Argentina and Colombia played a good semifinal match in the Copa America tonight. Argentina went ahead 1-0 early in the game by Lautaro Martinez after some poor Colombian defending, but had few other chances in a close first half. In the second half Colombia dominated and got the equalizer on an excellent goal by Porto's Luis Diaz, and despite good chances for both teams, the match ended 1-1 and went directly to penalty kicks (Copa America has not been playing with extra time).
The curious thing about the penalty contest was that there were microphones very close to the players, and one could hear everything the goalkeepers and players said as the kicks were taken. Napoli's David Ospina was quiet, but the same was not the case for Emiliano Martinez, the Argentinean goalkeeper who plays in Aston Villa (and is apparently a close friend of Ospina from their time at Arsenal): he continually taunted the Colombians as they were going to kick, and it appeared to work! After Davinson Sanchez and Rodrigo de Paul had missed for Colombia and Argentina respectively, Yerry Mina missed following a heated exchange with Martinez, where the latter said "I know you, Boludo", and went on to save the kick. When Edwin Cardona made the last kick for Colombia Martinez continued heavy taunting, so much that the referee went up to him and said "no swearing" (which I find very amusing, as swearing is very common in football), but in the end he saved Cardona's kick, giving the Argentines the victory without needing to use their last kick.
Emiliano Martinez surely turned out as the star of the match, both for his goalkeeping skills, but surely also for his foul mouth!
Argentina will face Brazil in the final of the Copa America.
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