By Myles Palmer
ANR’s Brazilian reporter Alex Gontijo reports on Sunday’s Copa America final.
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Brazil 2 Argentina 2
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Cristian Gonzalez 20 pen, Luisao 45, Delgado 87,Adriano 93
Brazil won 4-2 on penalties
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ARGENTINA paid a very high price for a lack of concentration in the last minute of both halves of this exciting game.
They were superior to Brazil, so they will feel this pain for a long time.
This final made me think of an advertisement I once saw in the British Airways magazine, “High Life”.
There was a line that said “In business, you don´t get what you deserve, but what you negotiate….”
So the Argies paid for the lack of a serious goalscorer like Adriano.
This game was really wonderful for the spectators, but it was a tragedy for class players Zanetti, Sorin, Ayala and Kily Gonzales, who were doing their best to win something for the national team.
But not this time.
The coach, the taciturn Marcelo Bielsa, behaved like Scolari when he received his runner´s-up medal.
He took it off, showing that second and last are the same thing to him.
But, unlike Big Phil, his brother is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina.
However, diplomacy is not the strongest virtue in the Bielsa clan, as Rafael, the politician, talked on Argentinian radio about how how bad the relationship was between the coach and fans!!!
THIS COPA again showed the gulf between the fat cats of the South American game and the rest.
Even with weak sides Brazil and Argentina made the final and showed the world a spectacular game.
ARGENTINA has another a great chance to win something in football : the Olympic games are huge event here.
They have one of the best teams in the competition, and one of the most experienced.
For Brazil, the fans have now seen how good Adriano is.
Up till now it has been a national bad habit to think of Adriano as a strong striker, like a David Hirst or Mark Bright, a big man who is not skilful.
Now the fans will always remember that Adriano scored seven goals in the 2004 Copa America.
THE STORY about Barcelona wanting to sign Edu has not been reported here.
Like Arsene, Edu loves to speaks foreign languages.
He was always available to give interviews in Spanish.
This is very unusual because Edu has never lived in a Spanish-speaking place.
26th July 2004