COPA AMERICA: Neymar's hunger could spell disaster for Lionel Messi's dream of an international trophy

By -
Brazil will be looking to win only their 10th Copa America title and also make it a consecutive title in the competition after winning the last edition, in 2019, beating Peru 3-1 in the final.

Neymar and Messi pictured in a match between Brazil and Argentina. Photo Credits: Twitter/ Planet Fútbol.

Neymar Jr. missed the tournament, after getting injured few days to the start of the competition, and now, the PSG Paris Saint Germain man is like a wounded lion, rearing for revenge.

The 29-year old forward is currently on a good form with the National Team, having been involved in nine goals in his last four games for Brazil.

His hunger for success clashes with the dream of his former Barcelona teammate, Lionel Messi, who is still hunting for a first international trophy for his country.

Messi, who turns 34 later this month has recorded several heartbreaks in the South America Nations tournament, losing all the three times he has played in the final of the competition, in 2007, 2015 and the centenario in 2016.

The six times Balon d or winner also managed a third place finish in the last edition held in 2019 and another quarter final finishing in 2011. It has been one heartbreak after another for the Barcelona captain.

The Argentine will almost be 38 in four years time, when another edition of the tournament will be played so he may not have a better chance of realizing his dream of international trophy, than in the 47th edition of the Copa America.

Neymar and Brazil have been phenomenon of late. Photo Credits: Twitter/ B/R Football.

However, the form of Neymar and Brazil will be another headache for Lionel Messi and 11 times South America champions Argentina, who last won the title in 1993.

Neymar will also be looking to win the Copa America having missed out Brazil's success last time out, and Argentina will need better lucks than they have had in recent years, in order to better their counterpart this summer.

Argentina are supposed to be the host of the tournament but was moved to Brazil few days before kick off, due to the escalating cases of COVID-19 in Argentina.

Brazil are in group B, where they will play the like of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and last year losing finalist Peru while Argentina will come up against Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and the most successful nation in the competition, Uruguay in group A.

The tournament gets underway later today, with Brazil taking on Venezuela at the National Stadium in Brasilia.


Afolabi Kehinde Hassan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ralf Rangnick proffered a permanent solution but United choose to make more casualties with Erik Ten Hag

By -
Image
Ralf Rangnick appeared to have unraveled the puzzle at Manchester United during his short stint as the club's interim manager but the hierarchy did not take heed to his priceless advice. Albeit the German did not enjoy the best of time in the helm of affairs in Old Trafford, Rangnick, who had proven to be more of a administrative minded man prior to his appointment at the club did left blueprints that could have healed the club completely. Looking back and you'll realize it could have been more worth it had speculations of him becoming the club's Director after leaving the Coaching role come to pass. Even in his early days as a professional football coach, Rangnick did not have a reputation of thriving when the stake is high but he flourishes more in an environment that gives him the avenue to build from scratch. The notion was proven truth during his time at Stuttgart, Hannover and even Schalke, where he helped all these teams finesse nightmares into glamour. His appointme
Read more

Doping in sports and the popular culprits in football

By -
Image
Doping in sports is a huge crime as it damages its credibility, and athletes are viewed to have committed an offense when they test positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PED). What is doping ? According to Merriam Webster defines doping as the use of a substance (such as an anabolic steroid or erythropoietin) or technique (such as blood doping) to illegally improve athletic performance. In sports, such action is regarded as cheat, and grave consequences always come with it. Not only that, but on the players' part and their safety, as in the long run, such substances have a long-lasting side effect on the health of the players. Why do athletes dope (take illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PED)) ? There are several reasons take illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and it also depends on the type of sports the athletes in question do. The majority of the reasons is to boost performance. Athletes are also tempted when injured and do not have enough time to recover before
Read more

A sign of what is to come but no excuse for Chelsea's late capitulation in the London derby

By -
Image
Chelsea ended a run of three straight home defeats to Arsenal in an enthralling London derby match in the Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening. While many will see it as a positive omen for the host, which is rightly so, it was very poor game management by both the players and the manager to allow the visitors snatch a point later on the night. Arsenal was there for the taking. It was the worst display by Mikel Arteta's side in recent years and despite having a two goal cushion, Mauricio Pochettino's side were unable to see out the win from a very comfortable position. Cole Palmer and Mykaylo Mudryk continue to show signs of finally settling into their rhythm under Mauricio Pochettino, much to the delight of the home support as the Blues were all over their rival from the North for the first 70 minutes in the Bridge. Both players also scored in either half, with Mykaylo Mudryk scoring his first ever Chelsea goal in the Stamford Bridge with a wonderful cross-cum-shot, which caugh
Read more