Chile: 2016 Copa America Champions

Francisco Silva’s penalty kick sealed the Copa America Centenario championship for Chile with their 4-2 win on penalties following a 0-0 draw against rival Argentina Sunday night in a dramatic Final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Chile, FIFA’s fifth-ranked national team, defended its 2015 Copa America title, also won on penalties over Argentina. La Albiceleste is still seeking its first major tournament title since 1993.

After Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo stopped Lucas Biglia’s shot in the fourth round of the shootout, Chile needed only to make their fifth try to win, and Silva buried it as La Roja outscored Argentina 4-2 in the shootout. Silva’s winner came moments after Argentina superstar Lionel Messi shockingly missed over the goal.

The contentious finale of the tournament saw 35 fouls called with eight yellow cards and two red cards issued, the first red to Marcelo Diaz of Chile in the 28th minute after he collided with Messi. Consequently, Chile played with 10 men. But only for 15 minutes.

Messi was fouled several times as Chile were physical in marking the diminutive forward, and even he was shown yellow for embellishment in the 40th minute.

In the 43rd minute, the sides were evened at 10 when Argentina’s Marcos Rojo drew a straight red card for a hard tackle on Vidal. It marked the third time that players from both teams were sent off in a Copa America Final.

Before all of that drama, Argentina missed an excellent chance to take an early lead. Chile’s Gary Medel lost control of the ball deep in his team’s side of the field, and Gonzalo Higuain made a run with only the goalkeeper to beat. Higuain’s 21st minute shot trickled just wide left of the goal with Medel laying out against the post to keep the ball out of the net.

Things quieted down in the second half as far as scoring chances and whistles, but Argentina missed in the 84th minute when Messi found Sergio Aguero on the flank and Aguero skied his open shot well over the goal.

Messi missed high on a counter attack early in stoppage time and the game went to an additional 30 minutes.

Romero saved an Eduardo Vargas header in the 99th minute, then Bravo barely tipped away Aguero’s high header in the 100th.

The crowd of 82,026 was the largest to ever see a soccer match in the state of New Jersey.

Vargas didn’t score Sunday, but took the Powerade Golden Boot as leader for the tournament in goals with six. Chile’s Alexis Sanchez was awarded the MasterCard Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player, while Bravo won the Golden Glove as the best goalkeeper for the second straight tournament.

"I Can Move Mountains, I Can Work A Miracle..."

The USA gains nothing from winning the Copa America Centenario. In fact, this is actually a series of international friendlies posing as the Copa America. It's the matches in September that will really determine whether or not Jurgen Klinsmann is still our manager. I actually prefer to have Jurgen Klopp as our manager of the USMNT. Character, personality, mystique, resilient tough talk, able to work up a crowd like those college football coaches and assistants in the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, etc.

The 2-0 loss to Colombia was expected. They had actual players like Juan Cuadrado and James Rodriguez. On our national team, we have incompetent geriatrics like Michael Bradley who have no business playing international soccer anymore. The only incentive for the USA to show up at the Copa America Centenario is image purposes, to assure the locals that they have the right to wear the shirt, wear the colors and play for their country instead of sulking on a paycheck that will be coming anyway.

Very skeptical that the USMNT will take down Paraguay and Costa Rica, but the match with the Ticos would be a nice warmup match for WCQ qualification against the likes of, say, Trinidad and Tobago. A country that was unfortunate to be drawn with the States and Guatemala, but it's really Guatemala that are under the pump and need the States to do the unthinkable and get scalped by Vincy Heat.

Making the Hexagonal has been a tradition for USA and Mexico in this region. It is an iron-clad expectation because fans in both countries will pack stadiums for their respective teams during the Final Round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualification. A lot of money is also into play as a result. From the Rose Bowl, to MAPFRE Stadium, to the Azteca, to Soldier Field and the Meadowlands, the matches in the Hexagonal that involve El Tri and the USMNT are always the hottest tickets in town, and the USA are on the verge of breaking with tradition and not qualifying for the Hex, which they have done for the past few cycles, often times finishing on top of Mexico.

So this has been a cycle of regression for the USA. It takes a proper team to defeat the Nats, but it also has to do with Jurgen Klinsmann trying too hard to come up with a winning formula and not going with stability and consistency. For the time being, it is the duty of CONCACAF's second fiddle to show up at the Centenario and play for their shirts. Thw national team's image is now at stake.

Cue Uma Thurman.