The summer is drawing near, and this year’s special version of the Copa America promises to be one of the best ever. The tournament will be held in the United States, which is very different considering the tournament usually features mostly CONMEBOL countries. The Draw for the tournament was held on February 21st at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The United States as hosts, along with Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, were seeded ahead of the actual draw.
All the usual pageantry with bells and whistles were brought out for the event, including celebrities and legends of the game. The 10 CONMEBOL teams were already entered automatically, while the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Haiti, and Panama all qualified for the tournament through various methods in CONCACAF. The end result is 16 teams who will vie for the title of this special event.
Group A has the hosts, United States, in the first position automatically. Drawn alongside them in Group A were Colombia, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. This might be the toughest of the four groups, with 3 World Cup teams vying for 2 spots to the knockout round. Paraguay are the weaklings, but have been known to knock off a giant or two. This should be a fiery group for the hosts to kick off the tournament.
Group B saw Brazil as the seeded team in this group, getting an absolute gift of a draw. Ecuador have been turning some heads in World Cup qualifying, but are far from a giant in the region. Haiti and Peru round out the group, with little threat of knocking off the heavy favorites. Even if the Brazilian superstars aren’t in attendance, they still have an incredible crop of stars waiting for their chance to make an impression on the national team.
Group C has Mexico as the seeded team, along with Uruguay, Jamaica, and Venezuela. This group has an interesting mix of old school powers like Uruguay and Mexico facing off against some new blood in Jamaica. This will be an interesting group to watch, where there are plenty of unexpected things that can happen quite easily.
Group D has Argentina as the seeded team, while Chile, Panama, and Bolivia look to knock off Messi and company. This group has 4 “northern” sites for games, something the southern hemisphere teams may struggle with. Being in the summer though, the temperatures shouldn’t be too much of a problem. All four squads have had success in recent times, meaning this one should be fun to watch.
With the Olympic tournament happening around the same time, we will put off predictions until it is determined which players are playing in which tournaments.
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