Canada progresses to Copa America knockout stages

Canada managed a hot-headed goalless draw against a 10-man Chile in Orlando to move into their first-ever appearance at the quarter-finals in their Copa América debut as they became the first debutants to achieve that feat since 2004.

The North Americans did it in a group with Argentina and Peru, and the winners of the 2015 and 2016 Copa America, Chile. The tournament was totally abysmal from the Chilean point of view as they got knocked out in the first stage without scoring any goal in all three fixtures.

The Chileans needed a win to boost their chances of qualifying compared to Canada, which just needed to share the spoils to move to the next round. La Roja started with urgency as Victor Dávila almost opened the scoring. He troubled the Canadian defense, first volleying wide from Gabriel Suazo’s cross and missing the goalpost just a minute later. 

Unfortunately, the great start was dimmed by the red card shown to Gabriel Sauzo for a second booking in the 27th minute. Jesse Marsch’s side was lucky enough to get to play against ten men again, having done the same for 35 minutes against Peru on Tuesday, 

While they made that count with a victory against Peru that puts them in the advantage, they only had a near miss on Friday night as Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David combined to allow David to chip the ball over stand-in goalkeeper Gabriel Arias, who stood in for the injured Claudio Bravo.

That effort went agonizingly wide as both teams went into the break level, but after the break, Argentina scored an early second-half goal against Peru, giving Canada the opportunity to get laid back. Chi. le continued to pile the pressure but never got the breakthrough as the fixture ended goalless.

Argentina finished their fixture with a 2-0 victory thanks to a brace from Lautaro Martinez. Their next-round opponents are yet to be confirmed at the time of filling this report.