Oswaldo Vizcarrando’s headed goal in the 38th minute was waved off by the linesman, Humberto Clavijo, who appears to have spotted an infraction – possibly Salomon Rondon standing in front of Justo Villar making inadvertent contact with the header while marginally offside. Maybe a correct decision but it still does not rid the feeling of being robbed.
Paraguay rode their luck as Venezuela the far better team on attack created more goal scoring chances but had the misfortune of finding the upright three times.
In the end that disallowed goal would have made the difference between a footnote and a red letter day in Venezuelan history. As it was Paraguay who seemed to have made a killing on penalty shootouts prevailed once again as Justo Villar stopped Franklin Lucena’s shot.
There was some drama on the sidelines. Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino was ejected early in extra time for complaining and got into a verbal altercation with his Venezuelan counterpart, Cesar Farias, who signaled with his hands for his opposing counterpart to leave. After the shootout a brawl broke out between both teams as the Guarani celebrated. They make their first final since 1979 when they beat Chile in the playoffs and this is also the first time both neighbours meet in the finals.
2 comments on “Copa America 2011: Venezuela robbed of win over Paraguay”
for me it looks like an offside, as he was standing on the path of the ball directly, making it impossible for keeper to focus on the play
however, i still agree that Venezuela deserved victory especially with 3 balls on the post
well, what the team really deserves is a lot of respect for the big progress they did for the game in the last decade
practically they left the competition without losing any game (as the FIFA counts it in its stats, PKs is a tie)
N. Waleed, Venezuela was the better team and as the record shows Paraguay made it to the finals by not winning any of their matches. When you think about it football is not even Venezuela’s no 1 sport – it is baseball and then comes winning beauty pageants like Ms Universe or Ms World.