Right, may as well do this, since there have been mentions of the 2020 Copa over on the MLS thread (because apparently North Americans feel they have ownership of the Copa these days).
There are going to be two Copas América in the next sixteen(ish) months. One from the 14th June to the 17th July this year in Brazil, and one slated for the 12th June to the 12th July next year, as CONMEBOL wants to shift the Copa over to even-numbered years (still on a four-yearly basis). The 2020 Copa will be the first to have joint hosts, and those joint hosts will be Argentina and Colombia. Yes, I said Argentina and Colombia. The other hosting offers were from the USSF (because apparently North Amer— ah I already said that, okay) and – and you'll like this – Australia. The thinking for the joint hosts was seemingly that at relatively short notice no one country is ready to put on the whole thing, and: Brazil and Chile have / will have both hosted really recently; Uruguay has possibly the biggest basket case of an FA on the continent (even by South American standards); Paraguay has one stadium, Bolivia has one stadium and is way up in the sky; Peru doesn't have the infrastructure (I'm guessing?) and Ecuador has already been confirmed as the host for 2024, and Venezeual? Bitch, please. So the plan for 2020 is to have two groups of six (why not just two groups of five, and do away with the guest participants?!) with first and second from each group going to the semis. One group is played in Colombia, one is played in Argentina, each country gets one semi, and the final will be in Argentina (which presumably means the third-place playoff in Colombia). Wikipedia suggests the opening match and the final will both be played at the Monumental, but I don't know what their source is for that.
But this, friends, is 2019, so three months out and ahead of the upcoming round of preparatory friendlies seems like a good time to get a thread rolling in readiness for this winter's tournament. Yes, I said this winter. It's going to be played in the southern hemisphere, so suck it up. Nuestro norte es el sur.
The 2019 group draw was held in December, and as ever the top seeds were Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, in spite of the facts that Argentina haven't won it since 1993 and Chile have won the last two editions in a row.
Group A
Brazil
Bolivia
Venezuela
Peru
Group B
Argentina
Colombia
Paraguay
Qatar
Group C
Uruguay
Ecuador
Japan
Chile
Top two in each group, along with the two best-ranked third-placed teams, go through to the quarterfinals.
March 2019 friendlies:
21/3
USA v Ecuador
22/3
Japan v Colombia
South Korea University(!) v Bolivia
Uzbekistan v Uruguay
Argentina v Venezuela (in Madrid)
Peru v Paraguay
Mexico v Chile
23/3
Brazil v Panama
26/3
Japan v Bolivia
South Korea v Colombia
Czech Republic v Brazil
Morocco v Argentina
Ecuador v Honduras
USA v Chile
Peru v El Salvador
Mexico v Paraguay
Main team news so far: Lionel Messi is back with Argentina for this month's friendlies, so will be expected at the Copa.
There are going to be two Copas América in the next sixteen(ish) months. One from the 14th June to the 17th July this year in Brazil, and one slated for the 12th June to the 12th July next year, as CONMEBOL wants to shift the Copa over to even-numbered years (still on a four-yearly basis). The 2020 Copa will be the first to have joint hosts, and those joint hosts will be Argentina and Colombia. Yes, I said Argentina and Colombia. The other hosting offers were from the USSF (because apparently North Amer— ah I already said that, okay) and – and you'll like this – Australia. The thinking for the joint hosts was seemingly that at relatively short notice no one country is ready to put on the whole thing, and: Brazil and Chile have / will have both hosted really recently; Uruguay has possibly the biggest basket case of an FA on the continent (even by South American standards); Paraguay has one stadium, Bolivia has one stadium and is way up in the sky; Peru doesn't have the infrastructure (I'm guessing?) and Ecuador has already been confirmed as the host for 2024, and Venezeual? Bitch, please. So the plan for 2020 is to have two groups of six (why not just two groups of five, and do away with the guest participants?!) with first and second from each group going to the semis. One group is played in Colombia, one is played in Argentina, each country gets one semi, and the final will be in Argentina (which presumably means the third-place playoff in Colombia). Wikipedia suggests the opening match and the final will both be played at the Monumental, but I don't know what their source is for that.
But this, friends, is 2019, so three months out and ahead of the upcoming round of preparatory friendlies seems like a good time to get a thread rolling in readiness for this winter's tournament. Yes, I said this winter. It's going to be played in the southern hemisphere, so suck it up. Nuestro norte es el sur.
The 2019 group draw was held in December, and as ever the top seeds were Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, in spite of the facts that Argentina haven't won it since 1993 and Chile have won the last two editions in a row.
Group A
Brazil
Bolivia
Venezuela
Peru
Group B
Argentina
Colombia
Paraguay
Qatar
Group C
Uruguay
Ecuador
Japan
Chile
Top two in each group, along with the two best-ranked third-placed teams, go through to the quarterfinals.
March 2019 friendlies:
21/3
USA v Ecuador
22/3
Japan v Colombia
South Korea University(!) v Bolivia
Uzbekistan v Uruguay
Argentina v Venezuela (in Madrid)
Peru v Paraguay
Mexico v Chile
23/3
Brazil v Panama
26/3
Japan v Bolivia
South Korea v Colombia
Czech Republic v Brazil
Morocco v Argentina
Ecuador v Honduras
USA v Chile
Peru v El Salvador
Mexico v Paraguay
Main team news so far: Lionel Messi is back with Argentina for this month's friendlies, so will be expected at the Copa.
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