2011 Copa América

Competing nations

Both Japan and Mexico were invited to join the CONMEBOL nations in the tournament. Following a proposal by UEFA regarding national teams competing in tournaments organised by confederations different from their own, it was reported on 23 November 2009 that the two countries might not be able to take part in the 2011 Copa América. However, on 31 March 2010, CONCACAF confirmed that Mexico would be allowed to send their 2012 U-23 Olympic Team, supplemented with five over-age players. In addition to Mexico sending a weaker team than those teams sent in previous participations, eight of the Mexican players originally called to play the Copa America 2011 were suspended because of indiscipline one week before the competition started.

Japan's participation was in doubt after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, but the Japan Football Association confirmed on 16 March 2011 that they would participate. However, the Japanese FA later withdrew from the tournament on 4 April 2011 citing scheduling conflict with rescheduled J. League matches. Following a meeting with the leadership of the Argentine Football Association, the Japanese FA decided to hold off on their final decision until 15 April. The Japanese FA later announced on 14 April that they would compete in the competition using mainly European based players. The Japanese FA withdrew their team again on 16 May citing difficulties with European clubs in releasing Japanese players. On the next day, CONMEBOL sent a formal invitation letter to the Costa Rican Football Federation inviting Costa Rica as replacement. Costa Rica accepted the invitation later that day.

The following twelve teams, shown with pre-tournament FIFA World Rankings, played in the tournament:

• (10) (hosts)
• (93)
• (5) (holders)
• (27)
• (54)
• (55) (invitee)
• (68)
• (9) (invitee)
• (32)
• (49)
• (18)
• (69)

Venues

A total of eight cities hosted the tournament. The opening game was played at Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, and the final was played at Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti.

Draw

The draw for the competition took place on 11 November 2010 at 17:00 (UTC−03:00) in the Teatro Argentino de La Plata in La Plata, and was broadcast in Argentina by Canal Siete. On 18 October 2010, CONMEBOL's The executive committee decided to place the teams in pots for the draw. The draw took place when Japan was still a participant. PLEASE DO NOT REWRITE HISTORY WITH THIS SECTION BY REPLACING JAPAN WITH COSTA RICA. IF YOU DO, IT WILL BE REVERTED. THANK YOU.

Squads

Each association presented a list of twenty-three players to compete in the tournament five days before their first match. On 14 June 2011, CONMEBOL allowed for the inscription of twenty-three players for the tournament, up one player from the previous allowed twenty-two. Of those twenty-three players, three must be goalkeepers.

Match officials

The list of twenty-four referees and two extra referees selected for the tournament were announced on 6 June 2011 by CONMEBOL's Referee Commission. Two referees were chosen from each participating association:

ARG Sergio Pezzotta :Assistant: Ricardo Casas BOL Raúl Orosco :Assistant: Efraín Castro BRA Sálvio Fagundes :Assistant: Marcio Santiago CHI Enrique Osses :Assistant: Francisco Mondría COL Wilmar Roldán :Assistant: Humberto Clavijo ECU Carlos Vera :Assistant: Luis Alvarado PAR Carlos AmarillaAmarilla replaced Antonio Arias, who originally replaced Carlos Torres :Assistant: Nicolás Yegros PER Víctor Hugo Rivera :Assistant: Luis Abadie URU Roberto Silvera :Assistant: Miguel Nievas VEN Juan Soto :Assistant: Luis Sánchez CRC Wálter Quesada :Assistant: Leonel Leal MEX Francisco Chacón :Assistant: Marvin Torrentera

Extra assistants: ARG Diego Bonfa, Hernán Maidana

;Notes

Group stage

The first round, or group stage, saw the twelve teams divided into three groups of four teams. Each group was a round-robin of three games, where each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same group. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat. The teams finishing first and second in each group, and the two best-placed third teams, qualified for the quarter-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria ;Tie-breaking criteria Teams were ranked on the following criteria: :1. Greater number of points in all group matches :2. Goal difference in all group matches :3. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches :4. Head-to-head results :5. Drawing of lots by the CONMEBOL Organising Committee

However, those normal tiebreaking criterias do not apply if on the last round of group stage, two teams are playing each other and tied by points 1–4 then drew the final game and no other teams are tied. In that case, their ranking is decided by a penalty shoot-out.

All times are in local, Argentina Time (UTC−03:00).

Group A

Main article: 2011 Copa América Group A

Group B

Main article: 2011 Copa América Group B

Group C

Main article: 2011 Copa América Group C

Ranking of third-placed teams

At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third-placed teams of each group. The two best third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals.

Knockout stage

Main article: 2011 Copa América knockout stage

Different from previous tournaments, in the knockout stage, 30 minutes of extra time were played if any match finished tied after regulation (previously the match would go straight to a penalty shoot-out). This was the first time in the history of the tournament where the knockout stage did not include any invited teams, as both Mexico and Costa Rica were eliminated during the group stage. Paraguay reached the final despite not having won a single match in the competition.

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Vargas

Burdisso
Tevez
Pastore
Higuaín Suárez Scotti Gargano Cáceres

Thiago Silva
André Santos
Fred Estigarribia Riveros

Cichero

Semi-finals

Barrios
Riveros
Martínez
Verón Rey Lucena Miku

Third place play-off

Guerrero

Final

Main article: 2011 Copa América final

Forlán

Result

Goalscorers

With five goals, Paolo Guerrero of Peru was the top scorer in the tournament.

• Paolo Guerrero

• Luis Suárez

• Sergio Agüero

• Neymar

• Alexandre Pato

• Radamel Falcao

• Felipe Caicedo

• Diego Forlán

• Álvaro Pereira

• Ángel Di María

• Gonzalo Higuaín

• Edivaldo Hermoza

• Fred

• Jádson

• Esteban Paredes

• Alexis Sánchez

• Humberto Suazo

• Arturo Vidal

• Adrián Ramos

• Joel Campbell

• Josué Martínez

• Néstor Araujo

• Antolín Alcaraz

• Lucas Barrios

• Nelson Valdez

• Cristian Riveros

• Roque Santa Cruz

• William Chiroque

• Carlos Lobatón

• Juan Manuel Vargas

• Diego Pérez

• Juan Arango

• Gabriel Cichero

• Miku

• César González

• Grenddy Perozo

• Salomón Rondón

• Oswaldo Vizcarrondo

• André Carrillo (against Chile)

Statistics

Discipline

Main article: 2011 Copa América disciplinary record

Winners

Awards

• Most Valuable Player: Luis Suárez
• Top Goalscorer: Paolo Guerrero (5 goals)
• Best Young Player: Sebastián Coates
• Best Goalkeeper: Justo Villar
• Fair Play Trophy:

Man of the Match Award

• Luis Suarez

Team of the Tournament

Marketing

Sponsorship

Global Platinum Sponsor:

• LG
• MasterCard
• Santander Global Gold Sponsor:
• Kia
• América Móvil (Claro, Telcel, Telmex, Embratel, and Comcel (former) are the brands advertised.) Global Silver Sponsor:
• Canon
• Anheuser-Busch (Brahma, Budweiser, and Quilmes are the brands advertised.)
• The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola and Powerade are the brands advertised.)
• Petrobras (Lubrax is the brand advertised.) Official Supplier:
• Seara (Paty is the brand advertised.) Charitable Partner:
• UNICEF Local Supplier:
• Buenos Aires Province
• Argentina
• Gillette Web Hosting:
• UOL Host

Theme song

"Creo en América" (English: I Believe in America) by Argentine singer Diego Torres was the official theme song for the tournament. Torres performed the song during the opening ceremonies. A secondary theme song for the tournament is "Ready 2 Go" by Martin Solveig featuring Kele.

References

References

1. Steinberg, Jacob. (17 July 2011). "Brazil v Paraguay - as it happened".
2. "Brazil's four missed penalties against Paraguay & five of the most shocking shootouts of all time {{!}} Goal.com".
3. (16 August 2010). "Mexico and Japan are confirmed in the 43rd edition of the Copa America". CA2011.com.
4. (23 November 2009). "México podría quedarse sin Copa América 2011". Medio Tiempo.
5. (31 March 2010). "Mexico to send Olympic Team". Associated Press.
6. (14 March 2011). "World Football – J.League postponed, Copa in doubt". [[Eurosport]].
7. (16 March 2011). "Japón confirma a Conmebol su participación en la Copa América". sport.es.
8. (4 April 2011). "Japón no jugará la Copa América". [[ESPN Deportes]].
9. (3 April 2011). "Japan Set to Skip Copa America After Disaster". [[Yahoo!7]].
10. (5 April 2011). "Copa América: Japón tiene 10 días más". [[ESPN Deportes]].
11. (6 April 2011). "SAMURAI BLUE（日本代表）のコパ・アメリカ出場について". [[Japan Football Association]].
12. (14 April 2011). "Japan confirm Copa America participation". [[FIFA]].
13. (18 May 2011). "Japan withdraws from Copa America". [[Japan Football Association]].
14. (17 May 2011). "Japan withdraw from Copa America". CA2011.com.
15. (17 May 2011). "Conmebol {{sic". CA2011.com.
16. (18 May 2011). "Costa Rica will play the Copa America". CA2011.com.
17. (December 2021). "Costa Rica Agree to Take Japan's Place at Copa America". New York Times (Reuters) }}{{Dead link.
18. (16 August 2010). "Venues for the 2011 Copa America have been decided". CA2011.com.
19. (11 November 2010). "Draw of Copa America Argentina 2011 on Thursday, November 11, in La Plata". CA2011.com.
20. (11 November 2010). "Copa America draw yields intrigue". FIFA.com.
21. (9 November 2010). "Se viene el sorteo de la Copa". [[Olé (sports newspaper).
22. (21 October 2010). "Copa America 2011: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay heads of series". CA2011.com.
23. (14 June 2011). "The 2011 Copa America's national teams will be able to take 23 players to the competition". CA2011.com.
24. (7 June 2011). "Referees for Copa America appointed". CA2011.com.
25. (6 June 2011). "Copa América: fueron nombrados los árbitros para el torneo". [[CONMEBOL]].
26. (20 June 2011). "Referee Carlos Amarilla will replace Carlos Torres in the 2011 Copa America". CA2011.com.
27. (11 November 2010). "2011 Copa America groups defined". CA2011.com.
28. [http://www.conmebol.com/export/sites/conmebol/Docs/Copa_America_2011/Reglamento_Copa_America_Argentina_2011.pdf Official regulations] {{Webarchive. link. (30 June 2011 {{in lang). es
29. "Regulations". CA2011.com.
30. (11 November 2010). "Announced the official regulations of 2011 Copa América". CA2011.com.
31. (8 June 2015). "Así fue el equipo ideal de la Copa América 2011: ¿cuál será el del 2015?".
32. link. (5 July 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2001.2002)Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
33. link. (30 April 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
34. link. (30 April 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
35. link. (5 July 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
36. link. (23 June 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
37. link. (7 August 2012 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
38. link. (23 June 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
39. link. (11 June 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
40. link. (5 July 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
41. link. (6 May 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
42. link. (7 August 2012 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
43. link. (5 July 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
44. link. (6 July 2011 . Ca2011.com (22 July 2002). Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)
45. [http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/68350/diego-torres-presents-official-copa-am%C3%A9rica-song-at-obelisk Diego Torres presents official Copa América song at Obelisk]. ''Buenos Aires Herald''. 27 May 2011
46. [http://getinpr.com/index.php/2011/07/copa-america-designates-martin-solveigs-ready-2-go-as-official-club-anthem-for-2011-tournament/ Home. Get In!] {{Webarchive. link. (26 February 2014 . Getinpr.com. Retrieved on 25 May 2014.)