Chile held a 2-0 advantage over Colombia after one half before the Copa America Centenario semifinal match was suspended because of weather at Soldier Field Wednesday night. Chile and Argentine soccer fans everywhere are holding their collective breaths and saying a prayer that their respective teams each walk away with theCopa America 2016 Cup this Sunday June 26 in New Jersey. With Argentina having scored 18 goals in their five Copa matches so far, including four times in each of their past two games, and Chile’s attack in this kind of form, it is hard to envision another scoreless stalemate.
Advertisement
Columbia barely made it through to this week’s semi final clash, with the South American side needing a penalty shootout to get the better of Peru in the quarter final’s last time out. The teams met on two occasions after that, the latest in this year’s group opener, Argentina won both ties by the same 2-1 margin.
Colombia will play the United States on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz., in the third-place match.
Argentina will have more pressure on them than Chile.
The quarterfinal match proved no easy task for Colombia as the game went to penalties where Colombia eventually prospered 4-2. Chile, who were already missing midfielders Arturo Vidal and Marcelo Diaz, lost Pedro Pablo Hernandez after half an hour when he limped off injured and the resulting reshuffle took the wind out of their sails. The absences did not faze La Roja early on as they controlled the opening skirmishes and picked up where they left off against Mexico.
The dramatic intervention of Mother Nature came after defending champions Chile had put one foot in Sunday’s final with a devastating first half display.
Pekerman talked Tuesday about his team’s inability to finish, and the same problem showed up again in the country’s first appearance in the Copa semifinals since 2004.
Advertisement
Just four minutes later, Sanchez rifled a shot off the post, and it redirected right to Jose Fuenzalida, who was unmarked, onside and tapped home into the empty net to make it 2-0. Former Chelsea midfielder Cuadrado misdirected a header across his own goal straight to Charles Aranguiz and the Leverkusen midfielder had the straightforward task of sidefooting past David Ospina. He has been in three finals and has flopped each and every time.
