2018 Copa América Femenina

Wow, very proud of Chile to put on a display like this in front of home fans. They displayed some slick passing in those highlights. And Aedo's first goal was pure quality. That type of reverse flick is so tough to do successfully.

Group B is perfectly poised, with Venezuela and Argentina meeting last. Winner advances. A draw would see Venezuela advance as they have +5 GD to Argie's +4.

This tournament is grueling -- 4 games in 8 days?? And the second round beginning immediately after? This would never happen in men's soccer. Clearly something that needs to change in the future.

 

Yeah, Conmebol has applied its U20 calendar to the Women's Copa America tournament.

However, Concacaf is slightly worse.

Games and tournament days, across confederations:
AFC - 5 matches in 15 days.
CAF - 5 matches in 15 days.
Concacaf - 5 matches in 13 days.
Conmebol - 7 matches in 19 days.
OFC - 5 matches in 14 days.
UEFA - N matches spread over 19 months.

Change will occur when professional leagues ask FIFA about players' welfare. Then again, there are few professional leagues for women in Conmebol and Concacaf.

Also, the Brazilian federation might be satisfied with a heavy calendar, for it weakens rivals with inferior sport medicine resources.

 

Argentina - Venezuela game on!
https://www.facebook.com/CAFemChile2018/videos/vb.263242894212578/292215107982023/?type=3&theater

 

With out 7-0 loss to Colombia and 1-1 draw with Perú, we will finish second-to-last (Ecuador lost all matches).

We need annual competitions.

 

From my eye, the ARG-VEN match has looked pretty even throughout. The only difference is TWO PKs given to ARG... To be fair, I think both were deserved, though none of the fouls were particularly bad either - just the laws of the game. VEN has beaten itself, basically... (Still, ref does seem to favor ARG a little bit...)

Both the FB feed watchers and the crowd in-stadium have seemed very pro-VEN throughout the match.

 

Addendum:
Poor VEN, too... despite having arguably better results and a clearly better GD than PAR, it's PAR moving on to the PanAm Games and VEN goes home with literally nothing since PAR managed one more point in their group...

 

A bit too pro-VEN if you ask me, cannot condone their abusive chants towards the Uruguayan referee.

VEN right wing Villamizar could not be stopped today, hopefully she continues doing well in the Brazilian league.

Congrats to Argentina, some serious matches for next week.

 

Monday: Colombia-Argentina and Chile-Brazil
Thursday: Brazil-Argentina and Chile-Colombia
Sunday: Chile-Argentina and Brazil-Colombia

 

Brazil & Colombia seem like locks to advance to the WWC. The play-off seems 50/50 between Chile & Argentina.

 

Now that there is no chance to see Venezuela, and especially Deyna Castellanos with them, at WWC, I am sorry for Argentina but I definitely root for Chile. So Brazil, Colombia and Chile is my prediction.

I wouldn't mind Chile upsetting predictions and somehow catch one of the direct-qualifications spots, although I am aware it looks nigh impossible.

 

Chile and Argentina played two friendlies in october last year. First match at closed doors was a tie 2-2 and two days later with public attendance Chile won 5-0.

Of course in real competition it will be different and Chileans needs to overcome their anxiety as seen in games against Paraguay and Uruguay.

In november Chile played two games with Brazil losing 0-4 and 0-3 and with Colombia in past march winning at closed doors 1-0 and with a tie 0-0 with public.

If you ask me, they should rest the team against Brazil and play for a tie with Colombia to be in the best shape for the all important match with Argentina... but I'm sure this team will play to win the tournament even if that means reducing their chances to qualify to the wold cup (tired, injured or suspended players for the last game with Argentina).

 

Of course, you have to wonder who the team from CONCACAF will be. Likely Costa Rica, but they've been playing well lately and we could see Mexico into the playoff.

 

It's a Hurt Conmebol has so few places for the World Cup. The painful performance of Ecuador in Canada 2015 did not help much to our region. Hopefully it changes in France 2019

 

The place distribution makes sense when you compare CONCACAF to CONMEBOL though... Both have a team that's always somewhere in the top 10, though CAN is usually higher than BRA, but CONCACAF also has a team always in the top 2 with USA. Those are the only three teams from the Americas to ever have an impact at the WWC historically. Further down, COL and MEX are essentially even, but CRC is rated usually above ARG and definitely above CHI.

 

It's basically 3 spots and a half for CONCACAF and 2 spots and a half for CONMEBOL, isn't it?

 

Yep. Its current 3rd Conmebol representative must do better, starting from the next intercontinental playoff. Then, it must manage not to be swept out at the WC.

Ecuador drew 0-0 in Quito, against Trinidad & Tobago (Nov 2014). It beat Trinidad in the 2nd leg, with a goal at minute 90+1 (Dec 2014). Their WC run did not justify a half-ticket for Conmebol. (Thank goodness FIFA did not choose to take it away)<<< I take it back, cannot praise FIFA after checking their WC allocation post-2011.

I also think Chile make has a strong case for WC qualification. That 1st goal against Peru was pure class.

Edit:
Actually, it is rather interesting how WC spot allocation was done after expansion: UEFA effectively doubled its WC allocation, even though WC expansion was by 50%.

FIFA+UEFA, one love, one heart.
OFC continues to qualify directly, despite being swept on every WC edition.

WC 2011 (16 participants) ---> WC 2015/WC 2019 (24 participants)

AFC----------------3---------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>5
CAF----------------2---------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>3
Concacaf--------3.5-------------->>>>>>>>>>>>4.5+2015_host
Conmebol-------2---------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>2.5
OFC---------------1---------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>1
UEFA----------4.5+host---------->>>>>>>>>>>>8+2018_host

 

Err... make that a Concacaf expansion from 2.5 spots in 2011, to 3.5 spots in 2015.

Sorry about that.

 

...I don't know what ARG did on their bye during the group stage, but damn they've played much better since then! Ground out the result against VEN and have been schooling COL after COL got the opening goal...

Banini getting the literal or effective assist on each of ARG's three goals thus far, so Spirit fans should be happy about that.

 

Colombia 1-3 Argentina
31' Liana Salazar (COL), 49' María Florencia Bonsegundo (ARG), 66' Soledad Jaimes, 70' Marcela Coronel (ARG)