Dates 26 Jun 2007 – 15 Jul 2007 | Venue(s) 9 (in 9 host cities) Matches played 26 Teams 12 | |
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Similar 2004 Copa América, 2011 Copa América, 2001 Copa América, 1999 Copa América, 1997 Copa América | ||
The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held between 26 June and 15 July in Venezuela, which hosted the tournament for the first time. The defending champions were Brazil.
Contents
- Competing nations
- Venues
- Officials
- Squads
- Group stage
- Ranking of third placed teams
- Awards
- Goalscorers
- References
The competition was won by Brazil who went on to beat Argentina 3–0 in the final. Mexico took third place by beating Uruguay 3–1 in the third-place match. Brazil thus won the right to represent CONMEBOL at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Competing nations
As with previous tournaments, all ten members of CONMEBOL participated in the competition. In order to bring the number of competing teams to twelve, CONMEBOL invited Mexico and the United States, the two highest ranking CONCACAF teams in the FIFA World Rankings. Just as in every tournament since 1993, Mexico accepted the invitation without reservation. The United States, on the other hand, rejected the invitation due to scheduling conflicts with the 2007 Major League Soccer season. CONMEBOL then proceeded to invite Costa Rica, the third highest CONCACAF team in FIFA's ranking. In the end, the United States accepted the invitation.
Venues
For this Copa América, the organizing committee decided to choose eight cities to hold the tournament. Before the selection of cities, at least 14 cities presented proposal before the committee, of which they rejected proposals from Maracay, Valencia, Valera, Portuguesa and Miranda for not meeting established requirements. The cities of Barquisimeto, Barinas, Caracas, Ciudad Guayana (Puerto Ordaz), Maracaibo, Maturín, Mérida, Puerto la Cruz and San Cristóbal were selected to host the tournament. Having selected eight cities, the organizing committee reconsidered the candidacy of Barquisimeto based on the proposed new stadium for the city. Because of that, Barquisimeto was selected as the ninth host city. With nine host cities, the 2007 edition broke the previous records for host cities set by the 2004 Copa América in Peru, which used seven.
Officials
On 30 May 2007, CONMEBOL announced the list of match officials for the competition. The list included one match official from every country (except Paraguay, which had two). From these thirteen, six officiated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup: Carlos Simon, Óscar Ruiz, Carlos Amarilla, Jorge Larrionda, and Armando Archundia.
Squads
Each association had to present a list of twenty-three players to compete in the competition.
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 six 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, second and two best-placed third teams in each group qualified for the Quarter-finals.
Teams were ranked on the following criteria:
1. Greater number of points in all group matches2. Goal difference in all group matches3. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches4. Head-to-head results5. Drawing of lots by the CONMEBOL Organising CommitteeAll times are in Venezuela Standard Time (UTC-04:00).
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.
Awards
Goalscorers
With six goals, Robinho is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 86 goals were scored by 53 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.