Copa America Centenario is coming to a close, with the second to last match to be played on June 25th of 2016 in University of Phoenix Stadium between Colombia and the United States National Team for the consolation prize of 3rd place. Both teams arrived to this match when they lost their respective semifinal matches, Colombia lost to the reigning Copa America 2015 champions Chile 2-0, and the USA disgraced CONCACAF by being demolished by star studded Argentina 4-0.
Jose Pekerman made himself available to the media on June 24th at the University of Phoenix Stadium, in a press conference and answered questions from local media and south american channels. He spoke about taking this match serious and wished that they had made it to the final in New Jersey.
Soccer Chronicle was able to ask a question to Jose Pekerman in regards to the quality brought on by CONCACAF. He spoke well of the US national team and Mexico’s performances in the world cup 2014 in Brasil. He says that certain results can distort the actual quality of the teams since the teams are so equal in quality in this tournament. Interestingly enough, El Profe Pekerman omitted talking about Costa Rica, whom Colombia lost to 2-3 in the last group stage match of Group A as recently as June 11th in 2016.
El Profe retired to the training grounds, to prepare for his last Match of this prestigious tournament, and below are a few game notes:
Colombia leads the series versus the USA with 11 wins, 4 ties and 3 losses.
Colombia has a 3 game winning streak in all Copa America tournaments vs the USA
Last match up result, Colombia 2-0 USA
Best performance for TEAM USA was in 1995 when they reached 4th place by losing 1-4 vs Colombia.
Clint Dempsey reached his 52nd goal for the United States, 5 away from tying Landon Donovan as all-time top scorer for the National Team.
Below is a small video of Captain of the Colombian National team James Rodriguez in practice, a day prior to the 3rd place match in University of Phoenix Stadium.
Tomorrow, the Tournament will come to a close, when Argentina faces Chile for the Copa America Centenario final. Both teams come firing at full speed ahead.