Copa America

USA 2-1 Ecuador
Bobby Wood's play led to both of USA's goals (though you'd have to go pretty far back in the replay to see his influence): the first was Jones to Dempsey for a beautiful header, the second was Dempsey's shot that Zardes finished off but both were the result of Wood getting loose in the box. Nice work, Bobby. Ecuador was able to get a lot of chances up the middle in the 2nd half that they failed to convert, but they were scary nonetheless. USA had better shore up its interior defense if they expect to advance to the Finals. USA was generally the better team, held the ball with good confidence and finished both of their best opportunities. They deserve to be in the semifinals and that's a bit of surprise really. One hopes for a good showing in any tournament (but especially when we're the home team), but slipping past Colombia and avoiding Brazil led USA into the final four, which no one would have predicted.

Colombia (4-2PKs) 0-0 Peru
Didn't see this game. Peru beat Brazil and hung a clean sheet on Colombia, not a bad tourney for those guys. Can't help feeling that Colombia hasn't played their best yet, either they bring it hardcore against Chile or they just don't get it together. We'll see.

Argentina 4-1 Venezuela
Venezuela played their hearts out but Argentina pounces on every tiny mistake. Higuan's first goal was brilliant, brilliant touch on a brilliant pass. Brilliant. The 2nd goal was a defensive flub, the 3rd goal was defensive flub and the 4th goal caught the keeper leaning the wrong way. Argentina plays with such ease, its hard to tell if they're even trying. Let's hope that laissez faire attitude leads to disappointment against USA.

Chile 7-0 Mexico
Holy frijole! Mexico rolled into this tournament as one of the favorites but they are rolling out with tire tracks all up and down 'em. This wasn't a case of Mexico having a bad game--Chile was flat out at better at everything from beginning to end (well, I guess, honestly I stopped watching at 5-0). The first goal came early, couldn't tell if it was just a lucky goal or the beginning of something bigger, felt like Mexico would rise up and respond but they did not. Chile scored a second goal right before half time (and don't forget: they had a goal called back for offsides that easily could've counted if the dude had just held his run for two seconds), from there it just become a rout. Mexico never got going, they generated no offense at all. Chile stuck in three quick ones in the 2nd half (and missed a couple more that should've done better). Dude, when you're down 5-0 and your coach is bringing in defenders, you are in serious trouble. It was getting late, I had to go, I didn't see the last two goals, I'm assuming they made Mexico look bad. This was a high level beatdown, Serena-like in just the pure domination of a good--not weak--opponent. Right now Chile is the truth.

Semifinals
USA-Argentina
Messi roams all over the place with such confidence that man-marking Argentina doesn't even seem possible. I would go with a 3-6-1 type thing with Brooks, Cameron and Beslor bunkering in front of Guzan, Beckermann in the defensive center mid like a stopper, Yedlin and Zardes free floating on the wings, Pulisic and Johnson liberally moving forward in the slots, Nagbe trying lead the counter attack to Dempsey up top. (Oops, I left out Bradley...yeah, no regrets on that mistake) USA will be without Bedoya (I think he's been USA's best mid so far) and Jones (frankly, I'm curious to see what Nagbe can do). I feel like zone coverage is the only thing that can sustain, hopefully Messi gets lost in his own freedom and USA can bomb a counter to catch the Argentine defenders playing too far up. I don't see any other way USA could even hope to score a victory here. Argentina is casually awesome, they have a lot of firepower and are expecting to win easily. USA will be forced to mix it up and that's really USA's only weapon: even we don't know what we're gonna do! Bunker, counter attack, play for a penalty and/or a draw, hope the PK's produce a miracle. I think I'm being optimistic when I say Argentina wins 2-1.

Colombia-Chile
Colombia and Mexico were sorta considered the favorites going into this tournament. No one knew what to make of Brazil (they kinda sucked) or Argentina (they've been amazing), so the smart money fell on Colombia's recent run of good form and Mexico's familiarity with USA. Chile just whomped the shit out of one of those teams, I'll go ahead and take them to beat Colombia, too. Colombia hasn't really had to be good yet so maybe they're saving it or maybe they just don't got it right now; Chile is playing the best I've ever seen Chile play, does that sustain or is that just a fluke? I'm going Chile 3-2: Colombia plays their best but Chile is no fluke. Either Chile catches Colombia showboating or Colombia rises up and plays their best game of the tournament. Either way, I'm expecting a good match.

Argentina-Chile feels like a good Final, doesn't it?