The Copa America Centenario is four days old and Arsenal’s trio of representatives have now all featured.
David Ospina played the full 90-minutes as Colombia beat hosts USA 2-0 at Levi’s Stadium in the tournament opener. It doesn’t sound like he had much to do, although he did parry a Clint Dempsey free-kick on the hour mark. Cristian Zapata and James Rodriguez scored in the first half.
Joel Campbell featured for Costa Rica as they ground out a 0-0 draw in a physical encounter with Paraguay in the same group. The temperature at game time in Orlando was 92 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much fun to play in.
Last night Alexis Sanchez’s Chile went down 2-1 to Argentina – goals from Angel Di Maria and Eva Banega avenging last year’s penalty defeat in the final.
From the sounds of it, Chile were a bit of a mess last night although The Mirror reserves praise for Alexis.
They report: “While Chile struggled to create chances or penetrate a nervous-looking Argentinian back line, Sanchez took it on himself to do it all on his own.”
Sounds familiar. Perhaps he was doing it for his dogs, Humber and Atom, whose names he sported on his boots?
Upcoming ‘Arsenal’ fixtures.
Tuesday, June 7
USA vs. Costa Rica – Chicago, Illinois (8 p.m. ET/1 a.m. CET)
Colombia vs. Paraguay – Pasadena, California (10:30 p.m. ET/3:30 a.m. CET)
Friday, June 10
Chile vs. Bolivia – Foxborough, Massachusetts (7 p.m. ET/12 a.m. CET)
Saturday, June 11
Colombia vs. Costa Rica – Houston, Texas (9 p.m. ET/2 a.m. CET)
Tuesday, June 14
Chile vs. Panama — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (8 p.m. ET/1 a.m. CET)
Eva Banega? Didn’t realise that his wife was playing.
COPA feel..
This man really loves his dogs.
Sounds selfish, but from an Arsenal point of view, i hope Chile go out relatively early so Alexis gets some well deserved summer rest for the first time in what seems like his entire career.
when was his last summer without playing?
He’s not had a summer without playing since he could stand up.
Selfish? Absolutely not. Chile had it all last year – a dream competition if ever there was one. Time to let someone else lift the trophy and get the dogs out of kennels.
This is just a money spinner. Someone is no doubt filling their pockets since this tournament isn’t being played for the fans or players benefit.
The Copa America, the oldest international continental competition, has nothing to do with the USA, different football confederation altogether. Like playing the European Championship in Africa.
It means even less when you demean it further by calling it Copa. it means absolutely nothing without it’s surname. It’s like calling the Champions League, the champions.
Ah…one last thing….it’s Ever Banega, not Eva
That’s it, rant over
The Copa America always includes at least two teams from other confederations–they expanded it this year to include six non-CONMEBOL teams instead of the usual two teams from other confederations. Mexico has played in every Copa America since they expanded the field in 1993. The United States has played in four.
Yes, it is a bit of a money-grab, but isn’t everything that has to do with Fifa a bit of a money-grab these days?
If by always you mean since 1993, then I agree with you.
NorthernGooner
“It means even less when you demean it further by calling it Copa. it means absolutely nothing without it’s surname. It’s like calling the Champions League, the champions”
If your talking about this article’s headline, i believe it is a play on words,
e.g – copa watch, copa feel, copa look, etc.
Alexis’ love for his dog sure is Lovely, but isn’t going a bit far now? Someone should get him a girlfriend…
You’ve never owned a dog have you? The girlfriend question I’ll leave unasked.
“Someone should get him a girlfriend…”
Sheeeeet, someone has no imagination as to what being ‘one of the country’s most-popular, good-looking, highest-paid footballers’ is like.
I agree with everything you said except: “good-looking”
Alexis, love him to death, but Derek Zoolander he is not
Well, he’s not particularly Gabriel Vardy either!
Plus he’s a “phenomenal physical specimen” 😉
You can dump a girlfriend, not your dog
I hope so too also hoping jack gets less mins so he’s nice and fresh suppose that goes for mesut and the French duo on another note I really hope Wenger pulls the plug on this vardy deal not convinced ,he’s had one good season and he’s 29 ! He be 30 in Jan and also u don’t say I’ll think about it after talking to Arsenal ! What’s to think about ?? It’s not like we’ve trying to persuade Neymar from barca or muller from Bayern it’s Leicester !!
On the contrary, I hope Jack gets as many minutes as possible at the Euros – he hasn’t played all season. He needs to play and get that confidence in both his body and playing ability back – ie. guarantees that he can play a number of games in quick concession without his body letting him down and start contributing positively on the field. If he can get through the Euros and play well, that would be a very good step forward for him.
Selfish, but I concur with you, the guy needs some rest. Though he’d most probably be running up and down the beaches and climbing hills on his supposed summer vacation. What a workaholic!
With this and the Euros can’t help but feel a large portion of our senior players will be absolutely knackered! Here’s to Chile, Germany and France going out in the group stages!
England to get to the semis and lose on penalties. Jack has brilliant tournament and starts the season fully sit. And he remains fully fit.
Campbell wins the MVP award for this years Copa.
Arsenal then completes the treble next season.
I also finally get a gf.
more likely you getting a gf than any of the aothers happening tbh
Hope jack gets plenty of game time he looked good when he came on against portugal
Fahrenheit? What is that?
I love how any game can somehow be Arsenalized!
Umm Gabriel, is he gonna be involved in Copa America?
Gabriel was not selected for the Brazil CAC squad.
Can’t wait to see Ospina and Campbell in action this Saturday!
Sorry for the banality of this comment but what is it with Nike and their ‘all one colour’ kits? They look horrible.
England are supposed to have navy shorts, France are supposed to have white shorts, Chile are supposed to have blue shorts, the list goes on but you get the picture.
I know most people will say “who cares?” but it gets my goat.
Ospina made one world-class save. Really brilliant.
The Argentina-Chile match was nothing like the Mirror report implied. End-to-end counters and counter-counters. Lots of lost possession and long through balls. Vidal got angry a couple of times (I know that will come as a surprise). Alexis was good; DiMaria was very good. The American commentators, including Brad Friedel, were rubbish. Great game to watch.
“The American commentators, including Brad Friedel, were rubbish.”
Surely that doesn’t surprise you! They’re rubbish even when they’re broadcasting their own sports. When they’re covering football (and I mean real football, not American hand-egg), they’re so bad that the only way to watch the match is with the sound off.
Premier League in the US is broadcast by an excellent, mostly English team. Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux are the two most common match analysts (occasionally Tim Howard, when Everton have played the day before; not so good), and the studio people are also excellent. Copa America is on Fox and Euros will be ESPN, both pretty bad.
Doing it all himself. Oh brother.
and I was worried he would return burnt out.
Struggled to make chances? They had one more shot on goal than Argentina. It was end to end. Thrilling match. Argentina fared better but Chile did not struggle. Lazy journalism by the Mirror, probably written before the game.