The Copa America 2024 is in full swing with the second-round matches almost done. Many teams have struggled to start in full gear in the tournament. With even the defending champions Argentina not being at their absolute best. But amongst everyone stands out a defiant Uruguayan side. Uruguay has now scored 8 goals and conceded just one in their opening 2 games.
La Celeste took on the Bolivians on Saturday and let’s just say that people from Bolivia would like to forget this particular Copa America outing. Uruguay dominated the whole match and had innumerable chances out of which 9 were on target with 2 skimming the goalpost. Uruguay scored 5 past Bolivia, with goals coming from Pellistri, Darwin Nunez, Maximiliano Araujo, Fede Valverde, and Rodrigo Bentancur.
Bolivia did not even get a sniff of the Uruguayan goal as their defence on the night was impossible to get through. With this massive result against bottom-placed Bolivia, Uruguay secured themselves a place in the Quarterfinals of the Copa America alongside Argentina and Venezuela. On the other hand, the Bolivians are now almost disqualified from the competition. Unless they score an absurd amount of goals on their last matchday.
Timothy Weah’s lack of professionalism puts USA in a pickle
The hosts of the Copa America 2024 Edition, had high hopes from their National team. But losing against the 43rd ranked nation in the world, Panama didn’t do their interests of making it far into the competition any good. It all started going downhill after an incident in the 18th minute of the match.
Juventus winger Timothy Weah struck a Panama defender with a right hook, befitting a boxer, off the ball with the referee not looking. But the play was called off and initially, Weah was shown a yellow card. But the subsequent VAR check was enough proof for the referee to send Weah off with a straight red. The man-down affected the match heavily as the Americans started getting dominated heavily all across the pitch. Folarin Balogun scored a screamer for the USA in the 22nd minute but that was as good as it got for the USA the whole day. Panama responded with a goal in the 26th minute. After which the scoreline remained tied up until the 83rd minute when Panama scored their second to bag the victory.
This match puts Panama in a position where they could qualify for the Ro16 ahead of the USA. The Panamanians play 84th-ranked Bolivia up next and a win against the Bolivians could help massively boost their chances of qualifications. And that’s because while the USA are above Panama for now, they play the mighty Uruguayans up next. Who are not in the mood to play around and are bashing anyone who stands in their way. On form and paper, the USA does not stand a chance against this Uruguayan side. And so, the only way for the Americans to qualify is to bring a rabbit out of the magic hat.
