The U.S. Soccer conference call with Bob Bradley has just ended. The U.S., drawn into the same group as Argentina, Paraguay and Columbia, will face Argentina first.
That's awesome. I think the Copa America is a great tournament. I can't believe the U.S. missed it for so long.
4 comments:
You think the draw is rigged? I certainly do, with the host Venezuela the main beneficiary. Look at Group A: Venezuela along with Uruguay, Bolivia, and Peru. That's 4 teams who did not qualify for the World Cup last year. If I remember correctly, other draws for Copa America have been similarly friendly to the hosts. In 1997, Bolivia got to the final largely because they had a weak group, which consisted of themselves along with Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela (wait a second, that's the same group!). In 1999, hosts Peru were drawn with Bolivia, Paraguay, and Japan. In 2001, hosts Colombia were in a group with Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Just makes me wonder.
I honestly hate to expend energy on conspiracies. I think facing Argentina first off is great - it worked for the U.S. in the last U20 World Cup.
I don't know about conspiracies. I think it takes too much time and effort to do something elaborate like that. But I do think that the federation makes it way too easy for the host nations. I suppose when you have two behemoths in the confederation, it makes it difficult for others to feel they have a legit shot of winning anything so they have to level out the playing field.
Luis - I agree with you wholeheartedly. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a conspiracy, but I do think the bigwigs at CONMEBOL (who have a well earned reputation for cronyism: see the 1978 World Cup game between Argentina and Peru) are kind to each other. I can't find it right now, but I remember reading an article on the topic of friendly draws for the Copa America hosts. If I find it, I'll post a link!
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