Copa America vids: Argies shutout “el Tri” on the way to the final

Make that nine wins out of ten. Los albicelestes are on their way to the Copa America finals after beating Mexico 3-0 last night.

For approximately 44 minutes both Argentina and Mexico were evenly matched yet it was all Argies after opening the score with a volley by Gabriel Heinze at the stroke of halftime. Argentina followed with second half strikes from Lionel Messi and Juan Roman Riquelme as el Tri was outplayed despite a good run in the tourney.

--All three argentine goals were absolutely splendid and things of beauty and can be seen in the following video from argentine TV (video link):

--Argentina will face Brazil in Sunday’s final in Maracaibo. It will be a rematch of the previous Copa America final in 2004 which was one by Brazil via a penalty shootout (video link):

In other Copa America news:

• Chile’s squad is in turmoil after six players were banned for twenty international games due to an “incident” before being eliminated from the tourney.
• The Venezuelan government is defending the actions of police who were accused by the U.S. of harassing security agents assigned with the U.S. team.
• Christian Science Monitor correspondent Andrew Downie notes the role of politics in the tourney via anti-Chavez chants by some fans.
• Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez pinned the blame for his team’s semifinal loss to being given “old dressing rooms.”

Sources- NDTV, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, International Herald Tribune, YouTube, Christian Science Monitor, Guardian UK, ESPN Soccernet