With 21 of the 26 players who became world champions in Qatar 2022the argentine national team Not only does she emerge as the great favorite in Group A, but as the main candidate to win the Copa América USA 2024.
If the predictions come true, the albiceleste will retain its crown that it won in Brazil 2021, will be proclaimed two-time champion and will become the tournament’s champion with 16 cup wins, one more than Uruguay.
Beyond keeping the men who gave him the 2022 title, the interesting thing is that coach Lionel Scaloni has a young squad because his main objective since he took over the reins of the national team after the 2018 World Cup was to renew the squad.
It is also important that the group of talents in the Argentine squad are hungry for more wins and show special interest and effort when they join the team.
Under the command of Lionel Messi, the albiceleste stands out for its good play, intense work to recover the ball and a permanent offensive approach.
Despite the youth of the squad, experience abounds. Of the 26 chosen by Scaloni, 24 play in the best European teams, only Messi himself with Inter Miami and goalkeeper Franco Armani with River Plate play in teams on the American continent.
In addition to Messi, Angel di María stands out, the main partner of the best player in the world and who announced that this will be his last tournament with the albiceleste; Alexis Mac Allister, Rodrigo de Paul and Enzo Fernández make up one of the best midfields on the planet, they stand out for their route, their removal and delivery of the ball and they give a perfect balance to the team.
In defense, Nicolás Otamendi and Cristian Romero provide enormous security and in goal Emiliano Martínez offers great guarantee.
Messi is the great creator and can feed highly effective center forwards like Julián Alvarez and Lautaro Martínez.
Chile, the threat
Now with the technical direction of Argentine Ricardo Gareca, Chile appears as an emerging force that has just beaten Paraguay 3-0 in a friendly. Peru, one of the members of Group A, had drawn 0-0 with the Guaraní team before it headed south for the clash against La Roja.
Gareca has begun to renew the Chilean team, which under the direction of Marcelo Bielsa since 2008 became one of the most powerful on the continent. It will be enough to say that with its so-called Golden Generation, the lone star team won the Copa América twice in a row, in 2015 and 2016, and in both cases on penalties against Argentina.
This precedent may weigh when both teams meet at the MetLife Stradium in New Jersey, on June 25.
Gareca’s list does not include the until now untouchables Arturo Vidal and Gary Medel, two-time champions of America, and instead there are six players who play in Argentine football.
There are also six players from the Chilean championship and the remaining 20 distributed in soccer in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Europe.
The great unknown
Canada stands out for the speed in its attack. He has a powerful, physical team. He has two key figures: Alphonso Davies, from Bayern Munich, and Jonathan David, from Lille in France.
Nobody gives Canada much of a choice, but it’s not going to be easy prey. He played in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and played a great game against the then favorite Belgium. At a decisive moment in that match he missed a penalty and that changed the fortunes of what could have been a great Cup.
That was the price of inexperience. Now the team is more mature, although in its debut it faced the toughest rival, Argentina, on June 20 at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Canadians can afford to lose to the world champions and then make life miserable for Peru and Chile.
They say that all the enthusiasm in Canada for the Copa América is focused on Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The rest of the country is more aware of ice hockey.
Full of problems
The Peruvian team arrives at the Copa América full of problems. Under Gareca’s command they advanced to the semifinals in three of the last four tournaments and in the Centennial tournament in the United States they reached the quarterfinals and were eliminated only on penalties by Colombia.
By refusing to pay him 3.8 million dollars a year more and 15 first-class tickets from Lima-Buenos Aires-Lima, the Peruvian Football Federation lost Gareca, who had more than produced everything they paid him.
In addition, Gareca qualified Peru for the first time in a World Cup after a 36-year absence and put them in a playoff that they lost on penalties against Australia.
His replacement Juan Reynoso did a poor job with the team and left it in last place in the South American World Cup qualifiers for 2026 with just two points.
With an aging team, with its 41-year-old striker Paolo Guerrero and without any serious work in the country in the promotion of talents, the outlook for the white and red team is not optimistic.
The Uruguayan Jorge Fossati had to face one last problem. Their midfield axis Renato Tapia declined to travel with the team to the Copa América because they had not paid his insurance or his monthly salary. Tapia ended his contract with Celta de Vigo of the Spanish League. When you don’t work well, problems accumulate.
