Austin, Texas.- To the tune of goals from Eduard Bello and Salomón Rondón at the beginning of the second half, Venezuela secured first place in its group in the Copa América by beating Jamaica 3-0 today.
Bello opened the scoring in the 49th minute with a header. Seven minutes later, Rondón established himself as the Vinotinto’s all-time scorer when he scored in the 56th, stumbling to tap the ball into the back of the net. Eric Ramírez added the third goal in the 85th.
Venezuela showed no mercy to the Caribbean team at the Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, and closed a perfect campaign in Group B, something never achieved in its history.
La Vinotinto will face Canada in the quarterfinals next Thursday in Arlington, another city in Texas.
The team led by Argentine coach Fernando Batista improved and offered its best performance in the entire tournament. They had just beaten Ecuador (2-1) and Mexico (1-0).
Batista had to watch the game from the stands due to a suspension due to the delay in appearing for the resumption of his first two matches.
Having already qualified, Venezuela did without creative midfielder Yeferson Soteldo and defender Nahuel Ferraresi in the starting eleven.
Perhaps the outcome of the match could have been different due to the red card that Italian referee Maurizio Mariani gave Venezuelan Darwin Machís after 10 minutes. The Venezuelan winger had made a strong, ill-timed tackle on rival defender Joel Latibeaudiere.
Venezuela handled the process as it pleased.
The Venezuelan superiority was evident at the end of the first half, with Rondón finishing just wide after great control inside the area and then Jamaican goalkeeper Jahmali Waite deflected a Machís cross into the corner that headed towards the goal.
Everything was resolved when Jon Aramburu sent in a magnificent cross from the left that Belló headed in at the other end.
Following a pass from Yangel Herrera from the centre circle, Rondón advanced across the middle between two defenders. When he lost his balance, the forward was able to tap the ball in past Waite’s weak exit.
Both Bello and Rondón have scored two goals in the tournament.
Rondón reached 43 goals in his 107 games with Venezuela.
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