Brazil take field against Ecuador with Dungas everywhere

Brazil’s game against Ecuador has kicked off and the team Dunga has picked looks very defensive:
Doni
Daniel Alves, Alex, Juan, Gilberto
Josue, Gilberto Silva, Mineiro, Julio Batista
Vagner Love, Robinho
Daniel Alves is a change forced on the coach because of the injury to Maicon. But the defensive midfield which is the one Brazil finished with against Chile is [...]

Bayern Star Santa Cruz for England?

Paraguayan striker Roque Santa Cruz may be on his way to England.
The bustling Bayern forward wants to leave Germany and has confirmed that he would love to play in the Premiership. When asked if English clubs had been in touch he broke out into a big smile and said, “I am going to look at [...]

Chile join Mexico in quarter finals

A 0-0 draw between Chile and Mexico was enough to ensure the Chileans joined their opponents in making it through Group B to the quarter finals, most probably as one of the two best third placed teams.
The draw guaranteed Mexico top slot and will play whoever comes off worse from Argentina’s match-up with Paraguay tomorrow. [...]

New Ball Bamboozling Keepers: Abbondanzieri

Argentina’s goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri says the high number of goals scored in this Copa America is down to the lightness of the tournament ball.
The Boca Juniors keeper said the ball frequently moved in flight, bamboozling goalkeepers.
“They are very light. Give this a hard whack and there’s no doubt the ball is going to move [...]

Racing Across Venezuela

After almost a week in Maracaibo I came to Barquisimeto yesterday to catch the last two games in Group C and next Sunday’s quarter final.
The problem was getting here. There is only one bus a day between the two cities and that was full so I was forced to catch a mini bus with a [...]

Bomb Site Barquisimeto

I just arrived at the Metropolitano Stadium, where tomorrow night the US play Colombia and Paraguay take on Argentina. It is a BOMB site.
I have never seen anything like it in 35 years of watching football. To say the stadium is not finished is like saying Kaka can play a bit.
It is a total disaster. [...]

Last Night’s Goals

Peru 2-2 Bolivia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iEEp7hVZvE
Venezuela 0-0 Uruguay: (Technically shouldn’t be here as there were no goals but highlights for those interested)
In all Group A ended up providing us with 14 goals, at 2.3 goals-per-game average. Not bad by some standards but a bit stingy compared to the other two groups. Interestingly, of the six games three [...]

Today’s Headlines

“Venezuela reach historic first place with draw against Uruguay” – Meridiano, Venezuela
“Qualified with very little” – Observa, Uruguay
“Uribe and his bad planning had us eliminated, but Pizarro showed up to make it 2-2 against Bolivia and put us in the quarter final.” – Todo Sport, Peru
“I’m not happy with how Peru played, but we’re there” [...]

Group A Wrap

Definitely the weakest of the three groups and it takes a very large leap of the imagination to see any team from it progressing beyond the quarter finals. It had the lowest goals-per-game ratio of the three groups and also included the competition’s poorest two games so far: tonight’s 0-0 between Venezuela and Uruguay and [...]

It had to happen eventually

The Copa registered it’s first 0-0 draw tonight as Venezuela and Uruguay played out a stalemate that suited both teams, being enough to see them into the quarter finals. Spectators were not happy with the poor fare on display and by the second half even the home side were being booed by their own fans. [...]