2007 Copa América


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The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held between 26 June and 15 July in Venezuela, which hosted the tournament for the first time.

2007 Copa América
Copa América Venezuela 2007

Copa América 2007 official logo

Tournament details
Host countryVenezuela
Dates26 June – 15 July
Teams12 (from 2 confederations)
Venue(s)9 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Brazil (8th title)
Runners-up Argentina
Third place Mexico
Fourth place Uruguay
Tournament statistics
Matches played26
Goals scored86 (3.31 per match)
Attendance1,050,230 (40,393 per match)
Top scorer(s)Brazil Robinho (6 goals)
Best player(s)Brazil Robinho[1]
Best young playerArgentina Lionel Messi

← 2004

2011 →

The competition was won by Brazil (they were also the defending champions), who beat Argentina 3–0 in the final.[2] Mexico took third place by beating Uruguay 3–1 in the third-place match. Brazil thus won the right to represent CONMEBOL[3] at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.[4]

As with previous tournaments, all ten members of CONMEBOL participated in the competition. In order to bring the number of competing teams to twelve, CONMEBOL invited Mexico and the United States, the two highest ranking CONCACAF teams in the FIFA World Rankings. Just as in every tournament since 1993, Mexico accepted the invitation. The United States rejected the invitation due to scheduling conflicts with the 2007 Major League Soccer season. CONMEBOL then proceeded to invite Costa Rica, the third highest CONCACAF team in FIFA's ranking.[5] In the end, the United States accepted the invitation.[6]

For this Copa América, the organizing committee decided to choose eight cities to hold the tournament. A total of 14 cities presented proposal before the committee, of which they rejected proposals from Barquisimeto, Maracay, Valencia, Valera, Portuguesa and Miranda for not meeting established requirements. The cities of Barinas, Caracas, Ciudad Guayana, Maracaibo, Maturín, Mérida, Puerto la Cruz and San Cristóbal were selected to host the tournament. Later on, the organizing committee reconsidered the candidacy of Barquisimeto, based on the proposal of a new stadium to be built for the city. With a final nine host cities, the 2007 edition broke the previous records for host cities set by the 2004 Copa América in Peru, which used seven.

On 30 May 2007, CONMEBOL announced the list of match officials for the competition. The list included one match official from every country (except Paraguay, which had two). From these thirteen, six officiated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup: Carlos Simon, Óscar Ruiz, Carlos Amarilla, Jorge Larrionda, and Armando Archundia.

The draw for the competition took place on 14 February 2007 in the Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas.[7][8]

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
  Venezuela (hosts)
  Argentina
  Brazil 		  Ecuador
  Paraguay
  Uruguay 		  Chile
  Colombia
  Peru 		  Bolivia
  Mexico (invitee)
  United States (invitee)

Each association had to present a list of twenty-three players to compete in the competition.

The first round, or group stage, saw the twelve teams divided into three groups of four teams. Each group was a round-robin of six games, where each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same group. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat. The teams finishing first, second and two best-placed third teams in each group qualified for the Quarter-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria

Teams were ranked on the following criteria:

1. Greater number of points in all group matches
2. Goal difference in all group matches
3. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
4. Head-to-head results
5. Drawing of lots by the CONMEBOL Organising Committee
Key to colors in group tables
Group winners, runners-up, and best two third-placed teams advance to the quarterfinals

All times are in Venezuela Standard Time (UTC–4).

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
  Venezuela 3 1 2 0 4 2 +2 5
  Peru 3 1 1 1 5 4 +1 4
  Uruguay 3 1 1 1 1 3 −2 4
  Bolivia 3 0 2 1 4 5 −1 2
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
  Mexico 3 2 1 0 4 1 +3 7
  Brazil 3 2 0 1 4 2 +2 6
  Chile 3 1 1 1 3 5 −2 4
  Ecuador 3 0 0 3 3 6 −3 0
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
  Argentina 3 3 0 0 9 3 +6 9
  Paraguay 3 2 0 1 8 2 +6 6
  Colombia 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6 3
  United States 3 0 0 3 2 8 −6 0

Ranking of third-placed teams

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At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third-placed teams of each group. The two best third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals.

Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
B   Chile 3 1 1 1 3 5 −2 4
A   Uruguay 3 1 1 1 1 3 −2 4
C   Colombia 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6 3
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
          
7 July – San Cristóbal
  Venezuela 1
10 July – Maracaibo
  Uruguay 4
  Uruguay 2 (4)
7 July – Puerto la Cruz
  Brazil (p) 2 (5)
  Chile 1
15 July – Maracaibo
  Brazil 6
  Brazil 3
8 July – Maturín
  Argentina 0
  Mexico 6
11 July – Ciudad Guayana
  Paraguay 0
  Mexico 0
8 July – Barquisimeto
  Argentina 3 Third place
  Argentina 4
14 July – Caracas
  Peru 0
  Uruguay 1
  Mexico 3
 2007 Copa América Champions 
 
Brazil
8th title
 
Robinho, top scorer

With six goals, Robinho was the top scorer in the tournament. There were 86 goals scored in 26 matches, for an average of 3.31 goals per match.

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Team of the Tournament

edit

[9]

Goalkeeper Defenders Midfielders Forwards

  Doni

  Javier Zanetti
  Jonny Magallón
  Juan
  Jorge Fucile

  Júlio Baptista
  Javier Mascherano
  Juan Román Riquelme

  Robinho
  Nery Castillo
  Lionel Messi

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Eff
1   Brazil 6 4 1 1 15 5 +10 13 72.2%
2   Argentina 6 5 0 1 16 6 +10 15 83.3%
3   Mexico 6 4 1 1 13 5 +8 13 72.2%
4   Uruguay 6 2 2 2 8 9 −1 8 44.4%
Eliminated in the quarterfinals
5   Paraguay 4 2 0 2 8 8 0 6 50.0%
6   Venezuela 4 1 2 1 5 6 −1 5 41.6%
7   Peru 4 1 1 2 5 8 −3 4 33.3%
8   Chile 4 1 1 2 4 11 −7 4 33.3%
Eliminated in the first round
9   Colombia 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6 3 33.3%
10   Bolivia 3 0 2 1 4 5 −1 2 22.2%
11   Ecuador 3 0 0 3 3 6 −3 0 0.0%
12   United States 3 0 0 3 2 8 −6 0 0.0%

Global Platinum Sponsor

Global Gold Sponsor

Global Silver Sponsor

Charitable Partner

Local Supplier

The official match ball for the tournament was the Nike Mercurial Veloci. The ball was presented on 14 February 2007, prior to a friendly match played between Venezuela and New Zealand, by the president of the Venezuelan Football Federation, Rafael Esquivel, to the mayor of Maracaibo, Giancarlo Di Martino – head of the local organising committee.

 
Guaky suit manufactured by Fractal Studio, through the main cities of Venezuela

Guaky is a scarlet macaw, a bird representative of Venezuela. He wore the traditional jersey Venezuela national football team burgundy and football shoes. Under their wings the characteristic tricolor national flag, with its eight stars on their wings.

To choose the official mascot held a contest in which proposals received 4,500,000 of Venezuelan children and adolescents at a school. The winning draw corresponded to the 15-year-old Jhoyling Zabaleta.[10] The final design was commissioned to Fractal Studio, bring life and a "strong personality, cheerful and sport" that accompanied the event during its realization. The name of the pet, Guaky was subsequently elected by an online survey, where that option was a 54.17% of preferences.[11]

  • "Gol" by Venezuelan singer Juan Carlos Luces, was the main theme song of the tournament, which was performed during the draw and the opening ceremonies.[12]
  • "Baila la Copa" by Venezuelan singer Ose was an official anthem for the tournament.
  1. ^ "Copa América Best Players". RSSSF. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  2. ^ "Brazil victorious in Copa America". BBC Sport. 16 July 2007. Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
  3. ^ The South American champion, along with the European champion (the winner of UEFA Euro 2008), "will no longer be obliged to take part" in the Confederations Cup beginning with the 2009 edition FIFA.com – 2005/2006 season: final worldwide matchday to be 14 May 2006.
  4. ^ Mexico and the United States are members of CONCACAF, the governing body of North American football (which includes Central America and the Caribbean as well). Thus, they would not be allowed to represent CONMEBOL at the Confederations Cup. Had either team won the Copa América, the best-finishing South American team would have taken the place.
  5. ^ "Postergan sorteo de la Copa América 2007". Los Tiempos. 4 October 2006. Archived from the original on 14 November 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  6. ^ "Estados Unidos y México tomarán parte en la Copa América 2007". Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol. 29 May 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  7. ^ "Conmebol definió por sorteo grupos de la Copa América Venezuela 2007" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  8. ^ "Sorteo de grupos Copa América Venezuela 2007" – via www.youtube.com.
  9. ^ "El Once Ideal de la Copa América" [The Ideal Eleven of the Copa América]. La República (in Spanish). 16 July 2007. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  10. ^ "Sketch winner of the "Pet Copa America 2007"". Journal EL MUNDO. 29 June 2006. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  11. ^ "Con nombre propio". ESPN Español. 1 February 2006. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  12. ^ "Copa América 2015: las canciones del torneo desde Perú 2004 hasta hoy". Depor. 14 May 2015.