The 48th edition of the Copa América is fast approaching. Defending champions Argentina will face debutant Canada in the opening match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Ahead of this summer’s highly anticipated opening match in Atlanta, let’s take a look back at the three biggest upsets in Copa América history – limiting ourselves to matches that have taken place since the start of the new millennium.
Copa América’s biggest upsets, including giant killings
2001: Brazil 0-2 Honduras
The preparation for the 2001 Copa América was chaotic, to say the least.
Due to security concerns in Colombia, CONMEBOL announced on July 1, ten days before the opening match, that the tournament had been canceled. They then reversed their decision on July 6, confirming that the competition would ultimately go ahead as initially announced.
Canada, the reigning CONCACAF champions, was about to make its Copa debut. However, during this five-day period their training camp was disbanded and Canada Soccer confirmed they would not be able to reconfigure the team in time. Costa Rica took their place.
At the same time, due to the aforementioned security concerns, Argentina withdrew from the tournament after several of its players received death threats. Honduras accepted the invitation to replace them, on the same day as the opening match, arriving with barely enough players to field a team. Unsurprisingly, they lost 1-0 to the other 11th hour substitute team, Costa Rica, just 48 hours later.
However, against all odds, Los Catrachos then beat Bolivia 2-0 and Uruguay 1-0 with Amado Guevara scoring all three goals, seeing them move into second place.
Still, no one gave Honduras a prayer against back-to-back title holders Brazil, who had also reached the last two World Cup finals. They beat Italy in 1994 before losing to France in 1998.
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Between 1995 and 2009, Brazil appeared in five Copa finals as well as three successive World Cup finals and four Confederations Cup finals. It was truly a period of domination for the Selectionalthough this has not been reflected here.
On July 23, 2001, spectators at the Estadio Palogrande witnessed an eternal upset: an own goal from Juliano Belletti followed by a decisive goal from Saúl Martínez in stoppage time saw debutants Honduras eliminated the heavyweights of Brazil 2-0 in Manizales.
The H That fairytale run came to an end three days later when they were beaten 2-0 by hosts and eventual winners Colombia in the semi-final. It is still a remarkable first appearance in the Copa for Honduras, which is reminiscent of Denmark at Euro 92, even if Ramón Maradiaga’s team could not go as far as at the end.
This is Honduras’ one and only appearance in the Copa América, with a play-off defeat to Costa Rica earlier this year, but they have certainly made the most of it.
2011: Brazil 0-0 Paraguay – 0-2 on penalties
A decade later, we are in Argentina, where Brazil is looking to win a third consecutive Copa América title for the first time ever. They beat their fiercest rivals The Albiceleste in the final of 2004 and 2007.
Led by Mano Menezes, the holders topped their group unbeaten, with a teenager named Neymar Junior scoring a brace (his first two competitive international goals) in a 4-2 win over Ecuador in Cordoba .
This meant that the Selection would face Paraguay in the quarter-finals. They were the big favorites considering Los Guaranies had not won any of their three group matches.
At this point, Brazil and Paraguay had met 76 times with the Selection winning 47. The Albirroja had only 11 victories to their name, including only four after 1968.
Nevertheless, Tata Martino’s men fought back to a goalless draw as both teams ended the evening with ten men. Lucas Leiva and Antolín Alcaraz were sent off during extra time at La Plata, and penalties were required at the Estadio Único.
Surprisingly, Brazil missed all four of their shots on goal. Elano, Thiago Silva, André Santos and Fred failed to convert from 12 yards out, meaning Paraguay were able to complete the clash despite only two conversions.
In the history of the Copa América, there have been 29 penalty shootouts, with Brazil being the only team to fail to score a single penalty shootout.
If we include the World Cup, the Women’s World Cup, the European Championships, the African Cup of Nations and the Confederations Cup, Switzerland (2006), Portugal (2017) and Spain (2022) are the only other teams to end the penalty shootout without scoring. . Even then, they each took just three shots on goal, underscoring the remarkable nature of Brazil’s exit.
Copa América Centenario 2016: Brazil 0-1 Peru
The situation would only get worse for Brazil when the Copa América Centenario arrived in 2016.
THE Selection were certainly at their lowest before this competition in the United States, failing in the quarter-finals of the last two Copa Américas. The entire nation was still recovering from Mineiraço, beaten 7-1 by Germany in the World Cup semi-final on home soil.
In an attempt to regain their former glories, Brazil re-hired Dunga as manager.
This tournament in the United States certainly didn’t go as well as their previous triumphs: they were held to a goalless draw by Ecuador at the Rose Bowl in their opening match.
Brazil only needed a draw in their final group match to advance. Remarkably, they were beaten 1-0 by Peru at Foxborough, with Raúl Ruidíaz the only scorer at Gillette Stadium.
Before this disaster in Massachusetts, the Selection were undefeated in 16 meetings with La Blanquirroja, going back 31 years, when Peru has still won only five of 52 confrontations.
The defeat saw Brazil crash out in the group stage of the Copa América, which remains the only time in 37 appearances where they have failed to reach at least the quarter-finals.
