You didn't say Ospina was the best South American GK in the Copa America, you said he was the best South American GK. Bravo is miles better.

Alexis with a nice assist

Chile 2-0 and comfortably

Alexis with a good assist, he's looked sharper with Chile this summer than he did for us this season

Alexis scores after combining with vidal

Chiles pressing has been impressive

Mexico committing suicide here.

3-0

Vidal will be a big miss in the semis though.

5-0

This could be anything. Mexico are doing a brazil

Mexican fans have turned against their team now.

All this with Vidal missing two gilt edged chances too.

Massacre

This Chile team would massacre the teams in the Euros w/ this performance.

7-0! 😆

GooneriC wrote:

Vargas is so good for Chile

Apparently, his mother had a stroke yesterday but told him to keep playing for Chile. Incredible performance. 

That was nice. That'll teach 'em next time they want to organise a plastic ridiculous cup like this again.

LOL. No need to punish Mexico for their homophobic fans. Karma. Useless.

Worst performance by Mexico in years. I have not seen them play so poorly. They gave up after the 4th goal..

Tbf, that's a good time to give up though

what an awesome beating chile gave mexico. beautiful.

RC8 wrote:

That was nice. That'll teach 'em next time they want to organise a plastic ridiculous cup like this again.

Isn't this organised by USA?!

For all the complains it didnt look like they gained anything on the pitch anyway.

Chile team is great to watch, Vargas always performs. Is he any good for Hoffenheim(?). Never see him wishlisted.

He's been dreadful for them. It's a constant in Vargas' career, always looks like a pub player at every one of his clubs but world class for Chile.

Also Messi is taking the piss in this tournament, seems to have made a habit of nutmegging keepers

jones wrote:

He's been dreadful for them. It's a constant in Vargas' career, always looks like a pub player at every one of his clubs but world class for Chile.

I just think he's one of those player types who no longer have a place in modern European football. Everyone plays him on the wing at club level whereas Chile stick him up front. The one striker nonsense has well and truly fucked us all over. It's not like Vargas scores against a bunch of blueberry nations either; he regularly racks up good performances against some of the best national sides out there. I suspect he's going to be very prolific the day he returns to South America.

You may call it nonsense, but clubs started using a lone striker because of one thing - it worked better.

Worked better for who, exactly?

Yea, it's a symptom of the pressure and fear of losing in the modern game. What we're seeing these days is a far cry from Herrera's Catennacio, it's not about any kind of defensive style, winning, or entertainment. It's about not losing, because not losing is rewarded so highly these days.

I don't want it to go the way of American sports, where a draw is seen as some kind of abomination, but there is no reason anymore for any team, big or small, to just come out and play.

Klaus wrote:

Worked better for who, exactly?

For those who use it of course. They probably went from two forwards to one for the same reason as they once went from four forwards to two. To increase their chances of winning. Do you not believe that is the reason? 

Klaus wrote:

Worked better for who, exactly?

For the most part, it has worked better for teams that use 4/3/3 or 4/2/3/1 against teams that want to use 2 strikers.

Klaus wrote:
jones wrote:

He's been dreadful for them. It's a constant in Vargas' career, always looks like a pub player at every one of his clubs but world class for Chile.

I just think he's one of those player types who no longer have a place in modern European football. Everyone plays him on the wing at club level whereas Chile stick him up front. The one striker nonsense has well and truly fucked us all over. It's not like Vargas scores against a bunch of blueberry nations either; he regularly racks up good performances against some of the best national sides out there. I suspect he's going to be very prolific the day he returns to South America.

Vargas' problem isn't his position on the pitch but that he clearly doesn't give a fuck when he's not playing for Chile. Might well be that he's better in a 4-4-2 but it's not an excuse for the disgraceful attitude he's had at a number of clubs now.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
Klaus wrote:

Worked better for who, exactly?

For those who use it of course. They probably went from two forwards to one for the same reason as they once went from four forwards to two. To increase their chances of winning. Do you not believe that is the reason? 

Of course I don't. It's a compromise to suit the dominant system of the last 8 years. If the game just evolved to copy what's successful you'd see plenty of Messis around, but it doesn't. It evolves as a reaction to what's successful.

The reason most teams went from two strikers to one is because European clubs started to prioritise movement off the ball instead of skills on it. That's your best bet to stop an opponent you can't match for quality. You run longer, tackle harder, and nullify the space on the field. Athleticism and hard workers are always going to be more important than outstanding quality to teams like that. The second striker was removed and people started sticking a midfielder as a playmaker up there instead. To compensate they also put an extra defensive midfielder in the Makelele role in the other end, whose sole job was to sweep up anything that got inside his little 10x10 feet square.

As a consequence both second strikers and central midfielders are on the brink of extinction. And for the most part it has left us with less creative and much less entertaining football. It has also completely killed the development of top strikers in Europe. The ones who aren't physical enough to cut it up front alone get stuck on the flank where their attributes are usually wasted. Meanwhile the transfer fees for any half decent goalscorer out there are through the roof. It's pretty much the definition of painting yourself into a corner.

I think that if clubs got better results with two strikers than with one, they'd play with two.

Hilarious defending this Copa.

argies 1 up inside the 3rd minute

Oh my word Messi's freekick...