Chile is now South America's most dangerous team

Category>Football  














































































Football is strange. Chile are Copa América champions for the second time in their history ... and for the second time in the space of 12 months. And they beat Argentina in successive finals without scoring a goal. It was enough to force Lionel Messi’s shocking resignation from the national team.

 

But while much of the focus will now turn to Messi’s decision to quit, we should acknowledge Chile’s achievements. Both finals showcased a team who imposed their pace on the game and deserved to win: the games in Santiago and in New Jersey were played exactly as Chile wanted – with hard-fought, extremely intense football with no open space and no chance for some of the world’s most dangerous strikers to play freely. More importantly, it’s Argentina who changed their style in order to face Chile, not the other way around. Argentina were still cautious despite the 2-1 win over Chile in the group stages.

For Argentina, finals of major tournaments are clearly something of a problem: they’ve now lost seven consecutive finals: at the Copa América in 2004, 2007, 2015 and 2016, the Confederations Cup in 1995 and 2005, and the World Cup in 2014. Messi alone, as he stated after the game, has lost four. Worse, Argentina’s last goal in a final was Pablo Aimar’s in 2005, and it was merely a consolation in a 4-1 loss, followed by a 0-3 to Brazil (2007), 0-1 to Germany (2014) and two 0-0s against Chile (2015 and 2016).

With Brazil’s ongoing crisis and Argentina’s mental block in crucial games, Chile have become South America’s most dangerous side. If Brazil (used to) have jogo bonito, and Uruguay revered their garra (strength), Chile have become super-predators, acting like a pack of wolves rather than solo hunters. What starts as a tactical battle eventually becomes a mental one. And Chile don’t know the meaning of fear.