The Copa America Centenario group stage has come to an end, as has Uruguay’s reign as holders of the ABC World Cup. They lost their title after just the first game, losing 3-1 to Mexico.
Missing the injured Luis Suarez, Uruguay fell behind early when Alvaro Pereira headed into his own net and were then reduced to 10 men after Matias Vecino’s first-half dismissal. Mexico, who had Andres Guardado sent off in the second half, were pegged back by Diego Godin’s header before Rafael Marquez rifled home in the 85th minute and Hector Herrera nodded in a third in added time to settle the Group C contest.
The new holders, managed by Juan Carlos Osorio by the way, went on to finish top of the group with a 2-0 win over Jamaica (goals from Javier Hernandez and Oribe Peralta) and a 1-1 draw with Venezuela (Jesus Corona rescued them after going a goal down). They now face last year’s winners and former ABC World Cup holders Chile in the quarter-final in what should be a cracking game.
The winner of that will face either Peru or Colombia, whilst the other last eight ties are the USA vs Ecuador (which the States have won 2-1) and Argentina vs Venezuela. Both Colombia and Argentina have also previously won the ABC World Cup. I’ll be back with another update after the conclusion of the Copa America, and here’s the updated complete history of the competition.
