The wait is over and the Copa America 2015 will get underway with the host nation, Chile, taking on Ecuador on the 99-year-anniversary of the tournament. Chile is bringing one of its strongest teams in the last few years after a solid participation in the 2014 World Cup.
Chile will be hosting the tournament for the seventh time but has never won it. The team has been a runner-up four times and lead Group C in the 2011 edition. They were knocked out by Venezuela in the quarter-finals with a 2-1 scoreline.
The team has assembled one of the best goalkeepers in La Liga (Claudio Bravo), one of the best midfielders in Serie A (Arturo Vidal), one of the best strikers in the Premier League (Alexis Sanchez) plus other 20 very talented players to defend their country in home soil.
The team has only lost one of their four friendly matches played this year. Brazil is the only team to have beat them 1-0 in a game played at the Emirates Stadium in England. Uruguay is the only other team to have come out on top of Chile since the end of the 2014 World Cup where they made it to the round of 16.
In 2011, they opened their participation against Mexico and won 2-1. La Roja has outscored Ecuador 18-4 in the last three previous home games. Most of the hopes for Chile to keep advancing lie on what Sanchez can do. In his first season with Arsenal, he scored 16 goals in 34 games played.
Ecuador must look forward to improving a lot from
In the last 37 games between Chile and Ecuador, the visiting team has only won ten times and Chile has won the other 27. The team has a mixture of veteran and young players that make them the dark horse of the competition. An experienced Walter Ayovi leads the defense and a youn Enner Valencia is among the best players on the offensive side of the ball for Ecuador.
Ecuador is not really well known for playing very good during the Copa America. Their two best finished have been as a fourth place, with 1993 being the most recent one. Based on their FIFA Rankings, Ecuador is still not favored to win this game. They are ranked 31st and Chile finds themseleves in the top-20 (19).
Match details, result and original broadcast info
This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Follow the game on-the-go
Download our iOS and Android apps to follow soccer on-the-go. It comes packed with features - live scores, fixtures, results, tables, line-ups, stats, TV schedule and much more! Sorry, no live streaming within the app.
