Mobile Review: Copa America Part 5 1993

Copa America Part 5 1993

The 1993 edition of the Copa America took place in Ecuador in the summer of 1993. Similar to the 1989 Edition, the games preceded the World Cup qualifiers by just weeks and naturally the participating Nations had the World Cup in the back of their mind.

The relative small Nation (in footballing terms) Ecuador had spent Millions of Dollars in refurbishing six Stadiums and in infrastructure to host these games.

This would be the first Copa with seven grounds and six venues.

Photo From: El Grafico Number 3847, 1993

(Copa America logo)

Most notably the Nation�s President Sixto Duran Ballen appeared to have a vested interest in the success of these games.

The 1993 Edition of the Copa America presented a new novelty. To increase interest and (obviously revenue), two CONCACAF nations were invited to participate.

Photo From: Historia de la Copa America

(Ecuador President Sixto Duran Ballen)

The USA and Mexico would be the first �guests� in the history of the Tournament.

The Mexicans had already qualified for the 1994 World Cup and came at the games without any undue stress. They were captained by the former Real Madrid great Hugo Sanchez (nearly 35 years old).

Their goalkeeper was Jorge Campos, the man with colorful jerseys, who could also play as a forward.

The United States were to host the 1994 World Cup and these games presented an excellent opportunity for their Manager, the Yugoslav Bora Milutinovic to test out players in much needed competitive Tournament environment (in a Nation with still no Professional League of its own).

He chose not to select some of his foreign-based regulars such as John Harkes, Eric Wynalda, Thomas Dooley and Roy Wegerle and starting goalkeeper Tony Meola was along with the squad but only as a substitute and would see no action.

For the host Nation Ecuador, this Copa America presented an ideal stage to display the progress made under their long serving Manager Dusan Draskovic (present in 1989 and 1991 Copas).

The hosts felt with the home crowd support, they could advance further than they ever had before.

In contrast to the hosts the other Nations did not present their full strength squads. As mentioned earlier, the World Cup qualifiers were the priority and many were open in that regard.

Brazil, under Carlos Alberto Parreira, presented an under-strength squad (essentially a B-side). C.A. Parreira even declared that he viewed the Copa America as a �secondary matter�. In his case he might had a point as the Copa was sandwiched between the US Cup (http://soccernostalgia.blogspot.com/2017/06/tournaments-part-8-us-cup-1993.html) and the World Cup Qualifiers (http://soccernostalgia.blogspot.com/2018/01/qualification-phase-part-seven-brazil.html).

The key players were saved for these two objectives and Parreira instead preferred to use the Copa America for experimental purposes to try out younger players. Goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel would be the only foreign-based player. The rest of the squad comprised of mostly Sao Paulo and Palmeiras players. These included a young up and coming left back named Roberto Carlos. Apart from Taffarel, Parreira selected few veterans. The most notable one, 1986 and 1990 World Cup veteran Luis Muller.

Aregntina, the Defending 1991 Copa America Champions, under Manager Alfio Basile appeared as strong as ever. They were still undefeated in three years and had won the �King Fahd Cup� and the �Artemio Franchi Cup� in the preceding months.

Up to 13 of the 1991 Copa winners were still present in the current squad. The 1991 Edition had launched Gabriel Batistuta in the International spotlight and he had confirmed his status by knocking in goals for Fiorentina and the National Team with regularity since.

They would have two key absences. AS Roma based striker Claudio Caniggia had been banned for failing a Drug Test and his suspension would end just before the 1994 World Cup in a year�s time. In addition, Argentinean super-star Diego Maradona had been re-integrated in the National Team a few months before, but he would be unavailable for this Tournament as his head was elsewhere as disciplinary issues with his club Sevilla would eventually lead to him being fired as a player.

Argentina was nevertheless a solid side captained (once again in Maradona�s absence) by Oscar Ruggeri along with 1990 penalty kick saving hero Sergio Goycoechea and Diego Simeone among others.

Colombia, with Pacho Maturana back at the helm were still loyal to their �toque� playing style of attractive play. The backbone of the squad was still intact with Carlos Valderrama skippering the side ably assisted by the likes of Leonel Alvarez and Freddy Rincon. There were some notable changes, eccentric goalkeeper Rene Higuita was out of the picture, as he was arrested after he had acted as a go between in a kidnapping incident. The new goalkeeper was Oscar Cordoba, who was not a personality like his predecessor but was considered a solid, sober type (definitely not prone to run out of his goal-line �a la Higuita�).

The new personality of the team was Faustino Asprilla. He had finished an excellent season in Italy with Parma and was billed as the team�s new Superstar.

Just like the 1991 Edition (that they hosted), Chile had no World Cup qualifiers to look forward to as they were barred from participating in the 1994 World Cup (following the 1989 firecracker incident at Rio involving goalkeeper and Captain Roberto Rojas).

Their Manager in 1991, Arturo Salah was still in charge of a side dependent on the goalscoring prowess of Ivan Zamorano (now at Real Madrid).

For Uruguay not much had changed since 1991. Their Manager Luis Cubilla was still embroiled in his feud with the foreign-based players (Enzo Francescolli, Carlos Aguilera, Ruben Sosa, Daniel Fonseca, etc).

Cubilla was also at odds with Paco Casal, the personal manager of most Uruguay star players.

Cubilla nevertheless selected �Serie A� based Francescolli, Sosa and Luis Herrera.

As far as Sosa, his club Internazionale Milano stated that he was �unreachable�.

It was also stated that he was injured, but many believed it was a �diplomatic� injury.

In any case, the trio never showed up amidst the feud and Uruguay had to once again present a relatively under-strength squad.

Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela rounded out the participants.

The addition of the two new teams (USA and Mexico) led to a change in format of the competition. The teams were placed in three Groups of four teams (in a round-robin format). The top two teams in each Group (along with the two best third placed teams) would then advance to the next round, which would be disputed in elimination format (Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third place and Final).

It had also been decided to do away with Overtimes and head straight into penalty kick shoot-out in tied matches in the knockout rounds.

Gamavision won the Television rights over Brazilian firm Traffic.

The Tournament also had many high profile observers. Pele and Cesar Luis Menotti were as part of the Media covering the matches for Television.

As a special guest, Pele even received the keys City of Guayaquil from its Mayor.

In Group A, Ecuador were grouped with Uruguay, USA and Venezuela. The matches would take place in Quito�s Estadio Ol�mpico Atahualpa and Ambato�s Estadio Bellavista.

The first round of matches in this Group took place on June 15^th and 16^th.

Ecuador kicked off the Tournament by hosting Venezuela at Quito on June 15th.

This would be a mismatch and the hosts would comfortably win (6-1) in front of their fans. The display of the hosts pleased the crowd and observers alike, even though they were facing the weakest team on the continent.

Angel Fernandez scored a double and Alex Aguinaga (who would be a stand out for the hosts) scored the sixth goal.

Venezuela�s lone reply was from Jos� Dolguetta (who surprisingly would end up as the top goalscorer of the Tournament).

Photo From: Soccer International, Volume 4, Issue 4, September 1993

(June 15, 1993, Copa America, Ecuador 6-Venezuela 1)

Photo From: France Football, Issue 2464, June 29, 1993

(June 15, 1993, Copa America, Ecuador 6-Venezuela 1)

On the following day (June 16^th) at Ambato, Uruguay hosted USA for the first ever encounter vs. a North American Nation in the Copa America.

Both squads struggled, mostly due to the high altitude (which most nations would point as a cause for general poor performances).

The Americans would lose their Libero Desmond Armstrong to injury just before halftime and his tournament was over.

He would be replaced by Jeff Agoos which led to a reshuffle in tactics for the second half. Alexi Lalas would take Armstrong�s spot as Libero. Paul Caligiuri was moved from the left back to midfield and Agoos was moved to Caligiuri�s spot at the back.

Early in the second half (50th minute), Uruguay snatched the win (1-0) when Santiago Ostolaza headed in a corner.

Photo From: El Grafico Number 3847, 1993

(June 16, 1993, Copa America, Uruguay 1-USA 0)

Photo From: France Football, Issue 2464, June 29, 1993

(June 16, 1993, Copa America, Uruguay 1-USA 0)

Photo From: Soccer International, Volume 4, Issue 4, September 1993

(June 16, 1993, Copa America, Uruguay 1-USA 0)

Despite the loss, this was USA�s best performance in the Copa and USA Manager Bora Milutinovic was satisfied with the performance. He felt USA lost due to a soliatry mistake in marking.

In a humorous episode during the match, Milutinovic was angry at his players who were not following his instructions. At one point he turned around to the armed Ecuadorian Police and jokingly told them to give him their guns because he wanted to shoot his players.

Photo From: Soccer International, Volume 4, Issue 4, September 1993

(June 16, 1993, Copa America, Uruguay 1-USA 0)

The next round of matches in the Group was days later on June 19^th. Ecuador hosted USA at Quito, while Uruguay and Venezuela faced one another at Ambato.

Milutinovic made some changes to the American squad from the previous match. Armstrong was already out injured and Cle Kooiman would start as Libero. In addition, Caligiuri, Woodring and Harbor were dropped to be replaced by John Doyle, Chris Henderson and Bruce Murray.

Ecuador confident after the high scoring win over Venezuela took the game to the Americans.

They scored twice before halftime through Ney Ra�l Avil�s (11th minute) and Eduardo Hurtado (36^th minute) and held on for their second win (2-0) and qualify for the next round.

Photo From: Soccer International, Volume 4, Issue 4, September 1993

(June 19, 1993, Copa America, Ecuador 2-USA 0)

On the same day, Uruguay�s match vs. Venezuela appeared to be a formality for the Uruguayans and the only question was just how many they would score. The match became was a rude awakening to them. How much of it was due to the high altitude/absence of foreign players/etc was hard to say.

Uruguay would fall behind twice before tying the match (2-2) with little over ten minutes remaining. Venezuela�s Jos� Dolguetta managed to score once more for Venezuela.

The final matches in this Group took place three days later (June 22^nd) at Quito. USA and Venezuela tied (3-3) one another in a very entertaining match. The Americans had taken a (3-0) lead by the 52^nd minute. Though it must be said that their second goal by Peter Vermes (39^thminute) should not have been awarded, as the ball did not seem to have crossed the line. They nevertheless appeared to be coasting for a win when they capitulated due to fatigue.

Jos� Dolguetta would score twice (65^th minute, 78^th minute, 4^thgoal overall). Venezuela�s Stalin Rivas was sent off in the 84^thminute to further disadvantage Venezuela. Despite this, Venezuela continued attacking and were rewarded with a last minute equalizer by Miguel Echenaussi.

Milutonovic was distraught after match and accepted blame for team�s performance. Despite USA�s elimination, Milutinovic was satisfied with the experience of the Tournament. He stated that he had learned much about the players and about what he could expect from certain players.