The good, the bad and the ugly of the end of the group stage of the 2024 Copa América

The group stage of the 2024 Copa América came to an end with a pleasant “Vinotinto” taste.

And the Venezuelan team was the biggest surprise in the initial qualifying round, in which Argentina and Uruguay maintained their status as favourites, Colombia excited its fans and Mexico added another failure.

This phase of the Copa América was also marred by low attendance at the stadiums and some refereeing controversies that led Chile to protest strongly.

The oldest championship in the world now continues with the quarter-finals, in which the matches were as follows:

The good: Venezuela making history

For the first time in the history of its participation in the championship, Venezuela advanced as first in the group.

And they did so with three victories: they beat Ecuador (2-1), Mexico (1-0) and Jamaica (3-0) to qualify, which confirms the great moment of the Venezuelan players.

A very different story from the Vinotinto’s participation in the Copa América. From 1967 to 2007 they had only won one match. And in the last 15 championships, they have only made it past the group stage on four occasions, reaching the semi-finals in 2011.

Today, Salomón Rondón is the team’s main reference. With two more goals, he increased his record as the top scorer (43 goals) in the history of the Vinotinto.

And the solid defense allowed only one goal. Both factors confirm the team as favorites to beat Canada in the quarterfinals.

The good: Lautaro Martínez in “matador” mode

Who could shine more than Lionel Messi for Argentina? Striker Lautaro Martinez has raised his hand in this group stage.

“The Bull” scored four of the five goals with which the Albiceleste advanced without problems to the quarterfinals. Against Peru, the double that won (2-0). Against Chile, again the winning goal (1-0). And in the duel against Canada (2-0), he scored the second goal with a great assist from Messi.

His speed, positioning and finishing have been perfect in each of those goals, a “matador” who makes the fans explode in the stands, which were among the largest and most vibrant in the group stage.

“These moments are obviously the ones I enjoy the most, but when I didn’t score I was also calm because I always know that I give 100% for this shirt. I kill myself in every training session to be able to be part of the team, so I’m happy and content,” he told the newspaper Clarín.

The good: Uruguay and Colombia’s offensives

The matches between Uruguay and Colombia have been full of goals.

The Uruguayan team added nine goals in favor in their three gameswith a forceful 5-0 thrashing of Bolivia. It is a team that generates a lot of football up front, the trademark of strategist Marcelo Bielsa.

Colombia also thrilled its fans with a 3-0 win over Costa Ricaand a 2-1 win over Paraguay. And against Brazil, they deserved more than just a draw.

The Colombians extended their unbeaten streak to 26 games (20 wins and 6 draws) and are just one game away from reaching their all-time record, something that sounds very feasible when facing Panama in the quarter-finals.

The good: the surprise of Panama

Nobody was betting much on Panama, but the Central Americans qualified for the quarterfinals in Group C, leaving On the way to the host, the United States (one of the great failures).

With practical football, the Canaleros added victories against the USA (1-0) and Bolivia (3-1) that put them second in Group C

“Football itself is a daily suffering and today we had a lot at stake,” said Panamanian coach Thomas Christiansen on Monday after the qualifying victory. “We knew that even with a win we weren’t guaranteed to go through (…) We overcame adversity.”

Now they have the opportunity to achieve a historic feat in the quarter-finals against Colombia.

The bad: Mexico’s failure

The Mexican team had as goal is to finish among the top four places of the Copa America held in your second homeas they always have a large majority in the US stands.

But the poor performance of El Tri, especially of its forwards, meant that they could not avoid elimination, being one of the biggest failures of the Mexicans in the Copa América.

The team led by Jaime Lozano won against Jamaica (1-0), lost against Venezuela (0-1) and could not go beyond a draw against Ecuador (0-0). The few goal opportunities were wasted by their forwards Santiago Giménez, César Huerta, Julián Quiñones or Orbelín Pineda (who missed a penalty).

Without goals, Mexico had no arguments to advance to the second round of a championship in which he has been runner-up on two occasions.

The structural problems seen since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, such as the lack of new talent, remain unresolved.

The bad: Peru and Chile, with (much) more pain than glory

They were not among the favorites to reach the final stages, but the performances of Peru and Chile were more than disappointing.

Both teams said goodbye to the Copa América without scoring a single goal.

“Obviously, that wasn’t what we were looking for. We were looking for qualification and well, it didn’t happen. I’m sorry because we had better expectations,” lamented Chile’s coach, Ricardo Gareca.

Peru coach Jorge Fossati said they were leaving “sad, sorry, frustrated.”

The ugly: low attendance, bad fields

The choice of the United States as the host of the Copa America gave Conmebol access to a variety of large-capacity stadiums. But this has worked against the championship in most of the matches.

Large sections of the stands have been left empty, mainly in matches of the less competitive teams. The average of the matches was 25,000 spectators in the first group games in stadiums with three times the capacity. The attendance for the Panama vs. Bolivia game was just 12,000.

Added to this is the poor condition of the playing fields in some stadiums. Conmebol has rented the stadiums with only a few days’ notice, so the installation of natural grass and adaptations to use the American football fields have influenced the terrain.

“We’ve known for seven months that we’re going to play here and they changed the grass two days ago. Today’s grass isn’t suitable for this type of player,” complained Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni.

The ugly: the refereeing controversies

Despite the support of technology, this Copa América has had controversial decisions that for many should no longer be presented with video refereeing (VAR).

Chili was the selection that was considered most affected. An incident was The winning goal that Argentina achieved in what was considered an offside by Giovani Lo Celso. The goal was reviewed by the VAR, which confirmed the position of the Argentine, who gave the pass to Lautaro Martinez to score.

In another incident, Conmebol acknowledged that there was a mistake in an assault by Canadian Moïse Bombito against Chilean Rodrigo Echeverría, which was reviewed by the VAR and not sanctioned. And then the referee sent off Gabriel Suazo for a second yellow card in a play in which it was clear that the Chilean did not commit a foul.

Many also consider the goal disallowed by Colombian Dávinson Sánchez against Brazil by the VAR to be an injustice.

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