even though Forlan has lost his edge from 2010.

I wonder if Argentina have (bear with me on this) not as much talent as we think they do. Sure they are stacked with forwards, but Tevez has often been a hindrance to the national team (a few red cards, a disruption to the squad mood and to the team’s link-up play, now a missed penalty) and Messi can’t seem to gel with the others. Higuain will always score goals even if he doesn’t actually link with anyone, but the rest of the team is either remnants of yesteryear (Zanetti, Cambiasso), or inexperienced and not as good as the vintage from the early part of the decade. They’ve had their problems ever since 2008 (and 2009 was obviously dreadful, culminating in 0-4 Germany 2010), and maybe the 2007 Copa final (0-3 vs Brazil-lite) was the end of the road in a few ways. They’re Argentina and so will always have their chances for glory, but they need a bit more Uruguay-style balance.

Paraguay 0-0, 2-0 penalties Brazil

I’ve never seen Brazil lose a shootout in my time watching soccer. During the Ronaldo era the entre team was stacked with forwards who never entertained the slightest thought they were going to miss, either on the field or taking their post-match penalties. But here, the look on Elano’s face showed that he’d died a thousand deaths before he died his 1001st, putting his penalty into orbit. The rest of it was just as farcical.

In Elano, Maicon, Robinho, Lucio and Fred, they had five players with experience who could have shouldered the penalty load for the kids. Likewise, I thought Paraguay had no one to take them, but then three of their players who’d won their shootout against Japan at WC 2010 were back here (Barreto, Riveros and Valdez), and evidently were not really needed, given what transpired on the other side. I guess, if you play for a draw you need to know your penalties (Uruguay and Paraguay also won the 2010 World Cup’s only two shootouts).

In the match itself Paraguay did nothing (no chances to score at all), but wins against gigantic behemoth neighbours are still wins, however achieved. Brazil were astonishingly unlucky with two or three of the chances that were missed: Paraguay goalie Justo Villar had fortuitous moments but was also very good.

Strange tournament by Paraguay: three draws from matches they should have won, and a ‘win’ from a match in which they were clearly second best. They will probably reach the final despite the woes (but Uruguay will beat them). They are ferociously competitive but perhaps, whisper this, on their way down?

Venezuela 2-1 Chile

Both these teams have created something very special in the last four years. Chile has become a rollicking, throwback, attacking team that anyone with a heart would love to see win something. Venezuela has gone from yesterday’s punching bag to a tight little unit that the best attacking teams in South America can no longer break.

Chile are the greatest national team in the world today. That is, in spirit they are, except they can only attack (just like Paraguay can only defend; a fusion would be awesome), and soccer is ultimately about how well you can defend (freakish Catalan all-stars apart). The way Chile play makes me weep with awe that something like this still exists in modern-day soccer. They missed an array of chances to put Venezuela away, but then Venezuela have created something even more special…

…The bullied who rose from the ashes of their history and refused to take it anymore! Each Venezuelan achievement this tournament makes me rub my eyes. They withstood a barrage against Chile, and won. They have only broken once this tournament, outmuscled by Paraguay. This is ominous given their next opponents, but then Paraguay will be the ones bearing greater scars from their 3-3 group B draw (two Venezuelan goals in the last two minutes).

If Venezuela can beat Paraguay and maybe go on to challenge (and qualify) for WC 2014, life will be a beautiful, beautiful thing.