2011 Copa América

The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held in Argentina from 1 to 24 July. The draw for the tournament was held in La Plata on 11 November 2010.

2011 Copa América

Copa América Argentina 2011
Tournament details
Host country	Argentina
Dates	1–24 July
Teams	12 (from 2 confederations)
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Uruguay (15th title)
Runners-up	Paraguay
Third place	Peru
Fourth place	Venezuela
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	54 (2.08 per match)
Attendance	882,621 (33,947 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Paolo Guerrero (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Luis Suárez
Best young player	Sebastián Coates
Best goalkeeper	Justo Villar
Fair play award	Uruguay
← 2007 2015 →

Uruguay won the tournament after defeating Paraguay 3–0 in the final, giving them a record 15th Copa América title and their first since 1995. Paraguay, as the tournament runner-up, earned the Copa Bolivia; Paraguay's performance was noteworthy, as they were able to reach the finals without winning a single game in the tournament; their success in the final stages was achieved by the way of penalty shoot-outs. Brazil were the defending champions but were eliminated by Paraguay in the quarter-finals after failing to convert any of the penalties. As the tournament champion, Uruguay earned the right to represent CONMEBOL in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, held in Brazil. Despite losing to Peru 4–1 in the third-place match, Venezuela had their best ever performance in the tournament.

 

Both Japan and Mexico were invited to join the CONMEBOL nations in the tournament. Following a proposal by UEFA regarding national teams competing in tournaments organised by confederations different from their own, it was reported on 23 November 2009 that the two countries might not be able to take part in the 2011 Copa América. However, on 31 March 2010, CONCACAF confirmed that Mexico would be allowed to send their 2012 U-23 Olympic Team, supplemented with five over-age players. In addition to Mexico sending a weaker team than those teams sent in previous participations, eight of the Mexican players originally called to play the Copa America 2011 were suspended because of indiscipline one week before the competition started.

Japan's participation was in doubt after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, but the Japan Football Association confirmed on 16 March 2011 that they would participate. However, the Japanese FA later withdrew from the tournament on 4 April 2011 citing scheduling conflict with rescheduled J. League matches. Following a meeting with the leadership of the Argentine Football Association, the Japanese FA decided to hold off on their final decision until 15 April. The Japanese FA later announced on 14 April that they would compete in the competition using mainly European based players. The Japanese FA withdrew their team again on 16 May citing difficulties with European clubs in releasing Japanese players. On the next day, CONMEBOL sent a formal invitation letter to the Costa Rican Football Federation inviting Costa Rica as replacement. Costa Rica accepted the invitation later that day.

The following twelve teams, shown with pre-tournament FIFA World Rankings, played in the tournament:

A total of eight cities hosted the tournament. The opening game was played at Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, and the final was played at Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti.

Buenos Aires	Córdoba	La Plata	Santa Fe
Estadio Monumental	Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes	Estadio Único	Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López
Capacity: 65,921	Capacity: 57,000	Capacity: 53,000	Capacity: 47,000
Buenos Aires   Córdoba   Jujuy   La Plata   Mendoza   Salta   Santa Fe   San Juan		Mendoza	San Juan
		Estadio Malvinas Argentinas	Estadio del Bicentenario
		Capacity: 40,268	Capacity: 25,000
		Jujuy	Salta
		Estadio 23 de Agosto	Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena
		Capacity: 23,000	Capacity: 20,408

The draw for the competition took place on 11 November 2010 at 17:00 (UTC−03:00) in the Teatro Argentino de La Plata in La Plata, and was broadcast in Argentina by Canal Siete. On 18 October 2010, CONMEBOL's The executive committee decided to place the teams in pots for the draw.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Argentina   Brazil   Uruguay	Chile   Colombia   Paraguay	Bolivia   Peru   Venezuela	Ecuador   Costa Rica   Mexico

Each association presented a list of twenty-three players to compete in the tournament five days before their first match. On 14 June 2011, CONMEBOL allowed for the inscription of twenty-three players for the tournament, up one player from the previous allowed twenty-two. Of those twenty-three players, three must be goalkeepers.

The list of twenty-four referees and two extra referees selected for the tournament were announced on 6 June 2011 by CONMEBOL's Referee Commission. Two referees were chosen from each participating association:

Extra assistants:   Diego Bonfa, Hernán Maidana

Notes

The first round, or group stage, saw the twelve teams divided into three groups of four teams. Each group was a round-robin of three 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 and second in each group, and the two best-placed third teams, qualified for the quarter-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria

Teams were ranked on the following criteria:

1. Greater number of points in all group matches
2. Goal difference in all group matches
3. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
4. Head-to-head results
5. Penalties (Were to be taken before the final group match by two teams playing each other and tied by points 1–4. Only used as decider, if they then drew the final game.)
6. Drawing of lots by the CONMEBOL Organising Committee

All times are in local, Argentina Time (UTC−03:00).

Group A

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Colombia	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7
Argentina (H)	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5
Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
Bolivia	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1

1 July 2011
Argentina	1–1	Bolivia	Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata
2 July 2011
Colombia	1–0	Costa Rica	Estadio 23 de Agosto, Jujuy
6 July 2011
Argentina	0–0	Colombia	Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López, Santa Fe
7 July 2011
Bolivia	0–2	Costa Rica	Estadio 23 de Agosto, Jujuy
10 July 2011
Colombia	2–0	Bolivia	Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López, Santa Fe
11 July 2011
Argentina	3–0	Costa Rica	Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, Córdoba

Group B

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Brazil	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5
Venezuela	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
Paraguay	3	0	3	0	5	5	0	3
Ecuador	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

3 July 2011
Brazil	0–0	Venezuela	Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata
Paraguay	0–0	Ecuador	Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López, Santa Fe
9 July 2011
Brazil	2–2	Paraguay	Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, Córdoba
Venezuela	1–0	Ecuador	Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena, Salta
13 July 2011
Paraguay	3–3	Venezuela	Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena, Salta
Brazil	4–2	Ecuador	Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, Córdoba

Group C

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Chile	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7
Uruguay	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
Peru	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
Mexico	3	0	0	3	1	4	−3	0

4 July 2011
Uruguay	1–1	Peru	Estadio del Bicentenario, San Juan
Chile	2–1	Mexico	Estadio del Bicentenario, San Juan
8 July 2011
Uruguay	1–1	Chile	Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
Peru	1–0	Mexico	Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
12 July 2011
Chile	1–0	Peru	Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
Uruguay	1–0	Mexico	Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata

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.

Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
C	Peru	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
B	Paraguay	3	0	3	0	5	5	0	3
A	Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3

Different from previous tournaments, in the knockout stage, 30 minutes of extra time were played if any match finished tied after regulation (previously the match would go straight to a penalty shoot-out). This was the first time in the history of the tournament where the knockout stage did not include any invited teams, as both Mexico and Costa Rica were eliminated during the group stage. Paraguay reached the final despite not having won a single match in the competition.

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	July 16 - Córdoba
	Colombia	0
					July 19 - La Plata
	Peru (a.e.t.)	2
					Peru	0
	July 16 - Santa Fe
					Uruguay	2
	Argentina	1 (4)
									July 24 - Buenos Aires
	Uruguay (p)	1 (5)
									Uruguay	3
	July 17 - La Plata
									Paraguay	0
	Brazil	0 (0)
					July 20 - Mendoza
	Paraguay (p)	0 (2)
					Paraguay (p)	0 (5)
	July 17 - San Juan
					Venezuela	0 (3)			Third place play-off
	Chile	1
									July 23 - La Plata
	Venezuela	2
									Peru	4
									Venezuela	1

Quarter-finals

16 July 2011

16:00

Colombia	0–2 (a.e.t.)	Peru
	Report	Lobatón   101' Vargas   112'

Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, Córdoba

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Francisco Chacón (Mexico)

16 July 2011

19:15

Argentina	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Uruguay
Higuaín   17'	Report	Pérez   5'
Penalties
Messi   Burdisso   Tevez   Pastore   Higuaín	4–5	Forlán   Suárez   Scotti   Gargano   Cáceres

Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López, Santa Fe

Attendance: 47,000

Referee: Carlos Amarilla (Paraguay)

17 July 2011

16:00

Brazil	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Paraguay
	Report
Penalties
Elano   Thiago Silva   André Santos   Fred	0–2	É. Barreto   Estigarribia   Riveros

Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata

Attendance: 36,000

Referee: Sergio Pezzotta (Argentina)

17 July 2011

19:15

Chile	1–2	Venezuela
Suazo   69'	Report	Vizcarrondo   34' Cichero   80'

Estadio del Bicentenario, San Juan

Attendance: 23,000

Referee: Carlos Vera (Ecuador)

Semi-finals

19 July 2011

21:45

Peru	0–2	Uruguay
	Report	Suárez   52', 57'

Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Raúl Orosco (Bolivia)

20 July 2011

21:45

Paraguay	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Venezuela
	Report
Penalties
Ortigoza   Barrios   Riveros   Martínez   Verón	5–3	Maldonado   Rey   Lucena   Miku

Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: Francisco Chacón (Mexico)

Third place play-off

23 July 2011

16:00

Peru	4–1	Venezuela
Chiroque   41' Guerrero   63', 89', 90+2'	Report	Arango   77'

Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata

Attendance: 20,000

Referee: Wilmar Roldán (Colombia)

Final

24 July 2011

16:00

Uruguay	3–0	Paraguay
Suárez   11' Forlán   41', 89'	Report

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires

Attendance: 57,921

Referee: Sálvio Fagundes (Brazil)

With five goals, Paolo Guerrero of Peru was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 54 goals were scored by 39 different players, with only one of them credited as an own goal.

 

5 goals

•   Paolo Guerrero

4 goals

•   Luis Suárez

3 goals

•   Sergio Agüero

2 goals

1 goal

Own goals

•   André Carrillo (against Chile)

Discipline

Winners

2011 Copa América champions
Uruguay

Awards

 

• Most Valuable Player:   Luis Suárez
• Top Goalscorer:   Paolo Guerrero (5 goals)
• Best Young Player:   Sebastián Coates
• Best Goalkeeper:   Justo Villar
• Fair Play Trophy:   Uruguay

 

Man of the Match Award

•   Luis Suarez

Team of the Tournament

Sponsorship

Global Platinum Sponsor:

• LG
• MasterCard
• Santander

Global Gold Sponsor:

• Kia
• América Móvil (Claro, Telcel, Telmex, Embratel, and Comcel (former) are the brands advertised.)

Global Silver Sponsor:

• Canon
• Anheuser-Busch (Brahma, Budweiser, and Quilmes are the brands advertised.)
• The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola and Powerade are the brands advertised.)
• Petrobras (Lubrax is the brand advertised.)

Official Supplier:

• Seara (Paty is the brand advertised.)

Charitable Partner:

• UNICEF

Local Supplier:

• Buenos Aires Province
• Argentina
• Gillette

Web Hosting:

• UOL Host

Theme song

"Creo en América" (English: I Believe in America) by Argentine singer Diego Torres was the official theme song for the tournament. Torres performed the song during the opening ceremonies. A secondary theme song for the tournament is "Ready 2 Go" by Martin Solveig featuring Kele.