The Uruguayan team, led by Marcelo Bielsa, was one of the main candidates to win the Copa América in the United States and ended up celebrating third place. It was fair that they won it – for their performance during the tournament – and that they celebrated it – because Canada deserved to take it from them. After the violent incidents at the end of the semi-final against Colombia and the complaints from the Argentine coach against the organizers of the cup, the sky-blue team was erratic, as if distracted, dangerous in attack and defense, always out of control of the game. Luis Suárez ended up saving the day, who at the end of the match and of his career, at 37 years of age, tied the score at 2-2 and took the decision to the penalty shoot-out. There, the former Barcelona striker also scored, while for Canada the figure of the match, Ismaël Koné, author of one goal and creator of the other, and the figure of the team, Alphonso Davies, missed. The tiebreaker ended 4 to 3.
Two teams with very different moods met at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday, and both expressed it clearly. Uruguay was battered after losing to Colombia last Wednesday and even more so after the brawl that many of its players had with rival fans. Canada, on the other hand, was much further ahead than expected at the start and was emerging as the big surprise of the cup. Their coach, the American Jesse Marsch, arranged a team with several substitutes to try for third place, even leaving Davies, a Bayern Munich player, on the bench, who was injured in the semi-final with Argentina. Bielsa opted to confirm his starting team, without Nicolás de la Cruz, who was suspended.
From the start, Canada showed the cards that distinguished its Copa America campaign: good play, short touches and changes of pace, physical superiority over its rivals, but also marked shortcomings in scoring goals, as well as a certain naivety and lack of faith in its own possibilities. From the first minutes, it cornered Uruguay, although its sporadic errors and inaccuracies, as well as its infractions, allowed the Celeste to escape the siege from time to time. That was how the match was set up when, just eight minutes into the game, a corner kick for Uruguay, taken from the left by Federico Valverde, was met by what was intended to be a header from Sebastián Cáceres but was a “big man”. The shot was going wide until Rodrigo Bentancur controlled the ball with his right foot and in the same movement, half-turning, nailed a left-footed shot high to the first post of goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.
The blow was absorbed by the American team, which responded enthusiastically and maintained the tension and suspense over the game and the result. It concentrated almost 60% of the ball possession and in the 22nd minute, also after a corner kick, it tied the game. With its back to the goal, Koné tried a kind of Chilean, a shot backwards that left goalkeeper Sergio Rochet and his defense without a reaction, who saw the ball slowly heading towards the net in a parabola over their heads.
The Uruguayans were grateful for the end of the first half. For the second half, Bielsa sent Luis Suárez and Giorgian De Arrascaeta onto the field, replacing Darwin Núñez and Manuel Ugarte. The game started out more evenly, less intense, with a slight predominance of Canada, accentuated later with the entrances of Davies and Jonathan David, one of the best of his team in the tournament.
The excitement would come towards the end of the match. In the 77th minute, Valverde hit the crossbar with a left-footed shot and, when Uruguay seemed to be improving, they suffered the second Canadian goal. Koné took a chance in the 80th minute from his own half down the middle, alone in an unusual alley, a funnel that took him to the edge of the area. From there he shot at Rochet. The rebound in the goalkeeper’s hands found David, who touched the ball towards the goal.
Canada’s victory seemed like the logical result of what the teams had done up to that point. But from then on, Canada could no longer manage the rival’s momentum, could not control the ball or stop the frenzy. The pace remained the same throughout the match, only slightly diminished by fatigue. And in this exchange of attacks without mediation, the most affected was the one with the least power to define. Already in injury time, at 91, Suarez threatened to return to being the hero he once was. He couldn’t, but he had revenge just a minute later, after a cross from Josema Giménez, now a forward. Finally, thanks to penalties, Uruguay was able to celebrate third place and grace one of Suarez’s last matches with his national team.
Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
#Luis #Suarez #rescues #Uruguay #Bielsas #team #takes #place