Santa Clara, CA — Argentina vs. Chile; COPA America
Angel Di Maria held up a shirt after scoring the opening goal between Argentina and Chile that read, “abuela te voy a extrañar muchísimo.” Grandmother I’ll miss you a lot; a dedication to his grandmother who passed away early this morning as Argentina prepared for their first match of the Copa America. Holding back tears when asked about it in his postgame interview, Di Maria said in Spanish translated to English, “It’s difficult to be away when something like this happens. My mom asked me to stay here with my teammates and to win the game.”
Riding those emotions, Di Maria helped carry his Argentinian team, that was without their star Lionel Messi, scoring one goal and assisting on the other just eight minutes later.
“I knew that I could score.” he said, “In the morning when I knew what happened I knew that I would score today, and that happened and it was for her.”
“I am so happy because I was able to score, it was for my grandmother and my family that are having a difficult time.”
Even without Messi, Argentina looked like the powerhouse that they are. Currently the top ranked team in the world, the Argentines controlled much of the match against the reigning Copa America champs. They were very dangerous on counter-attacks, absorbing the Chilean attack and then exploding out of their end.
It was their midfield pressure though that would win them the match, both goals coming off of turnovers in the center of the pitch. The first goal was stolen by Ever Banega in the center of the field and then fed perfectly to Di Maria in the box who slotted the ball near post to beat the keeper. On the second goal Di Maria returned the favor, setting up Banega for a near identical goal after Argentina intercepted a pass just over the center line.
Much of Argentina’s success was thanks to the extra numbers they had in the midfield. Fielding a 4-2-3-1 against the Chilean 4-3-3, Argentina was able to shut down the passing lanes and then counter quickly. Di Maria and Messi’s replacement Nicolas Gaitan were then able to use their speed to take off down the wings once they created the turnovers. The constant counters lead to a total of 16 shots during the match and 6 corner kicks.
Defensively Argentina did very well to step up on the Chilean attackers and especially Alexis Sanchez, who was largely ineffective during the match. A team as talented as Chile would still get good opportunities on goal but when they did Sergio Romero was up for the task. His one mistake would cost Argentina a goal late in stoppage time but early in the match he made big saves to keep Chile off the board.
Playing against the 5th ranked team in the world, Argentina showed just how dangerous of a team they can be and why they deserve to be the favorites in this tournament.
Argentina
Copa America
