Argentina is looking to advance to yet another final; while Canada, the last CONCACAF survivor in the tournament, is hoping to be a spoiler surprise and take that spot themselves next Sunday against the winner of Colombia – Uruguay.
Argentina is the overwhelming favorite tonight at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, as it seeks its pass to the final of the Copa America 2024. Canada, the last representative of CONCACAF, on the other hand, will seek to qualify for the final in its Copa America debut.
This will be a rematch of the tournament open, in which Argentina won 2-0.
The dominance of the Argentines in the opening match was clear; however, there were several occasions that Lionel Scaloni’s team could not score, in addition to the controversies that usually accompany the Argentine team.
Both teams advanced from the quarterfinals via penalties after drawing 1-1 in their respective matches. Argentina won against Ecuador, and Canada over previously unbeaten Venezuela.
Argentina could not overpower the Ecuadorian team during regulation; Although they made it 1-0 in the 36th minute from the corner and managed to maintain that lead almost to the end, the Ecuadorians managed to equalize in stoppage time, sending the match to penalties.
Lionel Messi, who was Argentina’s first penalty kicker, hit the crossbar with a “panenka” attempt, thus putting a scare into a silenced crowd reminiscent of that final against Chile in 2016.
However, goaltender “Dibu” Martínez made sure that Messi’s mistake did not have a continuing impact on the final result, with a spectacular performance, where he heroically saved penalties, securing Argentina’s advance to the semifinals.
On the other hand, the match between Canada and Venezuela was rocky and did not have many emotions. The “Maple Leafs” got the 1-0 in a play generated by an overflow by Alphonso Davies, and dominated Venezuela for the rest of the match. However, after an error by the Canadian goalkeeper, Salomón Rondón came up with the equalizer in the 64th minute, tying the score at 1-1, and sending the match to penalties.
Canada managed to score one of all its attempts, while Venezuela failed on 3 occasions, sealing their fate after previously being undefeated and leading their Group stage.
Now the Canadians meet the undefeated defending Copa America champions and will need all they can muster to keep up and make a good showing tonight with the odds stacked against them once more.
