Brazil is Copa America champion

MARACAIBO: The Argentine holy trinity of Messi, Tevez and Riquelme were nailed to the cross, as if it were, by the Samba magic as the Brazilians won the Copa America final beating Argentina by three goals on Sunday night in their finest performance of the tournament in Venezuela.
Right from the first whistle, Brazil started attacking and they shot into the lead under five minutes from a thundering shot from Julio Baptista.He was in tremendous form in final clearly outplaying and overshadowing Robinho, his colleague and player of the tournament.
Though Argentina had kept the ball for most of the time, it was Brazil who played a cracker of a final attacking with their brilliant moves, deft touches and most importantly thundering finishes.
The Brazilians came in waves and the attack never ended till Alves sent the final nail in the Argentine coffin with his brilliant goal in the 70th minute.
It looked as if the Brazilians were not comfortable after they increased their lead when the Argentine captain Roberto Ayala scored an own goal when he slid to clear an Alaves pass.
A team like Brazil wouldn’t have wanted to leave the stadium with the winning goal coming from their opponent.
And in truly befitting style Alves attained salvation for his team when he fired that brilliant shot that found the far post of the Argentine goal after receiving an equally brilliant pass from Vagner Love.
It was all over for Argentina after Brazil increased its margin with Alves’ goal. It would have been an Everestian climb even for Maradona and his team from here to equalize and then pull the wind out of Brazilian’s sails.
And for Ayala’s men, they had already lost the final and looked completely lost.
Brazil played as a team, attacked as a team, moved in as a team, cut the Argentine defence collectively and in the end partied and danced together. Argentina couldn’t get the team work at all in the match.
And this was a Brazilian team without Kaka, Ronaldinho and Adriano. One wondered what would have happened if the AC Milan and Barcelona striker were around.
It was certain they would have tossed around the Argentine side with such childish callousness that would rob everyone of Ayala’s men of the game’s spirit.
First Half
Gilberto Silva missed the match for his earlier bookings and Juan kept the captain’s arm band.
It was a cracker of a final that was expected between possibly the oldest rivalries in football in Maracaibo in Venezuela.
Brazil went into the game as underdogs in the tournament but with a statistical advantage of having won 35 matches against Argentina and Argentina winning 33 times head to head. But in the Copa American cup, Argentina has won a record 15 times.
Both teams played tight football in the opening minutes of the game and Riquelme winning free kicks for Argentina. Julio Baptista sent a sensational shot into the Argentinean goal after a lovely pass from the right flank from Elano in the fourth minute and sending the Brazilian fans into a frenzy.
Argentina set up a lovely move from Heinze who release Messi who then crossed to Veron who found Riquelme in front of him and headed the ball. Riquelme fired a left shot that hit the left post in the 8th minute. This was the closest that Argentina had in the whole of ninety minutes.
Messi ran on the left flank with a blistering run in the 12th minute and later won a free kick in the 13th minute and managed to win a corner but was gathered safely by Doni. On the 14th run, Messi ran on the left and into the Brazilian defence and won a corner but went out for a throw-in.
Brazil won a corner in the 16th minute but did not threaten the Argentinean goal keeper. Maicon cut through the Argentine defence and rolled the ball from the right to the centre and was cleared by the Argentinean defence.
Robinho was quiet and Baptista was making the moves for Brazil on Sunday night along with Alves and Maicon.
In the 22nd minute Maicon delivered a cross from the left flank but Robinho couldn’t make much out of it. Tevez in the 24th minute ran on the left and delivered a cross in the middle but Brazilian defence was rock solid.
And in the 25th minute Veron delivered a cross from the right while Tevez was lurking in the middle but was too far away from the Argentine forward.
Elano was hurt during a clearance in the 30th minute and Alves replaced him as the corner was being taken while the shot couldn’t find any blue shirt in the Brazilian goal box. In the 34th minute Tevez sent a thundering shot and was saved by Doni.
The central defence of Alex and Juan has been great through out the match though both of them were booked. Gilberto Melo thundered down with his blazing run in the 38th minute trying to find Robinho but was cleared away by the Argentine defence.
An own goal by Roberto Ayala while he was trying to clear away an Alves shot put Brazil in a comfortable position in the 40th minute. Brazil has been mounting a series of attacks unlike their games in the most of the tournament. Daniel Alves and Maicon have been a lovely combination in today’s game.
Second Half
Tevez won a free-kick in the 50th minute which was taken by Riquelme that was not penetrative. He won another free kick that was cleared away for another corner.
Riquelme sent the ball directly into Doni’s hands. Gilberto and Doni were booked for time wasting. Riquelme took a lovely free kick in the 55th minute that was cleared away for a corner by Maicon.
Cambioso was replaced by Aymar in the 58th minute. Robinho was brought down and got a free kick in the 60th minute from a fairly good position but was a wasted chance.
Brazil launched a counter attack in the 61st minute but Ayala this time sent it outside to give away Brazil a corner.
Tevez lead a counterattack in the 63rd minute with three of their men taking shots but only to win a corner. Luis Gonzalez replaced Veron in the 65th minute. Julio Baptista got booked in the 67th minute.
Daniel Alves scored a superb goal in the 69th minute receiving a brilliant pass from Love. And at this time it was all over for Argentina.
Brazil mounted another attack in the 71st minute. Tevez was booked in the 75th minute for bringing down Gilberto Melo. In the 80th minute, after a brief scramble, Tevez found the net but it was an offside.
Maicon sent a lovely pass in the 84th minute from the right but couldn’t find any yellow shirt to convert.
Riquelme took a free kick almost in the dying moment of the game as Love came out of the match to send in Fernando.
Robinho came off to send in Diego in the stoppage time and by now the Brazilian bench had already started dancing off the pitch.
A few seconds later the final whistle was blown, after three minutes of stoppage time, with a pale and tamed Argentine side sadly losing out to a fantastic Brazil without even a fleeting flash of brilliance and a single bout of fight.
Scorers
Brazil 3- Argentina 0
Julio Baptisa
Roberto Ayala
Daniel Alaves