The Copa America Football Tournament
By Daniel Millions
The Copa America is South American's equivalent of the European Championships. It is the world's oldest surviving football tournament, having been established in 1916. Brazil are the current holders of the Copa America trophy after they defeated rivals Argentina in 2007. Read on to discover the historical origins of the tournament, how the Copa America is organized and finally how the tournament was won last time around.
Historical Origins of the Copa America
The first tournament took place in July 1916. It was held in Argentina as a part of the country's centenary independence celebrations. With only four teams participating, the winner was decided after all the teams played each other once.
Hosts Argentina were joined in the tournament by Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. The final match in this series was between Argentina and Uruguay and it finished 0-0 and this meant that the first ever tournament was won by Uruguay.
The tournament was originally called the South American Championship of Nations and was known as this until it was renamed the Copa America in 1975.
Over the years the tournament as evolved to feature up to twelve teams in the tournament. Prior to the last tournament in 2007 the Copa America was held every two years, but due to increasing fixture congestion and the large number of South American players that now feature for European teams the tournament will now take place every four years.
Organization of the Copa America
The Copa America tournament has evolved over many years to its current format.
In the last tournament held in Venezuela there were twelve teams that took part. Each time there are ten teams that qualify automatically and two teams that are officially invited. The automatic teams include previous winners such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile. In the most recent competition the United States and Mexico accepted invitations to participate.
The twelve teams are divided into three groups of four who then all play each other once. Teams collect three points for a win, one point for a draw and receive no points for a defeat. The top two teams in each group then qualify for the quarter finals along with two of the three teams that finished third. This is determined by the points that they accumulated over the group matches.
The second part of the tournament is a straight knockout. Four teams advance to the semi-finals before the winners of those matches meet in the Final. Each game is decided firstly through extra time periods of thirty minutes and then a penalty shoot out should the scores be level at the end of the normal period of play.
The Copa America In 2007
The most recent tournament was held in Venezuela in 2007. The organizers of the Copa America have decided that the hosting of the tournament should rotate through the ten members alphabetically and 2007 represented the end of the first cycle and the first time that the Venezuelans had played host.
The tournament was regarded as an entertaining spectacle with lots of goals scored in the group stages of the tournament. Pre-tournament favorites Argentina lived up to their billing by defeating the United States 4-1 and Columbia 4-2. They eased through to the Final by defeating Peru 4-0 and Mexico 3-0. However they were defeated by Brazil after they also displayed great skills and team play as well.
Brazil defeated Argentina 3-0 to lift the Copa America for the eight time.
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