The recently-turned 29-year-old says he can not be certain of reaching another final and therefore stresses the importance of ensuring victory over La Roja on Sunday. Messi’s Argentina teammate, Sergio Aguero, took to Instagram to give his best wishes.
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Ahead of their Copa America Centenario final against Argentina, the Chile squad have taken some time to relax as they look to win the prestigious title for the second year running. They made it to the 2015 Copa America final – and lost on penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw against Chile.
United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann has challenged his players not to be so “nice” when they look to sign off from the Copa America Centenario with victory over Colombia in the third-place playoff. And they’re facing a Chile team that left Colombia and Mexico stunned by its fast starts in its last two games. “That’s not going to happen tomorrow”.
“The players are practically the same ones”, Diaz said through a translator Saturday.
Of course Chile will need to try to keep Messi from dictating play, he acknowledged, but he reminded everyone what got his team this far, an approach he sounded loath to change.
Critics have claimed that despite his five Ballon d’Or awards and myriad of titles with Barcelona, Messi can not be considered a true great without leading Argentina to a major trophy.
And Chile’s razor sharp attack, which features tournament top scorer Eduardo Vargas (six goals) and Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez, should also pose more questions than Argentina’s back four has been required to answer en route to the final. Di Maria had a goal and an assist in the first meeting with Chile.
“The biggest burden the players carried was getting to this situation”, he said through a translator.
On the way to the final, the Lionel Messi-led La Albiceleste beat Venezuela 4-1 in the quarterfinals before decimating the US hosts 4-0 in the semifinals in a dominating fashion.
“The Argentine Football Federation informs that the flight which is transporting the national team to New Jersey suffered a delayed departure due to weather issues”, the football federation was quoted as saying by espn.in.
“From the US perspective there are two elements”, said Sunil Gulati, chairman of the Copa América Centenario Local Organizing Committee and US Soccer Federation president.
“Victor and I, actually, kicked around an idea this morning of having 10 teams from CONMEBOL, 10 teams from CONCACAF and the four British teams that are now apparently looking for a place to play”, said Gulati jokingly in reference to the news of the “Brexit” vote that broke on Friday.
Another potential obstacle is posed by the fact that both the Gold Cup (CONCACAF’s regional championship) and Copa America (CONMEBOL’s regional championship) are played in the same year.
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Note: Brazil’s Heber Lopes will be the referee Sunday, with fellow Brazilians Kleber Gil and Bruno Boschilia the assistants.
