Copa America 2015 - What you need to know.
From the 11th of June until the 4th of July, the 44th edition of the Copa América will be held in Chile. Yeah the 44th!!! The first game took place in 1916, making Copa América older than the World Cup and the European Championship.
The last Copa América was held
in Buenos Aires where the crowned champions from Uruguay were hoping to retain
their title. A tough feat for Uruguay since their star player Luis
Suárez, was suspended from 9 international matches after biting an Italian
defender at the World Cup in 2014.
The winner of the Copa América
will play in the Confederations Cup in Russia in 2017. The Confederations Cup
is a cup where 8 teams, from 6 different confederations play against each other.
The eight teams will be comprised of champions of different Leagues, plus Russia as the host country. The
winner of the Copa América will, just like Germany (winner of the World Cup),
and Australia (winner of the AFC Asian Cup) play in the Confederations Cup.
The countries who have won the
Copa América most often are Uruguay (15 times), followed by Argentina (14
times) and Brazil (8 times). Venezuela, Chile and Ecuador are the only
countries in South America that have never won the Copa América to date. Also many find
it strange that Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana have never participated in the
Copa América.
The best 5 teams in the
Copa América 2015, are predicted to be Brazil as a number one, Followed by
Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Colombia respectively.
Although Mexico isn’t
technically in South America, nor is Jamaica, they are the 2 invitational countries that the CONMEBOL (South America’s football organization) has invited
to participate in this year’s cup. (Initially this invite was extended to Japan and Mexico, but after Japan
and China both declined, Jamaica was asked to participate.
If either Jamaica (who many people deem has no chance at all) or Mexico wins the Copa América, the best team from South America will play the Confederations Cup in 2017.
