September 11th was the opening day of the Copa América Femenina 2014 in Ecuador. For those of you who don't know, it's the South American Women's Soccer Championship, almost more importantly though, it's the qualifiers for the 2015 Pan-American Games, the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In case I wasn't clear enough, it's a BIG deal.
The format is completely different from men's World Cup and Olympic qualifying which are separate events. Men's South American qualification is drawn out over months of play where each team plays each other twice, once at home and once away. The men's Copa América is more for bragging rights than anything else. For the women, it's a brutal and brief tournament, with no room for error. The ten teams of the South American Football Federation (CONMEBOL) are divided into two groups, Group A and Group B. This year, you could say the split wasn't too even. Three of the top four finishers of the last Copa América in 2010 were drawn into Group B: Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, which are joined by a strong Paraguay and a not-so-strong Bolivia. Group A is made up of Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Venezuela, and Uruguay; Colombia is the only team of that group to have qualified for a Women's World Cup while the others are still up and coming. Only the top two teams of each group move on to the knockout round where the winner of one group plays the other winner to decide which teams will face off in the final on September 28th. The first and second place finishers qualify directly for the World Cup while the third place team must play a play-off with a team from CONCACAF (The USA's federation). As the host nation, Brazil is already qualified for the Olympics so only one spot remains (if Brazil finishes outside the top two, only the first place team qualifies). The entire top four qualifies for the Pan-American Games.
After losing their first game against Chile 0-1, the Argentine women redeemed themselves with two solid wins, thumping Bolivia 6-0 (with a hat trick from my friend and River Plate teammate Mariana Larroquette) and holding off a resilient Paraguay 1-0, which has kept them in the running to finish in the top two of the group. Their hopes have been especially helped by a 2-0 Brazil victory against Chile on Thursday night, which also gives Paraguay a slight chance to make it through. If Argentina wins its last match, which will be against the ever-powerful Brazilians, they have a great chance at going through, though their fate still depends on the score of the other game on the last day: Chile-Paraguay.
Well, I don't want to bore you with all the details about Argentina's chances of classification, but I did want to point something out. Not even one of Argentina's games has been broadcast on television, not even online. It's truly something CONMEBOL should be ashamed of, and there's no other way to say it. The teams participating in this tournament—I'm going to focus on Argentina since I know most of the girls—deserve the support of their countries. I would be willing to bet that 99% of Argentina doesn't even know the tournament is going on right now, yet during the men's qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil, we can be sure that not only did 99% of the country know it was happening, but it also knew Argentina's status and actively followed the progress of their national team. The only ways to follow the women's games is by listening to a radio transmission or by social media; both of which are torture.
Nervous doesn't even describe how I feel each time Argentina plays. During the game against Chile, I almost tore all my hair out—okay, I may be slightly exaggerating, but I did consider it once or twice...—and the 1-0 scoreline against Paraguay kept me anxious for the entire 90 minutes. Supporting the team long distance, with extremely limited information, is not for the faint of heart. Maybe I would still suffer watching the games online or on television, but at least I would be able to come to my own conclusions about the game and not only have to believe what someone else thinks about each player's performance. I think I already scared my parents a few times celebrating a goal, growling from frustration, or yelling about a missed shot or a save by the opposing goalkeeper.
I admit that this post is a little all over the place, without a well-defined path, but I think it's a good representation of the transmission of information (or the lack of it) regarding this tournament which will decide the next four years for each national team participating. If you get anything out of this, let it be my support for the Argentine women. We're with y'all (sorry, a little Texan just came out...)!
VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!!!
ps. I didn't forget about my promise to talk about the importance of soccer in Argentine culture... That discussion will soon arrive... I did, however, want to warn you that my next post is completely (or mostly) unrelated to soccer, but is all about my personal life, or my love life if we're trying to be precise...
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