It’s not too much of a stretch to consider the 2015 Copa America, which kicked off in Chile on Thursday, to be the tale of Barcelona’s “big three”.
Just a week ago Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez were celebrating victory in the Champions League final over Juventus, completing a rare treble that also saw them win the Spanish La Liga and Copa del Rey titles. Now, having dispersed to their respective South American national sides, the focus remains on them but for very different reasons.
For Messi, the expectation is that he will lead Argentina to glory. Having reached the final of last year’s World Cup, they headed into Copa America as firm favorites with nothing but the trophy considered acceptable.
Neymar is still considered Brazil’s golden child with the whole nation praying his presence can help erase the embarrassment of that 7-1 loss to Germany in the World Cup semi-final and return the seleção to the top of world football. The fact that he missed that Cup semi-final with injury has only added to Brazil’s perception that he is the key.
As for Suárez, his absence from Uruguay’s campaign is as big a talking point as the importance of his Barcelona teammates. The former Liverpool talisman is still serving a lengthy suspension at international level for that famous chomp he landed on Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup with defending Copa America champions looking far less threatening as a result.
This is basically how we expect the tournament to play out. Despite suffering a setback over the weekend when they drew 2-2 with Paraguay in their opener, the nature of the draw – with eight of the 12 competing nations to advance to the knock-out stages – means there will almost certainly be no big shocks during the group stage. The big guns will warm to their task.
Expect Argentina to be there at the end. Brazil’s defensive frailties haven’t disappeared but won’t come across any sides as methodically efficient as Germany so they’ll go close too. Uruguay still have plenty of threats. And keep an eye on Colombia who performed so brilliantly at the World Cup on the back of the brilliance of James Rodriquez.
In the end though, it is those big three we expect will have the biggest say – present or not!
