Copa America in the United States: a marriage with football that is only sustained by Messi

Perhaps the chemistry will ignite over time, but the first half of the 2024 Copa América left new signs of a traditional lack of love: the bond between men’s soccer and the United States is still more of a marriage of convenience than a romantic relationship. Tempted by a huge economic market to exploit, the oldest tournament for national teams left its historic home in South America and moved to the impressive American football stadiums north of the Rio Bravo, a rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup that in the first round scored quite a few red points, on and off the stage.

In addition to the pitches with dimensions at the minimum limit of the regulations and the grass in such poor condition that it caused injuries and criticism from players and coaches, in terms of sporting performances there was the failure of the local team, relegated in its group by a historic team like Uruguay but also by an upstart like Panama, a third-rate team in the world. Symbolic of this lack of football culture, the stands at the Kansas stadium were not full in the match that sealed the elimination of the United States, against the Celeste.

At least after the initial round, which ended on Tuesday, and before the quarterfinals, which will begin on Thursday, the Copa America in the United States is based on Lionel Messi. Even injured, missing one match – against Peru – and having just turned 37, the Argentine number 10 is a more popular figure in the United States than the 16 teams that started the competition. His team, the current world champion and defending continental champion, is also behind the captain, accepted as a sporting legend, not just in soccer, by the American public.

In names that are much more distant for local fans, there has been little of Vinicius and even less of Endrick, the new jewel of Real Madrid, caught up in a disconcerting Brazil, which finished second in its group behind the Colombia of the reborn James Rodriguez. The five-time world champions also have a tough match in the quarter-finals on Saturday, against Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay. Dorival Junior’s team will also be without Vini, suspended for accumulation of warnings – nor Neymar, of course, still recovering from the ligament tear he suffered in October.

Since its latest advances – in the men’s, because in the women’s it never stopped being a world power – football is becoming less and less soccer In the United States, Messi maintains his own rules, which are difficult to understand in other countries. This Wednesday, in the middle of the Copa America, the 23rd round of the MLS was played, the local league that continued its course naturally, indifferent to the fact that the country is hosting a tournament in which its own national team participates. Already in Houston, awaiting Argentina’s match against Ecuador this Thursday in the quarterfinals, Messi had to follow from a distance the visit of his team, Inter Miami -leader in zone A-, to FC Charlotte.

Except in economic terms – as is also the case with the Arab countries – football gives more to the United States than the United States gives to football. For the Club World Cup in 2025 and the national team World Cup in 2026, FIFA will have to take note of this ambivalent experience of Conmebol. Eleven of the 14 Copa América stadiums are for American football, a sport that is played on longer but narrower fields: 110 meters long by 49 meters wide. Transferred to football to fit between the stands with forceps, the Copa América playing fields measure 100×64, the minimum allowed by FIFA. The 2022 Qatar World Cup was played on 105×68 pitches, the measurements required by the Premier League, a difference that players and coaches notice even in the side kicks, converted into corner kicks taken with the hand.

Complaints are also mounting against the pitches on most of the fields, some with synthetic grass, others natural, but in both cases far from ideal. “They changed the grass two days ago and, for the spectacle, it is not good. It is not suitable for these players,” questioned Lionel Scaloni, Argentina’s coach. “The players said that the ball did not move and in other areas the opposite happened. It is a strange thing, a mixture of synthetic grass,” agreed Néstor Lorenzo, Colombia’s coach. Another coach, Jorge Fossatti, from Peru, said that the injury suffered by defender Luis Advíncula was due to the ground: “It is not a normal grass that grows and grows, but one that is brought from outside.”

The extreme heat that caused an assistant referee to faint in the Peru-Canada game in Kansas City, is compounded by aesthetic issues, albeit typical of football tradition, such as the placement of television cameras in some games, which were broadcast from unorthodox angles. Where the American organisation is not responsible, but Conmebol is, is in the VAR, still used in an analogue way, without the automatic technology seen in the Euro Cup: the drawing of lines to determine offside positions sparked enormous controversy in many games, even to the detriment of the United States and Brazil.

Even so, the big pending account with the sporting justice of this Copa America is the fixturearmed with two different keys and no contact between them: the countries of zones A and B, even if they finished second, were guaranteed not to cross paths with the teams from groups C and D. The system seems inspired by the model of the Eastern and Western Conferences of the NBA, whose winners only face each other in the title final. In the absence of an official explanation, it seems obvious that Conmebol tried to prevent Argentina and Messi from crossing paths with Brazil before the final.

In addition to the elimination of the United States, the first round saw Mexico’s early exit, a loss less felt from the perspective of the game than from the atmosphere: in a Cup with an overwhelming majority of Latin immigrants in the stadiums, the Mexican fans guaranteed full stands. In contrast to Chile and Peru, who left without scoring a single goal, the surprise of the first phase – along with Panama – was Venezuela, leader of its group and with three consecutive victories, just like Uruguay and Argentina.

In the quarter-finals, Argentina-Ecuador will play on Thursday, Venezuela-Canada on Friday and on Saturday there will be a double match, Colombia-Panama and the long-awaited Brazil-Uruguay. There are eight teams left but, above all, one player, Messi, the savior of this Cup. The evangelical pastors that Conmebol turned to to bless the tournament on the opening day, Adolfo and Emilio Agüero Esgaib, should pray for his physical condition.

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