COPA America 2024

Wow, this month sure is a marathon of soccer related writing. This is the 3rd article I’ve written this month, after one on the Euros and one on the Champions League Final.

This time, we depart Europe and head all the way over across the Atlantic ocean to our southern neighbours; South America.

The COPA America is actually the oldest still running international football tournament in the world, first played  in 1916. It is weird in the sense that it has no set timing for how often they play the tournament, with it being played every 3 or 4  years. The latest edition was 2021, and Argentina were the winners, winning it in the land of their rivals.

Exceptions:

In 2016, the exception was that it was the 100 year anniversary of COPA America. So, there had to be a special case. Despite there being an edition a year before (in 2015), CONMEBOL and CONCACAF teamed up together and made a retitled COPA America called COPA América Centenario. They hosted it in the USA and invited them, along with 5 other North American teams.

In 2019 they invited 2 Asian countries instead of 2 North American. The last edition was a historic one where there were NO invited guests. Only 10 countries, 2 groups of 5, top 4 from each group went to the Quarter Finals.

Now for 2024. There is the same format as in 2016; 16 teams, 4 groups of 4, with the top 2 from each group going on to the Quarter Finals. From there, it is a straight knockout to the Final. 

Why is it 16 this year? Well, this year marks the first tournament involving CONMEBOL or CONCACAF since the 2 associations made a historic strategic partnership in January 2023. The partnership involves USA hosting the South American Cup, as well as inviting 6 teams from North America. It is the same exact format as the 2016 competition.  

This makes up the following List : 

• Argentina

• Brazil

• Uruguay

• Paraguay

• Bolivia

• Venezuela

• Peru

• Chile

• Ecuador

• Colombia

• USA

• Canada

• Mexico

• Panama

• Jamaica

• Costa Rica

Now, to wrap up, let’s talk about some key points :

• Canada is in a TOUGH group, going against the best team in the tournament, the current title holders of both the WC and the COPA America; Argentina. They also have to go against Chile and Peru, both strong teams historically who have each won the tournament twice. However, Canada’s saving grace is that both teams have a horrible recent record in their WC qualifying. Personally though, I don’t think they will qualify. 

• The hosts USA have a fairly easy group to qualify from; however, I predict they will lose to Uruguay and clinch 2nd spot. It’s a pretty obvious guess in Group C

• There aren’t many crazy match-ups, other than maybe Uruguay versus USA, Brazil versus Colombia. Usually the intensity starts in the knockouts.

My predictions for who marks it out :

Group A :

• Argentina 1st

• Peru 2nd

Group B:

• Mexico 1st

• Ecuador 2nd

Group C:

• Uruguay 1st

• USA 2nd

Group D:

• Brazil 1st

• Colombia 2nd

It is pretty straightforward and, honestly, I would not expect many shocks. But, hey, this is football, I guess we will see.

It should be noted that despite USA being a strong team and having home advantage, never before has an invited team won the COPA America, despite there being many tournaments. The furthest was only once when Mexico reached the final and lost in 2001.

That’s it for this article. That’s it for this year, actually.  This is the final article I will write for the 2023/24 Ravens Call. Thank you so much for following and I hope you enjoyed this content. I certainly love talking about this and am really looking forward to next year!

This is Omar Mahmoud, signing off.

See you in September!