The Most Interesting Statistics in the History of the Copa América

Our aim was to collect the most interesting records and statistics of the Copa América befora the upcoming football event.

Copa América’s first edition was held in 1916, and has been the most important continental tournament in South América ever since, however the competition was called South American Championship in the beginning.

• Uruguay participated in 42 Copa Américas
• Argentina won 3 consecutive championships
• Nobody scored 10 goals in 1 Copa

It has changed name in 1975 and has been going on as Copa América since then. Many thrilling matches have been played since the first tournament and many great records have been set and broken in the almost 99-year-old history of the continental competition. Our aim is to show the most interesting ones of these to our readers.

Uruguay has participated in most Copa Américas

Out of all the South American countires, Uruguay has participated in the most editions of the prestigious comtetition. Online gambling sites in Uruguay report that Los Chaúrros have taken part in the event 42 times out of the 43 Copa américas that has been orgined so far, and they will participate for the 43rd time in the 44th championship.

Argentina is the second best team in this sense, regarding the fact that they have taken part in the tournament 40 times, missing out only 3. Surprisingly the thirs team is Chile with its 37 participations, while Brazil is only 5th by taking part 34 times in the rounds of Copa América.

Best winners of the competition

It is no surprising to state that Uruguay is the most successful team in the history of Copa América, having triumphed the title 15 times, while Argentina goes second with their 14 golden medals. However, Argentina is the one who lost the most finals in the tournament – they have been runner-ups 12 times, according to reports by the sportsbooks of online internet casinos.

However, Argentina has played a match against Ecuador in 1942 which holds 2 records at the same time. This was the biggest victory in the history of the Copa América as the Albiceleste trashed Ecuador with a humiliating 12-0, and in addition, it is also the match where the most number of goals were scored. Other humiliating victories were in 1949 when Brazil defeated Bolivia by 10-1, and Argentina once again, won 11-0 versus Venezuela in 1975.

Argentina has many great streaks

But the biggest win is not the only record that the Albiceleste holds in the Copa América, according to the reports of Argentinian gambling news. They are also the only team who managed to win Copa América 3 times in a row – in 1945, 1946 and 1947. Uruguay and Brazil managed to defend their titles several times, but they never managed to win it for the third time in a row.

In addition, they are also the team who have participated in most finals in a row – they have made it to the last games of the competition 8 times in a row between 1923 and 1937. They won exacly half of those finals. They came very close to this record between 1941 and 1947, when they won 4 of their 5 Copa América finals.

Zizinho and Mendez are the top scorers of the tournament

Throughout the 99-year-old history of the continental football competition, there were many great strikers participating. We can remember the likes of Ronaldo, Pelé and Romario from Brazil, Messi, Maradona and Batistuta from Argentina or Forlán from Uruguay, and so on. Yet they are not even close to be the most successful strikers of Copa América – Ronaldo has 10, while Batistuta has 13 goals.

It is another Brazilian and another Argentinian striker, who are co-top scorers in the history of Copa América. Argentina’s Norberto Méndez and Brazil’s Zizinho have both scored 17 goals at Copa América in all editions, with which they are all time top scorers. Zizinho reached this amount on 33 matches at the tournament, however the player with the most matches is Sergio Livingstone from Chile – with 34 matches.

Nobody scored 10 goals in one Copa América

The first tournament’s top scorer was Uruguay’s Isabelino Gradín, and only 3 goals were enough to be the best striker of the competition. Later on the necessary number in order to become top scorer have increased up to 6-7 in general, according to mobile betting sites. However, nobody has ever managed to score 10 goals in only one edition of the Cpoa América so far.

The best top scorers have managed to score 9 goals, while some reached 8, but those are the maximum. The Brazilian striker, Jair, was the first one to ever score 9 goals, he reached that achievement in 1949, while Argentinian Humberto Maschio and Uruguayan Javier Ambrois were co-top scorers in 1957. Other than these, only Pelé and the Uruguayan Nicolás Falero scored 8 goals in one tournament, so one record is waiting to be broken in 2015!