The Copa Delight

When it comes to international football, i have no confusions regarding where my allegiance stand. I was only six when a Diego shook the footballing world with his skills and won the world cup. From that day onwards, i am through and through Argentina.

So, on Saturday night i was all geared up for the Argentina – Uruguay quarter final. I waited till 2.45 am in the morning and suddenly pushing all my plans to a dark hell hole, the power went off. I waited for some time for the power to return but it did not. Eventually, i thought i will continue the wait on my bed; the next thing i saw was the morning break. In short i missed the match.

The next morning, the first thing i checked was the results. It was not heartening to read that my favorite team had crashed out of the championship. The next wish obviously was that, i wanted Paraguay to rip Brasil apart. I knew it was tough call.

The next day i planned to watch the Brazil – Paraguay match. I felt the need for some rest before the match and hit the bed. Needless to say, i was in to a slumber soon. Then suddenly, i got up in the middle of my sleep to see that the time was 2.30 am. With reluctance, i switched on the TV to see that the match was poised at 0-0 in the extra time.

With Julio Cesar guarding the goal for Brazil, i felt Paraguay had no chance in the penalty shoot out. On to the penalties, Brazil missed a slew of kicks and one was stopped by the Paraguayan goal keeper. When did Brazilians become so bad at penalty kicks?

Anyway, for me, it was a sweet night. For all their swagger and success, i never liked Brazil.

Copa America is not all about Argentina and Brazil.  The South American continent as such is a football crazy one. Few aspects that unraveled during the latest Copa America is :

• Stars essentially wont win you anything. If the team is not able to utilize the supreme talent of your players, then it is of no use.
• Uruguay is progressing well under Oscar Tabarez. We all sat up and took notice of the Uruguayan team at the South African World Cup. They seem to be building up on that semi final appearance. Talking of Uruguay, check this brilliant article from Jonathan Wilson in Observer.
• Evo Morales seems to play a lot of football and won a tiff with FIFA regarding La Paz as a playable ground or not. Not much of progress in reality though.  Bolivia crashed out after some pathetic displays.  Marco Antonio Etcheverry Vargas was one of my favorite footballers once.
• Hugo Chavez is not a football fella. He is more of the baseball type. But that has not stopped Venezuela from performing well. They seem to be on a dream run in this tournament. My favorite player is this Venezuelan team is Maldonado. Whatay name!

More to follow as the championship progress.  Now that Argentina has crashed out, i seriously hope Uruguay wins this competition.