Yes, Copa America, even without all the best players. If they could figure out a way to condense the Conmebol world cup qualifying so it could start after Copa America, do you think we would see the A+ teams in Copa America like we see in the Euros? I don't see why not.
Euro was alot better!! There weren't as many fights and the different styles of tactics were interesting to watch. __________ GianPaolo
Euro 2004. Better Players. More spectacular goals. Better stories. Better crowds (the Portuguese fans were a reason in and of themselves), better stadiums. And someone new won it all, for once. Great, Brazil's B-squad won because the Argentine squad was watching the clock count down instead of defending. Copa America was cool, but not as fun as Euro 2004 this year.
For me it was Copa America. The Euro was nice but I didn't care for any of the teams that played so I had no real emotional involvement.
yeah, brazil sent a b squad as did argentina (or maybe an a- squad). mexico, peru, and ecuador also brought a- squads. other teams like uruguay, paraguay and chile brought c squads, in fact. for a moment, i thought i was watching greece in the copa america final but it turned out it was brazil defending with its life against argentina.
Ahem, did you ppl forget one ALDO DUSCHER (argentine, right?) smashed mr. Beckham's ankle, breaking a bone in his foot. After the groups were announced for WC (Argentina and England drawn together). PRE-MEDITATED.. Francesco Totti shamed every Italian fan but at least it was in the heat of the moment and anyone who has ever played football knows things get out of hand. STILL, SHAME TOTTI, SHAME!!! But life goes on, he will redeem himself!!!
Unfortunately, Copa America will NEVER ever be as good as EURO2004 was... The tourney was only as semi-competitive as it was because Brazil fielded weakened team and and Argentina carried a team which was not its strongest either. Had these teams carried everything they had, it would be nothing short of a ARGENTINA-BRAZIL final everytime. EURO2004...... Realistically every team there looked capable of going all the way, even the Latvians played well.. At the start 8 or so teams could have won the tourney, and even at the end it wasn't one of those. The beauty of football is that the unexpected can happen!
Copa America was better: Without a doubt, a final of the biggest rivalry in the World, a 3rd place game between the last Copa champion(Colombia) and an amazing Uruguay that could have won the tournament. An amazing final in which Argentina thought they won the final in minute 85 and Brazil tied in minute 92. This tournament didn't finish like Eurocrap "The tournament of the best teams in the world in which a crappy team wins" 1st round: - Favorites Spain and Italy don't make it to the 2nd round - Germany didn't make it to the 2nd round 4er finals: - Beckham-England choked on penalties - Greece beat a crappy French team that didn't do much - Holland gets lucky and finish its streak of losing in penalties, fans knew that after this they weren't gonna get lucky again. Semifinals: - Portugal beats a crappy Holland without ideas (like I said, everyone saw this coming) - Greece beats a Czech Republic team that missed about a dozen goals Final: - Greece, the 1:150 team beat the host nation Portugal. For the EuroFans that say "A new team won the tournament": Are you saying that Copa America would be better if CostaRica had won it by beating hosts Peru??? Why were most Euro fans dissapointted that Greece won, some fans even called it "bad for soccer"
ahh semi-competitive games like peru-bolivia 2-2 peru-colombia 2-2 colombia-costa rica 2-0 brazil-mexico 4-1 argentina-uruguay 4-2 brazil - urugauy 1-1 brazil - argentina 2-2(4-2) colombia - uruguay 1-2 those games were semi competitive?? you must of been watching the wrong television feed
Copa America was more entertaining. The Euro had the bigger crowds and more chanting which covered up for the boring soccer on the field. A good atmosphere can cover up boring soccer most times. can't wait for the Copa to be expanded to more teams next time around (likely to happen)
aqctaully its very unlikely to happen the next copa america date has already been set it will contain the same amount of teams as before...
from the london guardian,click here for full article LIMA, July 26 (Reuters) - The Copa America, written off as a competition in decline and a poor relation to the European championship, enjoyed a revival in Peru to prove there is football life outside Europe. Although the tournament lacked the ultra-modern infrastructure and travelling fans of Euro 2004, the quality of football was just as good, if not better, and the organisers got the basics right. Pitches were good, stadiums were tidy and none of the teams, not even the Brazilians who can often be fussy about facilities at any sporting events, had any major complaints about the facilities. "We felt at home and it was wonderful to have the Peruvians supporting us," said coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. There was not a single goalless draw in the tournament, which ended in spectacular style on Sunday with Brazil scoring in the last kick of the final to draw 2-2 before going on to win 4-2 on penalties. Argentina had gone 2-1 ahead in the 87th minute. Some of the goals were truly spectacular, including Roberto Palacios's ball-juggling equaliser for Peru against Bolivia and an astonishing long-range effort by Paraguay's Ernesto Cristaldo against Chile. "It doesn't have the glamour of the European championship, where the stadiums were fantastic," said Parreira, who saw Euro 2004 as an observer. "But the standard of football here was in no way inferior."
Well the stadiums and all the organisation was better in Portugal but this is no reason to say it was better. I didn't watch so many matches, but I can say at the final I was leaving the room because it was so boring. I expected so much more of those "fabulous" teams. Brasil didn't show its art of playing, they didn't conjure neither play offensive. It was just luck they won. (Sorry Brasileros, but I'm just talking of the final, maybe they played better before). The Argentines (actually I do love them) played sooooo boring, just tackling all the time without showing their skills. I think they played like Italy, .. too arrogant, good actors skills but with worse haircuts (even Totti had a better one). I'm looking for the WC in two years, because I think the two continents complement quite good.
I watched a bag of matches in Euro2004 and 1 match of Copa (the final) - the Copa wins by a length and a half! I kid u not the most pleasing and fluent team in Euro2004 was Bulgaria!
2001 games were unbelievable...i was just pi$$ed iff argentina pu$$ied out! 1999 in paraguay was also fun as sheet... sure the tourney has lost prestige a bit (just a bit) but a couple of screw-tightening and who knows how far the tourney can go? maybe we can send some south americans over to europe or something, i don't know!
Copa if for no other reason than this: I could watch the games live on tv without forking over for PPV.