Qualified and not qualified

We are in the last stages of the World Cup qualifiers. 

In Europe two decisive playoff matches saw Portugal and Poland qualify by defeating North Macedonia and Sweden respectively; both were 2-0 home victories. The Macedonians were never really close to pulling another surprise against the Portuguese, while the Swedes play without fantasy or passion, and will not really be missed in Qatar. One team remains to qualify: Wales will face the winner of Scotland-Ukraine, which was postponed due to the war in Ukraine.

In South America there was little to play for for everyone but Peru and Colombia. A victory for Peru against Paraguay would put them in the play-off match, while Colombia had to defeat Venezuela and hope that Peru did not win. Both Peru and Colombia won, but it was not enough for Colombia, who will be missed in Qatar (I am personally very sad not to see them qualify), but they only have themselves to blame for missing another World Cup (the last they missed was 2010). Peru in the meantime is going into a play-off match in June against Australia or the United Arab Emirates. It seems it will be Australia, and against them I think Peru's chances will be 50-50 of making it to their second World Cup in a row.

In Africa there was enormous excitement as the second legs of the playoffs took place with some upsets. Firstly, Nigeria will miss their first World Cup since 2006 when they only managed a 1-1 at home to Ghana, who I am personally happy to see back in the World Cup after they missed Russia 2018! 

In a near-repeat of the Africa Cup of Nations final Senegal eliminated Egypt after penalty kicks, following a 1-0 victory that had equalized Egypt's 1-0 victory in Cairo. The Senegalese fully deserved the victory as they were the ones looking for it, rather than the defensive Egyptians. That said, the victory was marred by the fans, who abused laser-lights at the Egyptian players, making the match appear like a rave party.

The other big upset was Cameroun, who defeated Algeria 1-2 in Algeria after having lost 0-1 at home. The match had to go into extra time, and after Ahmed Touba scoring an equalizer for Algeria in the 118th minute, Cameroun seemed eliminated, but a goal by Karl Toko Ekambi in the last kick of the match (124th minute!) put Cameroun in Qatar in what was surely a devastating blow for the talented Algerians. At the same time it will be great to see Cameroun back in a World Cup after the missed out on Russia 2018. 

Tunisia and Morocco will make up the rest if African contingent to Qatar.

Only three teams remain to qualify, and it will (likely) be decided among these: Wales, Scotland, Ukraine, Peru, Australia, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand and Costa Rica.

What is VAR for anyway?

In South America VAR is useless. I remember a Copa Libertadores match when they spent 10 minutes reviewing a goal to find an extremely thin offside in a largely irrelevant situation. And today in the qualifier between Uruguay and Peru we saw what appeared to be a goal that had crossed the line not reviewed by VAR.

Aren't these the exact situations when VAR should be used!?!?

Mind you, I support Colombia (who finally scored seven games later, to win 3-0 against Bolivia), and Uruguay's 1-0 victory over Peru means that Colombia can still qualify with one match left (they have to defeat Venezuela and hope that Peru does not defeat Paraguay). However, if the referee and VAR had not conspired, Peru would have had the chance for direct World Cup qualification instead of a playoff, and that is simply unfair for Peru!

Disgraceful refereeing, but I could be wrong. Judge yourself:

Colombia on the brink of elimination

 Colombia has had a weak World Cup qualification. After losing 6-1 to Ecuador, the new manager Reinaldo Rueda has struggled to make Colombia score goals, and before the match against Peru, Colombia had not scored a goal for five qualifiers in a row. So Colombia was under pressure at home against Peru, a team that has steadily improved and have chances of qualifying as well.

Under pressure to score Colombia started with an offensive side that counted the veterans Falcao, James and Juan Cuadrado, alongside Rafael Santos Borre and Luis Diaz. Indeed Colombia did all they had to do, except to score a goal: they attacked throughout the match, had possession and chances, but the ball simply refused to go in.

And we all know what happens in football. A defensive Peru scored on their only attempt on goal in the 85th minute when Edison Flores scored at the near post on a shot that David Ospina should have saved (and one may wonder if it was wise to let him play with an apparent injury; the only time he touched the ball in the match was when he had to pick it out of the goal).

Peru implausibly won, and came up on 4th position, ahead of Uruguay on fifth, while Colombia now lingers dangerously on 6th spot. Colombia have three matches left: Argentina (who qualified after their 1-2 away win to Chile), Bolivia and Venezuela, and have to start scoring goals if they are to retain hope of going to Qatar.

Three finals in a day

The Champions League final was the first match that I watched on TV since the World Cup Final. I was happy for friends who are Liverpool fans, but otherwise it did not do anything for me, besides an immense sadness that I have no interests any longer.
For the last month, nevertheless, I had started watching some football news as three interesting national team tournaments have been going on: the Copa America, the Gold Cup, and most interesting, the World Cup for teams made up of female players.
I carefully started watching the Copa America quarterfinals, when Argentina played Venezuela (two countries I have lived in), and Colombia played Chile (the country of my Mother and the country of my birth).
Argentina, and not least Messi, have been one of my great disappointments over the last years, and watching them against Venezuela made me support the "Vinotinto", who undoubtedly are a better team, but still lost to the lucky Argentines. And although I supported Colombia, I was not unhappy to see Chile progress. I watched both semifinals: Argentina lost as expected against a superior Brazil (although they did not play bad), while Peru played the best I have ever seen them play in defeating Chile 3-0. After a disgrace of a third place match between Argentina and Chile, Peru were no match for Brazil, who played well to win 3-1 today.
I like this Brazil side by Tite. They play quick modern football, using the qualities of their spectacular players, instead of the defensive destruction of Dunga or the overambitious arrogance of Scolari. With a good Brazil it might even be worth to watch football again....

It has been difficult to watch matches from the World Cup in France because of the time difference, but I have followed with interest as the tournament has had as much interest as it deserves. As I sat to watch the final this morning I must admit that I was supporting the Dutch, but also that it was always clear that the US ladies were by far the better team, winning 2-0, and they are deserved repeat winners in what in many ways has been a historical tournament.
But congratulations to the USA ladies; in particular I like Megan Rapinoe (as so many people do): she is a great player (better than so many, also men!), but also a fantastic personality. She is the rare person who loves the sport, and knows that all the nationalism around it is just that: nationalistic crap. A well-deserved Golden Boot.

I started to watch the Gold Cup when the country I am currently in, El Salvador, started doing well: they defeated Jamaica and tied Curacao, and were set to go through with a tie against their arch-rivals of Honduras, who had already been eliminated. But El Salvador completely lost their nerves against Honduras, who trashed them 4-0, and then they both were eliminated to the delight of Jamaica and Curacao. I did not watch any matches until today's final between the two CONCACAF archrivals of USA and Mexico. It was a good and intense match which Mexico won 1-0 on a spectacular Jonathan Dos Santos goal. While Mexico were overall the better team, USA had some huge wasted chances to score, and one has to wonder, surely, how these guys get more in salary than the amazing USA soccer ladies....
Open discrimination lives on in football....

I enjoyed watching the matches today, but I still feel that football mostly appeals to the worst in people and that football is an all to open expression of everything that is bad in the world (which is an awful lot).

El Salvador doing well

A few weeks ago someone said to me that they did not trust El Salvador´s national team. "Every country I have ever been in does well in football", I replied. Even though I have not been watching football for six months, and I continue my disillusion with the hate, commercialism and discrimination that football today is (I think it has been amply demonstrated lately, from players tax evasion, attacks on fans, open discrimination against women footballers, to racism against players without UEFA acting on it), I am still confident of the good influence I have on the football karma of the country I am in.
El Salvador is no exception.
Last week El Salvador played Jamaica in match they had to win to qualify to the Gold Cup, and they won 3-1 to qualify for the tournament. A few days later, El Salvador played the World Cup participants of Peru and won 2-0 to everyone's surprise (it appeared most of all to the team itself). I wish El Salvador´s football well. But they will probably fall into the exaggerated and aggressive nationalism that happens to everyone when they win in football. A country that has so much to offer as El Salvador, should care less about how 11 guys kicking a ball do.

Gracias Peru!!!! Sos Grande!!!!

Peru are out of the World Cup after their initial defeats to Denmark and France. Peru doesn’t deserve it. They played a great game against Denmark and gave France a good fight in which they should have scored. But that is the tragedy of football; the better team does not always win because it is about scoring goals, the one thing Peru failed at.
Peru are a more see-worthy and entertaining team than either Denmark or Australia, so surely any objective football fan will be supporting whoever one of them will face in the last-16 (Iceland, Croatia or Nigeria).
Peru are also a young side, and thus I hope they will not be brought down by these defeats. They should know that they have to continue playing great and that football fans all over the world will be hoping to see their team and the great Peruvian fans in four years!!!!!

Denmark winning in El Salvador

I went to a place called Strikers in San Salvador to watch Denmark-Peru after the big disappointment of watching Argentina-Iceland. I was surely the only Dane there (I doubt there are any other Danes here) against a small group of Peruvians who seemed much more into it than I did.
Denmark won, and I was happy. Denmark played bad and were lucky to win, but that shows the luck factor in football. But you cannot count on luck throughout the tournament, and after having seen such a shitty performance, I cannot say that Denmark are certain not to lose against Australia or France. Peru on the other had showed skills but lacked to keep their head cool.

All is normal in Latin America

In San Salvador I went to watch the qualifiers in Sports bar called Strikers. A nice place that was full of Colombians and a few Peruvians to what promised to be a clash as we were also watching the scores of the other matches in South America.
Argentina needed a victory in Quito, and it looked bleak as they went down 1-0 after one minute. But none other than Lionel Messi scored three goals to give them a victory and a spot in Russia.
The World Cup would not be the same without Argentina and Messi, so we should all celebrate.
In the meantime Uruguay got their expected qualification with a 4-2 victory over Bolivia, while Paraguay destroyed their own hopes by losing 0-1 at home to Venezuela (and watch out for the young Venezuelan side in the future!).
As all this was happening Peru and Colombia were playing a nervous match until Strikers exploded with two goals: James scored for Colombia as Brazil went ahead against Chile. This meant Colombia were qualified. Paolo Guerrero equalized for Peru, who needed a win, and Colombia seemed nervous, but it didn't matter: Brazil ended up trouncing the defending South American champions 3-0, meaning that all of a sudden Chile were out.
Colombia are in Russia while Peru are in the playoffs against New Zealand.

It was all too much in one of the most excitng qualification nights ever, but it did not stop there as we swithched over to the CONCACAF qualifiers, where nothing was going as expected: USA was losing 2-1 to Trinidad & Tobago, Honduras was winning 3-2 against Mexico, and just as we started watching Gabriel Torres gave Panama a 2-1 lead against Costa Rica.
It ended like this, and that means Panama are in Russia, Honduras are in a playoff against Australia and the USA can go home.
Granted, Panama qualified with a non-goal, but that doesn't take away that USA lost it themselves. The team has lost five matches, and they were outright arrogant in many of their matches. They have to face it: despite the advances, and MLS and all that, USA is still only a mid-ranking CONCACAF nation. The World Cup is much better without the USA!

A great evening in San Salvador as we look forward to a final round of playoffs to find out about the last teams in Russia.

South American drama

The South American World Cup qualifiers are always the most difficult and most dramatic. None of the teams are bad, and as we head into the final round of matches six out of ten teams have options to join the already qualified Brazil.
Uruguay will almost surely join them, as they only need one point against Bolivia to qualify. The South American champions of Chile took an important step with a victory against Ecuador, but will probably still need a result in their last match against Brazil to be certain of qualifying. Not impossible, so Chile is likely to qualify.
Colombia could have made it with a home victory against Paraguay. And they were up 1-0 until the end of the match when the Arsenal goalkeeper made two huge blunders in added time, giving Paraguay two goals and the victory. Ospina may have cost Colombia a World Cup, but they have another shot against Peru at home. The problem is that Peru will also be fighting for a World Cup spot: after 0-0 against Argentina they have fifth place, and with a win will surely be in Russia, and could make it with a tie, depending on Argentina.
Argentina! Oh dear Argentina! After home ties to Venezuela and Peru they seems the least likely team to qualify: they need an away victory against home-hardened Ecuador. All credit to Peru, but their style will not win them friends in Russia, so Argentina will be doubly missed.
Come on! No matter what you think of Argentina, a World Cup without the Albiceleste will not feel real! (Besides the fact that for me it will be hardly worth watching).
Paraguay, who for a long time was deemed out, has better chances of qualifying than Argentina. With their victory against Colombia they just need a victory against Venezuela at home, which would likely give them at least a play-off.
Next week everything will be decided, and I pray that Argentina will make it. Please pray with me.

Copa America Quarterfinals

We are now at the quarterfinals stage at the Copa America. These are as follows:

• USA-Ecuador: The hosts won their group ahead of Colombia despite losing their first match to the South Americans. They will of course have an advantage with home support, but never underestimate Ecuador!
• Peru-Colombia: Peru sensationally won their group after their controversial win against Brazil. They are surely a strong side, if inconsistent. Inconsistency can also be applied to Colombia, who started with two victories before losing their final match to Costa Rica, although with a team full of subs. Colombia will probably be slight favourites when playing with all their superstars.
• Argentina-Venezuela: Personally I look very much forward to this match between two countries I am personally attached to. That said, I support Argentina, and they have won all their matches, even only playing Messi in one. They will surely be favourites, but Venezuela has shown they are difficult to defeat, and also, they have the confidence that they have lacked for a long time.
• Mexico-Chile: Mexico won their group ahead of Venezuela on goal difference, and will now be facing the defending Copa America champions, who were runner-ups to Argentina. Both teams are strong, with Mexico playing with a big home-crowd, but the Chileans should probably prevail, also knowing they are defending their title!

This is the real football starting!

Brazil is out

Brazil lost 0-1 to Peru, and is out of the Copa America Centenario after 0-0 with Ecuador and a useless 7-1 victory over Haiti (Ecuador beat Haiti 4-0 in the other group match).
Despite the controversial nature of Peru's goal, in remains an inescapable fact that Brazil were poor, lacked teeth and strength  all over. It does not bode well for Brazil's World Cup qualification, where Brazil is currently not in one of the qualifying spots.
But what is Brazil's problem? For years now they have been sleeping on their former glory and not following all the changes happening in modern football. Dunga is certainly not the man to take Brazil into the 21st century football world, and it does not seem that the Brazilian FA is aware of the dire state of Brazilian football.
I hope Brazil gets back to being a footballing super-power, because they have given so much to football. But in the meantime, I congratulate Peru and Ecuador, who certainly deserve to be in the quarterfinals much more than Brazil.

Excellent Peruvians and the coming final

One of the few positive aspects of this Copa America has been Peru. They were in a difficult group with favourites Brazil and Colombia, as well as a difficult Venezuelan side, where I do not think many gave them much of a chance. There is nevertheless no doubt that they were the best playing side of that group, and deservedly took second spot after a lucky Brazil. In the quarterfinals they beat Bolivia and in the semifinal gave Chile an excellent fight, only to lose 2-1.
As the news focus more on the coming final, few noticed that Peru beat Paraguay 2-0 to take third place in the tournament. This is a well-deserved result for a country that for many year has been under-performing. The new coach, the Argentine Ricardo Gareca, has organized the team, playing good offensive football, and expectations will surely be high as they enter the World Cup qualifiers this fall.

In the meantime we all justifiably have high expectations to the final between Chile and Argentina: two teams under two Argentine coaches that will want to attack and have outstandingly skilled players. It has all the ingredients to be a fantastic match, but I certainly fear that it will descend into ugly nationalism and unfair play.
I hope not.

No bad teams in Copa America

The reason the Copa America is one of the best national team tournaments in the world is that all teams compete at a very high level. There are no minnows in the Copa America despite the historical dominance by Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina.
The current tournament is no exception, as it has already had "surprises". Argentina were up 2-0 but only managed to get 2-2 against ever efficient Paraguay. In the Group where Brazil and Colombia have been seen as certain favourites, Colombia opened by a surprising 0-1 defeat to Venezuela. The Colombian superstars (James, very poor Falcao and Cuadrado, Carlos Bacca, Ospina....) were surely thinking more of their own millions than of the fact that Venezuela continues to be an extremely well-organized and committed side, deadly efficient in counter-attack and not allowing the opponents many chances.
Colombia are not better than Venezuela, that is for sure.
In the meantime Brazil had to struggle against a quite impressive Peruvian side, who had decided that the best way to play Brazil was to attack high. This gave a quite entertaining match, where Brazil's 10 Dunga clones needed the brilliance of the non-Dunga clone Neymar to make an incredible pass to set up Douglas Costa for an incredible goal.
Sad for Peru, but they can take away the fact that they are not in Chile to be easily beaten, and they surely have chances against Venezuela, and not least Colombia!

South American Qualifiers

I wore my Argentina shirt to work yesterday, as I was excited about Argentina getting revenge for the 1-0 away defeat to Venezuelan in the first round of the qualifiers. While Venezuela has been rising over the last years, the one thing they have still not achieved is to get a point in Argentina. And it was not to happen: Sabella's Argentina was superior to Venezuela in all respects, and in spite of Gonzalo Higuain's last goal being a clear off-side, Argentina's 3-0 victory was fully deserved. Argentina is quite certain to be in Brazil, and will be a contender for the title.
Venezuela is fighting for the fourth and fifth places in the South American qualifiers with Uruguay and Chile. One of these teams will lose out about Brazil. With Venezuela's loss, they had to hope their contenders did not do well, and they were lucky. Uruguay, who has been struggling lately, only managed to get 1-1 at home to Paraguay, who equalized late after Luis Suarez had brought the Uruguayans ahead. In the meantime Chile lost 1-0 to their arch-rivals Peru, so they remain in sixth place with 12 points, the same as Venezuela in fifth place (the play-off spot) and with Uruguay in fourth place with 13 points.
To make it all more interesting, Peru now has a chance to contend for one of the spots with 11 points.

Together with Argentina, Colombia is playing awesome football. Yesterday they played Bolivia at home and won 5-0 in an impressive performance with goals by Teofilo Gutierrez, Pablo Armero, Carlos Valdes, Macnelly Torres and Radamel Falcao. The team is attacking and possessing, and under Jose Pekerman they will be a team nobody will like to face in Brazil.
The pressure on Colombia will be from their passionate fans, who can go from the greatest expectations to the deepest depths of ingratitude to their team.

Next Tuesday Colombia will come to Venezuela in a match that is crucial for the home side, while Chile and Uruguay are facing each other in what will be another dramatic match.
There is no doubt that the South American qualifiers are the best qualifiers in the world in terms of quality, drama and excitement, and this will continue for the next matches!

Rise of the lamas

I do not have much sympathy for Peruvian fans: their whistling of the national anthems of Venezuela and Argentina in their recent qualifiers are just disgraceful. But I guess that is what you can expect if you are a lama.
That said, Peru has risen in this qualifying round. Their home win against Venezuela brought them back in the race for the World Cup, and in their last game against Argentina, in spite of the 1-1 tie, they showed that they surely have the quality to compete for the World Cup spots. They fought very hard, bordering the illegal, but with spirit and passion against an Argentinean side which looked dangerous by Higuain and Lavezzi as the Peruvians successfully annulled Messi. Argentina's defense nevertheless had to fight hard against the incursions of Farfan and the threats of Pizarro (although he missed a penalty). Peru went ahead on a goal by Eintracht Frankfurt's Carlos Zambrano, before Gonzalo Higuain equalized. In the second hand Peru came closest to the win, but Argentina pulled through to a useful tie that keeps them in first spot, while Peru keeps a door open on 7th place.

Venezuela, who had lost to Peru, came back with style by defeating Paraguay 0-2; another historic first for Venezuela, who had never won in Paraguay before. Paraguay, who has qualified to every World Cup since 1998, seems unlikely to qualify with their last place in the South American qualifiers.
Ecuador surprised Uruguay, who is apparently entering a crisis period, by 1-1 in Asuncion, and the surprising Ecuatorians are on third place behind Argentina and Colombia.
Colombia were surely the team of the round: after their resounding trashing of Uruguay, they played wonderfully and defeated Chile 1-3, in one of the most difficult away matches there are. Having made a hugely talented team work, Jose Pekerman is looking more and more likely to take Colombia for their first World Cup since 1998.

South American World Cup qualifiers

South America surely has the most exciting qualifying. All against all, nine teams (this time Brazil is not participating for being hosts) battle closely to get the 4 and a half spots for the tournament. And all are good teams. Unlike Europe, there are no San Marino's or Andorra's here. Just nine world class teams.
While Colombia took an important step with their 4-0 victory against Uruguay, Argentina moved to first spot after defeating Paraguay 3-1. Argentina did not start well, tying Bolivia and losing to Venezuela, but the Argentinean football machine seems to have gotten going. Lionel Messi, who has been criticised so much in playing for Argentina (from me as well) finally seems to have gotten his act together. Last night he was great, and scored on a beautiful free kick. At the same time the team is working well with Gago on midfield and Higuain on top, although the team should only be able to improve with the return of Sergio Aguero and Javier Mascherano (both had suspensions for this match).
Argentina will not be world champion in 2014. For that their defense still looks too shaky, and they depend too much on their stars rather than the collective. But a World Cup would not be the same without Argentina.
Venezuela is the only country in South America never to have played a World Cup, but with a strong a disciplined side they surely have their first real shot at the world stage. They started well, but have fallen behind lately with a loss at home to Chile. Last night Venezuela needed points away against Peru. At the same time, this was Peru's last call, needing a victory to remain with a chance to qualify. Venezuela played a great first half and went ahead on a free kick goal by Juan Arango, but in the second half Peru were a transformed side, and with a red card to Gabriel Cichero, Peru went on to take the victory with two goals by Schalke 04's Jefferson Farfan.
Both teams seem to on the edge for fighting for the last half spot for the World Cup, not unlikely against Ecuador, who moved up to third spot, ahead of Uruguay, after defeating Bolivia 1-0. Ecuador's third spot is based on four home victories, and they will struggle more away (as they already showed when they lost 4-0 to Argentina in Buenos Aires). This will be seen for the next round, on Tuesday, when Ecuador travel to Montevideo to face Uruguay.
Chile was the sit-over in this round, but remains in second spot, and it will be the match of the round when they take on Colombia in Santiago on Tuesday. In the meantime Venezuela travels to Paraguay, and Argentina will be facing Peru in Lima.

Football ignorance

I have in general been happy about Venezuela´s performance in the Copa América, mostly because it is nice to see people here so happy for their side. However, I have before said that Venezuela is a footballing ignorant country, and I think that the TV broadcasting today showed it all: while the final between Uruguay and Paraguay was taking place, the TV channel that has shown much of the tournament, kept showing the arrival of the Venezuelan national team, which was being received by thousands of people, who preferred to see these guys than the actual final.
No matter how disappointed a fan may be (and I was not to see any of my favourite teams there), real football fans would watch the final, instead of clapping at some guys who lost 4-1 in the bronze match to Perú yesterday. And this is not to diminish the fact of Venezuela´s great performance! But it just shows to me that Venezuelan´s happiness was more about nationalism than about football interest. This is not uncommon in many countries when they do well; during World Cups suddenly a lot of people are interested in football, and I often hear people saying, "I only like football when it is countries playing".
That is really when you know they are fucking football-ignorant donkeys!
Although many do not seem to get this, football is a sport, and it is not a defining moment for nations! Venezuela is no more or less great after its performance in the Copa América; Venezuela's football team is, and hopefully its almost non-existant footballing culture may grow with this.
And football fans want to watch a football final!

Semifinals

Some people are calling this a historical Copa América. Admittedly, the tactical standard has been high, and all teams have proven hard to defeat. With the big teams not having performed, it seems any idiot can win this cup with discipline and defending. It is not a tournament that has been characterized by the technical skill and flair that South American football is known for. Perhaps those times are gone. The semifinals of the Copa América will not be some that will catch the world's attention, nor live on in the memory of football fans, unless you support one of the teams, or, like me, live in Venezuela.

• Uruguay-Peru

It is just difficult to have sympathy with Uruguay. A small country whose greatest moment was to win a trophy of eleven kicking a ball in 1950, and who made it to the semifinals of the last world cup on penalty kicks against a Ghanaian side that deserved to win, both for their style, but also for their fair play. If they deserve any reluctant credit for anything, it is for eliminating an Argentinean side that should be in for a big overhaul.

Peru is a team of Guinea-pig eaters, who are mostly in the semifinal thanks to their foreign coach. Truth is that Peru has done nothing in football since the 1970s, and since then Peruvian press and fans have spent most of the time trashing their national side. A team with fans like that hardly deserve a trophy.

• Paraguay-Venezuela

Against Brazil, Paraguay had one shot on goal to win the match on Brazil's poor penalty shooting. If that is not luck…? Some people have called them the Italians of South America due to their defensive style, but I believe that is to underservedly credit the Paraguayans, who surely barely reach Italy to its heels. If I have to say something nice about Paraguay, it's that they have found two lady fans with big titties to show around in the stadium during the matches; perhaps two of the few women in the country that the president has not slept with.

Every team I support always loses, so I will try not to support Venezuela. Football-wise, they are the only semifinalist that has played half-way entertaining, but has also been lucky.
That said, Venezuela is a baseball country. Before this tournament nobody talked about their footballing side (which was decent, even if anyone here did follow football!), but all of a sudden everyone seems to be an expert. I am happy for Venezuelans, and if they carry through the sensation and win, I will sit on my fucking chair alone and look out of the fucking window to see Caracas celebrating, and wish I were part of it.

Colombian crash against Perú

Colombia has a thing for disappointing when you are expecting something from them. In this tournament they had been great, winning their group ahead of Argentina, and seemingly with some of their players, such as Freddy Guarín and Radamel Falcao, in great shape. On the other hand, Perú had only ended third in its group, working hard, but without impressing. Colombia were huge favourites. But in football in general, and in this tournament in particular, being the favourite has meant little.
Colombia was a shadow of itself. They seemed to play without spirit, and in spite of having some chances, they were too forgiving. Radamel Falcao even missed a penalty, and as the rest of his team, Peruvian goalkeeper Raúl Fernández was concentrated and worked hard. The match ended 0-0 in ordinary time, and in extra time, Colombia continued to play without imagination or clout, even after Perú went ahead 1-0 on a goal by Carlos Lobatón, who took advantage of a misunderstanding between the Colombian goalkeeper Luis Enrique Martinez and his defense. Perú continued solid and concentrated, and in the second half of the extra time went ahead 2-0, when Hamburger SV striker Paolo Guerrero, who played a great match, picked up a ball from the Colombian goalkeeper, ran into the area, and passed the ball to Perú captain, Juan Manuel Vargas, who scored a second for Perú.
Colombia showed nothing.
Now, one has to pay its respect to Perú's players and its coach, Sergio "El Mago" Markarián, who showed that hard work and tactical discipline are still very important if you want to win in football!
Personally, I am hugely disappointed about the Colombian side, but congratulations to the Peruvians!

Argentina against Uruguay!

Yesterday's Argentine victory in the Copa América put them in the second spot, where they are to face number 2 in group C. Group C was played today, with Chile defeating Perú on a goal in overtime to take 1st spot, and Uruguay defeating Mexico 1-0, to take second spot. Uruguay, who made it to the semifinal of the World Cup has not seemed too strong, and they had difficulty defeating the Mexican youth side.
But this means that the quarterfinal next weekend will be a repeat of one of the greatest rivalries in football history: Argentina versus Uruguay. These teams, with a proud footballing history have met in numerous dramatic encounters, including world cup qualifiers, Copa América finals, Olympic matches and the very first World Cup final.
There is no doubt that after Argentina's victory against Costa Rica, where the Argentine sleeping giants apparently woke up, and the fact that they are playing at home, makes them big favourites to win. Uruguay has not seemed too strong, and notably their World Cup hero, Diego Forlán seems to be cursed not to score more goals. However, as they showed during the World Cup, Uruguay should never, NEVER, be underestimated. Argentina knows this very well, and knows very well that in matches between these two arch-rivals anything can happen. Who knows? Maybe Messi will have another bad day, while Forlán will find his former force!
No matter what, this is a match that should not be missed by any serious football fans!