5 minutes ago: argentina draws colombia- japon and Bolivia is official some called the easiest grp of the 3
neyyyyy- sorteo cristalino argentina opens on july 1st vs Bolivia and ends grp stage vs Colombia colombia vs japon on july 2nd
Well, Japan doesn't have the technicality of the South Americans, but boy do they have alot of fight and endurance. Bolivia has very good technicality, but our current team isn't very physical or athletic. Bolivia is looking great for 2-4 years from now (great pipeline!), but right now, we're lacking athletically and physically with these older players. Bolivia needs to work on endurance if they want to compete. Colombia has alot of talent. Alot. There just as athletic as the Argies, and def just as physical. I doubt the mismanagement and bad luck for Colombia will last forever. Colombia has what it takes to be a powerhouse and make it to the next round. With this said, Bolivia and Argentina will make it to the next round I'm biased.
Well it's a rule of gold for most of the tournaments, except for like this year's World Cup, the host always gets an accesible group.
News: Colombia, entre potencias Dos potencias, una de este lado del mundo (Argentina) y otra de Asia (******ón), y la eterna Cenicienta del cono sur (Bolivia), serán los rivales de Colombia en la primera fase de la edición 43 de la Copa América que fue sorteada ayer en La Plata, Argentina. En la nueva era del técnico Hernán Darío Gómez, como dicen los hinchas, le tocará bailar con la más fea, representada en la anfitriona Argentina que tras su fracaso en el Mundial de Sudáfrica buscará reivindicarse ante su fanaticada, con el ingrediente de que en el banco tendrá un verdadero cuerpo técnico, aseguran los críticos de Diego Armando Maradona. Sin embargo, el duelo con los gauchos, que además cuentan en su nómina con los mejores goleadores del balompié internacional, léase Lionel Messi, Carlos Tévez, Diego Milito y Kun Agüero, no será el primero. Bolillo y su corte, que se motiva por los gratos recuerdos frente a la albiceleste (el 5-0 de las eliminatorias para el Mundial del 94), podrá analizarlos cuando se enfrenten a Bolivia el día de la inauguración, el 1° de julio. "Tenemos que estar mentalizados para vencer a los tres rivales. Es un cuadro difícil, pero tenemos confianza y los jugadores para ganar el grupo. Estando en Argentina tenemos una presión extra a los adversarios", fue la reacción de Sergio Batista a la agencia AP tras el sorteo, al agregar que "en Argentina hace rato que no se ganan cosas importantes". El arranque de Colombia será frente a ******ón que, advierten los expertos, es un elenco de grandes progresos como lo demostró en la pasada Copa Mundo en Sudáfrica, donde por poco se mete entre los ocho primeros como lo habían pronosticado. Este invitado de honor al certamen (el otro es México) tiene a favor que la mayoría de sus integrantes juegan en las ligas de Europa, una condición para quienes aspiran a grandes logros. Bien ubicados Francisco Maturana, el director de desarrollo deportivo de la Federación Colombiana de Fútbol, le expresó a la agencia Efe que el emparejamiento con Argentina, ******ón y Bolivia dejó a Colombia "bien ubicado". Este viernes, cuando el técnico Hernán Darío Gómez dé a conocer la nómina para el partidos amistoso frente a Perú, se continuará con el proceso de ensamble para la Copa América que para muchos estratega criollos será solo una estación hacia el reto más importante que es volver a la Copa Mundo. Para Maturana, en cambio, la próxima edición del certamen futbolero más antiguo del mundo (cumplirá 95 años) debe ser la prioridad. "Lo primero es lo primero -le dijo Maturana a la agencia Efe-. Colombia tiene que pensar en la Copa América, hacer su mejor esfuerzo. Lo demás vendrá en su momento porque si pensamos primero en el Mundial, nadie te asegura que vas a llegar. No podemos dejar pasar la Copa América sin vivirla y disputarla con intensidad". More...
¿Por qué no? Viste que también está Mexico? Me parece que no te cuestionaste por qué está Mexico, por lo que no tienes problema con eso. Déjame decirte que Japón está por la misma razón que México.
Sorry - I am not against any country - I just wanted to know why they invited Japan, and not some other country... what was the criteria for the invitation. Also- I read that this will be Mexico's last participation in Copa America! This is all very strange... If the above applies, why not invite Argentina or Uruguay to participate in the European championships? LOL
First of all, let's make sure we understand why Copa America has invitees. There are only 10 teams in Conmebol. In order to make a viable tournament we need the number of participants to be a multiple of 4. This is why Conmebol's recourse has been to grant invitations for their latter tournaments. The problem here is the fact that the tournament has been inadequately dubbed Copa America, when this has historically been a Conmebol only tournament. This is the thing that has people confused/mistaken. 'Copa America' is -and has always been- an imprecise branding to say the least. It is still the name of the tournament for the sake of convenience. They won't change the name because this is the oldest NT tournament anyway. At the end it is just the name for the tournament. So... why has Japan been chosen as invitee? Like I said before, it's strictly for the same reason Mexico has been invited: Money, marketing potential. Take into account Japan has already been in this tournament. Another reason for an invitation could be the amount of Nikkei population in South America. You're brazilian right? Just in Brazil there are a million and a half japanese expats. That's one reason to believe Japan should feel at home in this Copa America and of course, Brazil 2014. With what I already explained, this goes without saying. The only reason why the other confederations generally don't invite teams to their tournament is because they don't NEED to do it. They aren't short on the amount of teams like Conmebol is.
Like i said before if the name is such a problem then they could always change it to Copa América del Sur.
Why is the name a "problem"? After all, the tournament crowns the best National Team in AMERICA, since the best football in the hemisphere is played in South America anyway, right?
not really!! he pays a lot of attention to the top 30 teams in fifa Rankings.....more from conmebol---- south of the other confederation.
The Conmebol already made tournaments with 10 NT already. I liked the tournament in 1991 where 10 teams divided to two groups of 5 each. Eventually 2 team out of four woll play in the final group. They can maintain this system with one change for examle: instead of final group to make it semi final..
In that Copa America they had to play all the games every 2 days in an excruciating tournament. They will never do that kind of thing again because of scheduling issues.
I'm a brazilian, and this number is an obsolete number... Nowadays we have at least 3.0 million nikkeis here in Brazil (myself included, just like Tulio, Japanese Brazilian father and Italian Brazilian mother), so yes, I think Japan should feel at home in 2014, can't wait for this, it'll be awesome I'll suport both Brazil and Japan at Copa America.
Not sure if this is the best thread, but Japan's football association considers passing Copa America, as the aftermath of that earthquake. The earthquake made yesterday and today's matches (and possible more) postponed, and sometimes in June is a possible alternative date. To avoid much trouble, I think the decision should be made soon, but frankly I've had a mixed feeling about Copa and wouldn't miss it that much. Japan NT did WC and Asia cup, and several key players are seriously exhausted.