Shocks at Copa America as big guns crash out

Brazil and Argentina crashed out of the Copa America over the weekend, continuing the trend of the 2011 tournament being one of the most unpredictable of its kind.

Both teams had performed inconsistently in the group stages, but appeared to have found their form ahead of the quarter-final stage. This proved not to be the case though as the two favourites for success in the competition crashed out.

Argentina faced Uruguay in their quarter-final clash and things started badly for them when they fell behind after five minutes. However, when Gonzalo Higuaín equalised for the hosts, they appeared to be back on track.

There were no further goals though and the game was forced to go to penalties. This made the end result a lottery and it was Uruguay that emerged victorious. They won 5-4 in the shoot-out with Carlos Tevez the man that missed for Argentina.

There as shock around the ground as the Uruguay players celebrated and they will now take on Peru in the last four.

As for Brazil, they failed to shine in attack as they were held to a 0-0 draw against Paraguay. Then, like Argentina, they were taken to a penalty shoot-out before losing out on a place in the semi-finals.

This particular shoot-out wasn’t even close with Brazil missing all four of their penalties and Paraguay scoring the two they needed. It was embarrassing for the men in Brazil Copa Shirts, that’s for sure.

Overall, this tournament has been a massive disappointment for both Argentina and Brazil. They were the stand out favourites to win the whole thing and now they will be forced to watch the semi-finals as nothing more than spectators.

There can perhaps be conclusions drawn about the focus of many of their players following a World Cup last summer and a full season in-between, but still, more would have been expected of them.

In the other two quarter-finals, it was Peru and Venezuela that progressed. As already mentioned, Peru defeated Colombia, while Venezuela pulled off a shock victory over Chile side that had impressed many up until this stage of the tournament.

So, there have been plenty of incidents in Copa America 2011 and not many of them have been as expected. We can now look forward to two entertaining semi-finals over the next couple of days.

What will happen? That’s anyone’s guess!

Related posts:

1. Brazil, the new England – Part 2
2. Brazil, the new England
3. Mixed Signals Coming From The England World Cup Odds With Second Round Elimination Expected
4. 2010 Copa Libertadores Has Its Groups
5. Brazil and Argentina finding the way not so smooth.