If there were musical analogies to choose from to describe Chile, the perfect one would be Patrick Cowley’s high energy “Do You Wanna Funk” featuring Sylvester, which grabs you instantaneously by the gonads and the space you groove on transforms into a makeshift disco dancing till you drop.
Matched up against is the cavernous Freddie Mercury orchestral masterpiece, “Bohemian Rhapsody” that is Messi’s Argentina, unfolding a musical odyssey in stages dripping with majestic cadences, shifting tempos, soaring lyrics, mesmerizing chorus, Brian May’s incendiary guitar, climaxing to a coda of the quietest beauty.
Chile can make history today and record its first Copa America title but it will have to stop Leo Messi who fashioned Argentina’s blistering of Paraguay in the semi-finals with three direct assists and three other goals he had a hand in. It might almost sound counter intuitive but that Argentina’s coming of age in the tournament after struggling to score goals in its previous encounters which included squeaking by Colombia on a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals. The conventional wisdom was Messi was going to score goals which was what he does at Barcelona with spectacularly monotonous regularity. He’s now 918 minutes without a goal from open play. However, the often overlooked stat is that the little genius is Barca’s leading assist man too and this past season topped La Liga with 18 assists. Messi might wear the number 10 but clearly he’s also the world’s best no. 9 which is how he found himself drawing the Guarani like flies letting Marcos Rojo, Javier Pastore, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, and Gonzalo Higuain find their goalscoring boots.
The question for Chile is do they man mark Messi which was what Liverpool was faced with against Kaka in the 2007 Champions League final. Javier Mascherano was to be the man before Rafa Benitez decided on a committee by consensus to police the AC Milan playmaker. Will it be Gary Medel who’s Chile’s best wind up merchant now that Gonzalo Jara has gone? Or possibly Francisco Silva?
Somehow that does not seem what a Marcelo Bielsa imprint would do pondering defensive intricacies. Indeed attack is what Chile does best relying on a 4-3-1-2 with Jorge Valdivia just behind Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas and a 3 man midfield with Arturo Vidal, Charles Aranguiz, and Marcelo Diaz which is best left unlabeled and protean; switching flanks, play holding, distribute, go forward on attack, fall back. Jorge Sampaoli has indicated almost Wengerian like in his pronouncements he’s not changing anything. The three V’s have been a revelation. Valdivia has been particularly eye catching with his relays, Vidal virtually unstoppable in the box with tigerish runs and aerial abilities, and Vargas with timely goals to calm jitters. Sampaoli also has Matias “Matigol” Fernandez, Jean Beseaujour, and veteran Claudio Pizzaro in reserve.
With six players invested in feverishly paced attack, Claudio Bravo will have to be on guard as Argentina will be counterattacking through a 4-3-3 with the pacy Javier Pastore linking up with Messi to outlets Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero. For Man Utd fans, there is much to be encouraged in Di Maria’s performance, clearly this Copa has acted as a tonic and he’s back to his best, running at speed and posting rapier like crosses as he did for Real and early in his Utd career. Argentina’s lightly regarded defense has also proven its critics wrong, with Javier Mascherano having an outstanding Copa and probably relishing his tryst with Arturo Vidal once again after their CL final meeting. They will have their hands full with a full tilt Alexis Sanchez and Vidal.
Chile’s best bet would be to wear down Argentina with their unrelenting pressing, probably helped by some close to the edge disruptive tackling of the kind that Brazil used in the 2007 Copa America final to literally grind Messi and Argentina to a halt. Snatch the ball away and maybe Sanchez can weave some magic. Overcompensating for 99 years of Copa futility despite being one of the original founders carries its danger too and all it takes is a clever Messi scoop to find Di Maria for Argentina to tie Uruguay for their 15th title. Chile will be game but Argentina will prevail.
Prediction: Argentina 2 Chile 1