Copa America 2015 Overview
Copa America 2015 will keep us going over the Summer, with quality football and plenty of betting opportunities. We are up to the 44th edition of the coveted trophy for the Latin American countries. Chile is the host nation and we have guests from outside the continent with Mexico and Jamaica filling the numbers.
One of the major gripes of the tournament but a surefire leveller is the unusual knockout stage rules. We do not cover extra time as games go straight to penalties. It can lead to some stale games as busses can be parked but it also leads to some upsets. Extra time is then re-introduced at the final stage – which makes little sense. Another negative for me is the group stage inbalance. As top 2 teams go through from the three groups – then the next best two teams. So only 4 teams actually exit the stage after the groups have ended.
The seeding for the competition seems excellent here though and we have three very tough and balanced groups.
Group A
Chile – Mexico – Ecuador – Bolivia
Group B
Argentina – Uruguay – Paraguay – Jamaica
Group C
Brazil – Peru – Colombia – Venezuela
The outright table for the competition winner is something of a surprise to anyone not familiar with the tournament. As its headed by Uruguay with 15 wins. Argentina have 14 while Brazil are miles behind with 8. Only 4 other sides have won it with Peru and Paraguay taking 2 titles. Then comes Colombia and Bolivia with 1 each. Hosts Chile have never lofted the trophy and they must be aching to get their hands on it. Ecuador and Venezuela have never finished higher than 4th place. Mexico have made the final twice but lost on both occasions – its worth noting they rarely ever send their 1st choice side as they usually reserve them for their own CONCACAF Gold Cup which takes place around the same time. No other invited side has ever made the final either.
So as you can see its going to be a cracking competition. We have the big guns, the hosts and a long list of dark horses. All who are capable of progressing with penalty shoot outs occurring after a tied 90 minutes. Unfortunately we will be missing some key players as the major outs reads like a who’s who. The main out is Barcelona striker Luis Saurez whose ban means he won’t feature.
Continue reading our previews for each team (group C will come later today):
Group A
Group B
Group C
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