Argentina can officially consider itself one of the best teams in international competition.
The Argentines made history on Sunday night, beating Colombia 1-0 in extra time in the Copa America final at Miami Gardens, Fla., to become the first squad to sandwich successive Copa victories around a World Cup title.
And Argentina did so without Lionel Messi for a good portion of the match, as the superstar was forced to exit in the second half due to an apparent right ankle injury.
After winning the Copa in 2021, Argentina broke a tie with Uruguay for most tournament titles with Sunday’s victory. Making it all the more impressive is the fact that the Argentines also took the 2022 World Cup to complete the historic trio of wins.
Lautaro Martinez had the only goal in Sunday’s Copa final, scoring in the 112th minute overall to put his country in the same conversation as Spain, which had a stunning run that featured Euros titles in 2008 and 2012 surrounding a 2010 World Cup victory.
“I would have never dreamed about reaching this place,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “I’m not a fan of statistics, and the most beautiful thing is knowing that everyone’s happy.”
Before prevailing in 2021, Argentina had most recently won the Copa in 1993.
“This team continuously surprises everyone,” Scaloni said. “It overcame every difficulty during the match with a very hard opponent, a difficult opponent, without having a good first half. I think that we improved in the second half. We deserved to win in the extra time.”
Martinez, who entered the match in the seventh minute of added time, made the best of a brilliant through ball from Giovani Lo Celso to score his tournament-best fifth goal. Three of his goals came as a substitute.
Colombia’s only Copa title came in 2001 as the host nation. The Colombians had a 28-match unbeaten streak (22-0-6) come to an end on Sunday. Their last loss had been against Argentina on Feb. 1, 2022, in a World Cup qualifier.
Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo, a former Argentina national team player, had kind words for Scaloni.
“I congratulated him,” Lorenzo said. “It is a spectacular result, but now it’s not a streak. It is an era.
“We can talk about an era, and we are just starting ours. Hopefully we can play in the next final. We wish to qualify for the World Cup, but we cannot forget the recent past. We are very proud of our players. They did their best. They gave it their all.”
Colombia’s James Rodriguez, who set a Copa America record with six assists, was named the best player of the tournament.
The start of the match was delayed 82 minutes from its original 8 p.m. ET kickoff due to ticketless fans breaching the gates, forcing a lockdown of the stadium. Later, because of the swell of people trying to get in, some gates were opened to allow anyone, ticket or not, entry.
The match ended at 12:09 a.m.
Messi, 37, exited the match in the 66th minute. He went down untouched, but after medical attention, he walked off the field with his right shoe in his hand and was shown on the bench in tears.
“The truth is I’m not happy because of his ankle problem, but today finally we were able to win for him to give him joy,” Argentina midfielder Angel Di Maria said.
The injury originally occurred in the 35th minute after a hard challenge about a yard beyond the end line by Colombia’s Santiago Arias, who appeared to clip Messi in the leg before rolling on his right ankle. Messi stayed down for a few minutes before returning to the play.
“Leo is the greatest player in history. He never wants to leave the pitch,” Scaloni said. “He has a swollen ankle and wants to keep on playing. I prefer those players and his teammates see that he’s 30-something years old and he’s there and wants to contribute.
“He wants to play not because he is egotistical or selfish. He wants to continue playing because he doesn’t want to leave his teammates. He doesn’t want to leave the pitch even when he’s in that condition.”
A sellout crowd of over 65,000 on Sunday saw Colombia control the first half but come up empty.
Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was forced to make four saves in the first half and saw a shot by Jhon Cordoba kiss the outside of the left post in the seventh minute.
However, Colombia didn’t have another shot on target for the remainder of the match, finishing with four to Argentina’s six.
“We had many chances, we lacked accuracy in the finishing and they were able to score,” Lorenzo said.
Emiliano Martinez was named best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Di Maria, 36, started in his final match for Argentina, ending his 17-year international career with 145 appearances, tied for third most in club history. He was subbed out in the 117th minute.
“I dreamt it, that’s why I said it was the last Copa America and it ended here,” he said. “I dreamt that I would reach the final, I dreamt that I would win it, that I would retire like this.”
–Field Level Media
