In the final of the South American national soccer championship, Messi’s Argentines defeat Neymar’s Brazilians and celebrate their first major triumph in a long time.
Rio de Janeiro. It works: In the final of the South American Copa América football championship, Lionel Messi finally won his first major international title with the Argentine national team. On Saturday (local time) yesterday, La Albiceleste defeated hosts and defending champions Brazil 1-0 in the final. PSG striker Ángel Di María scored the decisive goal in the 22nd minute when, after a long pass and almost offside, he was able to skillfully override the rushing Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson. Before and after that, the Seleção tended not to be the better, but at least the team that determined the game – and of course the slight favorite. But the Brazilians could not translate their visual and also statistically verifiable superiority into goals: Once the ball landed in the Argentine case, but the alleged goal scorer Richarlison was offside and the goal did not count (52.); Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was also able to excel in Brazilian shots a few times.
Few highlights in a heated mood
The meeting of the two best South American national teams certainly marked a kind of “dream final” of the Copa America 2021: Everyone had pointed to this final duel and everyone was excited. In fact, the two opponents mastered the group stage quite confidently, after that it got a little closer. Brazil struggled at least in terms of results with two 1-0 victories over Chile and the surprise team Peru in the quarter and semi-finals, Argentina only overcame semi-final opponents Colombia on penalties (the Colombians defeated themselves 3-2 in the “small final” Peru, by the way, 3rd place). In the end, the final could not quite meet the high expectations: Partly a muddled match, many small and a few larger fouls, nine yellow cards, lots of trash talk, some scuffles – and Brazil’s superstar Neymar traditionally spent a lot of time lying on the grass or playing . writhing there, even if sometimes no foul had preceded it. On the Argentine side, Messi was not quite fit, which also did not prove to be conducive to the playful brilliance of the game. In addition, due to the pandemic, there were only just under 5,000 fans in the legendary and huge Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which was a loud, but ultimately sad backdrop. Whether holding the tournament under Corona conditions is a good idea at all has been and remains controversial.
First big title for Messi with Argentina
But no matter: In the end, the Albiceleste had their 15th Copa America triumph, which made them level with record winners Uruguay. This ended an Argentine dry spell of 28 years, because the South American continental championship had not been won since 1993. And Lionel Messi’s personal suffering is over: with FC Barcelona he is ten-time Spanish champion and four-time winner of the UEFA Champions League, multiple world footballer, but for a major title with the national team it had so far in the career of the 34-year-old, presumably Not enough for today’s best football player (Sorry, CR7!) – Argentina lost the World Cup final in 2014, most recently the Copa América final several times, and the 2008 Olympic victory counts little in world football. In this respect, Messi, who was voted the best player of this year’s tournament together with Neymar, can go on vacation free. In this, however, he will also have to think about his future: The contract in Barcelona expired a few days ago, Messi can move free – or negotiate a follow-up contract with the Catalans. So it remains exciting, also off the field.
Those: ORF
—
