Tevez’s 2011 Penalty Miss & Pain of Copa America Failure Must Spur on Argentina

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 15, 2015

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The final image of the 2011 Copa America was an all-too-painful one for Argentina. Striker Carlos Tevez hammered the final nail into the coffin of the campaign with an awful penalty, ensuring that the hosts and favourites would go out at the quarter-final stage to Uruguay. Now, four years later, the Albiceleste face another do-or-die clash against their historic rivals, and again, defeat is not an option. 

"If this one goes to penalties, we are screwed," a journalist in the press box at Colon de Santa Fe's General Stanislao Lopez stadium predicted with grim certainty as the last-eight match wound to an anticlimactic close. The atmosphere in the newly renovated arena had been optimistic at the start of play, for both teams. 

The masses of Argentina fans had converged on the province to watch Tevez, Lionel Messi and the rest of the superstars expected to break the jinx of 17 years and lift the Copa America on home soil. But the hardy contingent of Celeste fanatics who had crossed the Rio de la Plata were also hopeful, as Oscar Tabarez's workmanlike troops looked to improve on the World Cup semi of a year beforehand. History would also seem to favour the underdog in the site of the 2011 crunch match. 



Nicknamed the Elephants' Graveyard, the name is a testament to the great sides who had come to Santa Fe throughout the decades expecting to roll over the Sabalero. But the likes of Boca Juniors, River Plate and even the Santos of Pele had come a cropper in the heat and intensity of the intimidating stadium. Four years ago, it was Argentina themselves who would become the latest giants to fall to the pressure. 

An early goal from Diego Perez was cancelled out rapidly by Gonzalo Higuain. Red cards for Javier Mascherano and Perez then reduced both sides to 10 men, while revealing a match which favoured physical brutality over talent and tactical nous. This played right into the hands o...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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