Chile has done most of what it set itself to do before the Copa America started, which was making it to the final. They are ever so close from winning their first ever Copa America title. The task at hand is not easy as Argentina is the team to beat, a team that would like to win its 15th continental title.
Chile has hosted the tournament six times, and finally this seventh occassion could be the one they were waiting for to win it all and what a better place to do it than in front of their home crowd. Over 60,000 people will be cheering for them at the Estadio Nacional making it a real fortress against La Albiceleste.
La Roja is the team that has scored the most goals in this Copa America with 13. Almost half of them came from their 5-0 victory against Bolivia in their third game of the group stage. Then in the knock out round they knocked out Uruguay and Peru by the slightest of margins. (1-0, 2-1).
Eduardo Vargas is the player with the most goals out of everyone else in the tournament. A game with so much in stake could call for Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal to play a bigger role that the one they have been playing in the last games. Their coach Jorge Sampaoli knows that their chances can really depend on them.
Claudio Bravo is showing that his great talent with Barcelona in the past season was no fluke. His performances in La Liga earned him the "Trofeo Zamora" of the Spanish league as he was the goalkeeper with the least goals received. In this Copa America, he has kept a clean sheet in three games.
Sampaoli, has been able to maintain Chile among the best teams in the planet after their great 2014 World Cup. He considers this achievement of a final in the Copa America as their biggest accomplishment in the last few years and a huge dream.. The team did not even reach the semi-finals four years ago in Argentina.
La Albiceleste also failed to reach the semi-finals four years ago. Gerardo Martino was not their coach back then and many of their players had not reached the level they have shown lately. This is arguably the best Argentinian team since the early 1990's.
Lionel Messi is their biggest star, and most of the attention has been focused on him. Many people criticize the fact that he has only scored one goal after having scored so many times with Barcelona this year. His teammates have stepped up, Sergio Aguero (3), Gonzalo Higuain (2) and Angel di Maria (2) lead Argentina's offensive efforts.
No team has had more shots on goal than Argentina with 35. Chile follows them with 27, but also no one has tried to score more times than La Pulga with a grand total of 24 shots. Argentina wants this title to tie Uruguay as the team with the most continental titles and also to heal the pain of losing the World Cup final in 2014.
Messi has stated that he would love to become the man of the match in the final and score when it matters the most. At the same time, El Tata and the rest of the team knows that as long as Argentina comes out on top, there is no reason to be sad. This will definitely be a game to watch where nobody wants to lose.
Argentina holds a better record when it comes to head to head matches. They have won 53 games, tied 21 times and lost only six. They have also outscored La Roja by 176 to 67 goals in the games played between both sides. Neither team has lost a game in this competition and a draw is not an option this saturday.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
Chile P0 - 0 Argentina
July 4, 2015 4:00pmEstadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos (Santiago de Chile)This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
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