Canada vs. Argentina: Analyzing the Copa America Semifinal
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00:00Canada's the best story remaining, I think, in these soccer tournaments, whatever they
00:07call them.
00:08But, you know, certainly, as we've talked about, a little bit of luck goes into this.
00:13I think that's fair to say.
00:15Can they pull off what would be one of the bigger upsets in one of these tournaments?
00:19Yeah, they certainly are a wonderful story, Craig.
00:22You're absolutely right.
00:23And, you know, and Colombia is too.
00:25We'll talk about that in a bit.
00:26But I just don't see it here.
00:28I don't.
00:29Argentina have shown over the last few months, and really the last two years, that they are
00:35the best team in the world, not just flat out, which they are, but the best team in
00:40the world at taking punches and responding.
00:43They don't have to have their best stuff on any given night to win.
00:48We saw that against Ecuador in the quarterfinal where they were in trouble for a while because
00:54Ecuador scored a late equalizer and it sent the game to penalties in the Copa America.
00:58So there's no extra time.
00:59They go right to penalties if the game is level after the 90 minutes plus stoppage time.
01:04So that was dicey.
01:08But they have Emi Martinez in goal, who's a cheat code for penalty shootouts.
01:12So you have to beat Argentina in regular time.
01:16You've got to beat them in the 90 minutes because you're not beating Emi Martinez in
01:19the penalty shootout.
01:21So the question here is, can Canada win in 90 minutes?
01:24And I just don't see it happening.
01:26Canada played real well in the opening game of the group stage against Argentina and lost
01:31that game 2-0 because they just made a couple of schoolboy errors at the back and they couldn't
01:35finish their chances up front.
01:36You play that game against another opponent, or against the same opponent, but Argentina's
01:41not on the front of their shirt.
01:43You play that game a hundred times, Canada maybe wins ten of them because of the way
01:48that they played.
01:49If a couple chances go in, they don't concede at the back.
01:52But against Argentina, it's just such a good opponent, experienced opponent, and they don't
02:01fall short, even when they don't have their best stuff.
02:04They manage to pull it out.
02:06And I just don't see it happening.