Copa América

Tangled up in Blue · Jun 9, 2016

Uncle Leo said:
In a very packed La Bombonera, when you're clearly not a local, discretion can be the better part of valour. Never got the opportunity to chat about the geo-political situation in the South Atlantic, nor was I in any rush to!

Ha! I went there with our daughter.She was in a hurry to leave at the final whistle (a 1-1 draw with San Lorenzo,IIRC) and was negociating a ride with a taxi driver outside while a couple of ladies of the night approached me for business.

Did do a couple of cultural things associated with the war.Including, visiting the former Parque de los Ingles, now named La Parque de Las Malvinas.

Also visited the detention centre (very near River Plate's ground,where I also saw a match),where lefties were detained.Apparently, they could hear the crowd noise on World Cup match days from their cells.

There's also a new(ish) historical museum of the conflict in a park in the North of the city,near the spot where leftists were thrown into the river from helicopters,which is well worth a visit.

Tangled up in Blue · Jun 10, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/09/venezuela-uruguay-copa-america-quarter-finals

Bad news for Uruguay.

Tangled up in Blue · Jun 13, 2016

Brazil take a tumble,out of the Copa América.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/12/brazil-copa-america-handball-peru

Tangled up in Blue · Jun 14, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/14/dunga-sacked-by-brazil-after-copa-america-exit

Dunga is (predictably) the first casuality of Brazil's early Copa América exit.

manor15 · Jun 18, 2016

Jai said:
I'm disappointing it's being held in the US, which takes some of the feel of it away for me. One of the things I always enjoyed about the Copa is the stadia were delightfully shabby, the whole organisation felt slightly shambolic and the unique flavour of South America pervaded throughout everything.

It also means there's very little chance of watching many of the games. I'm an Ecuador fan (don't ask, it's a long story) and our group games KO at 3am, 3am and 12.30am UK time.

I'd love to go to a tournament one day, even though South America frightens me a bit.

Completely agree, the atmosphere has been awful in comparison and attendances have been very low compared to last year's tournament in Chile.

Kick off times are always an issue, but this year a lot of the games involving the bigger sides seem to have fallen in midweek or been the later kick off at the weekend. Although, that said, my side Argentina (another long story) play Venezuela at 1am Spanish time tonight so may be able to last the 90 minutes as it's a Saturday night.