Chile in Football World’s Elite after Copa Victory vs Argentina (Part I)

Jorge Sampaoli decided that it is time for growing up, and Chile opted for being ruthless champions instead of romantic heroes.

Argentina lost another final in twelve months, this time against Chile, who were able to stop Lionel Messi in the final of the Copa America in Santiago de Chile, somehow shocking the mobile betting audience. Jorge Sampaoli’s plan worked in the showdown and they were also able to capitalize on the injury of Angel di Maria, which meant that La Albiceleste lost their most important player after Messi.

• More Pragmatic Chile in world’s elite
• Di Maria’s injury hurt his team
• Chile dominated Argentina

Chile, bearing the pressure of being the hosts waiting for their first ever Copa trophy, were much more pragmatic in the final, and in the whole tournament than before. However Argentinian head coach Jorge Sampaoli did not give up the game plan that made Chile one of the most exciting and attracting national sides in the world, and by pairing the extremely attacking version of total football with some necessary pragmatism, he sent his team into the elite of the footballing world.

Chile remained to be Chile

As it was expected before the match by many of those who bet on sports in the US, Chile started to push Argentina from the kick off pressing them constantly, trying to enforce errors, regain possession as soon as possible, and retain the ball as long as possible. They were trying to create quality chances, and that wasn’t so easy against an Argentina side, that is also about attacking football in the first place and had defensive problems recently, though clearly capable of playing some effective defensive football if needed, like at the 2014 FIFA World Cup a year ago.

It was no surprise that though Chile launched a lot of shots towards Sergio Romero’s goal, real effort from the Argentina goalkeeper was needed no more than a couple of times to keep a clean sheet. And the same goes for his opposite number, Claudio Bravo, as Argentina had two great chances, with one of them coming early in the first half and the other well into overtime. Actually by the latter no action from Bravo was needed, as Gonzalo Higuain’s shot went into the side-net after a good counterattack was organized by Messi, who was untypically alone at the moment, and first half substitute Ezequiel Lavezzi.

Di Maria’s exit affected Argentina’s chances

Lavezzi came in as a substitute before the 30 minutes mark in the first half after Angel di Maria injured his hamstring. The exit of the Manchester United midfielder hurt Argentina badly, and might hurt the Red Devils too, if he fails to recover from the injury for the start of the club season. National team coach Gerardo Martino opted for a more cautious gameplan against Chile, arguably the best team at pressing and retaining the ball at the 2015 Copa America, and in that plan Di Maria would have a very important role.

As Argentina were prepared for sitting back and absorbing the pressure, Messi had the task of releasing Sergio Aguero or Di Maria with a pinpoint ball on the break, while the latter also had to help Javier Pastore to connect the midfield and the forward line. After he was substituted, Argentina were missing the enormous work Di Maria is able to carry out and the speed, agility and mobility he provides for the team. They were far from being dominant in the first half an hour, but they became basically silent after losing one of their star men.

Though Chile were clearly dominating the game, even with Di Maria out, they still had a superstar to handle. As we are speaking about one of the best footballers ever, it was certainly a point that was underlined in Jorge Sampaoli’s notes before the game. As followers of gaming news might remember, he revealed it before the final that Chile will not use classic man-marking on him, however it turned out that they planned to make sure that always someone is around there to make Messi’s life harder.

In the second part of the article we will discuss how Chile managed to keep quiet the player who had the lowest odds at online sportsbooks in the US to score in the 2015 Copa America final.