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For anyone who thought football was over for the summer of 2011, South America had other ideas. From 1 to 24 July the ten nations of CONMEBOL, plus guests Mexico and Costa Rica, contested the 43rd Copa América in Argentina. Anyone familiar with past tournaments knew what to expect: some beautiful football, some drama, some gloriously shameless gamesmanship and plenty of spectacle on and off the pitch.
It remains, for many, the most passionate and entertaining international football on earth, and that year UK viewers could watch every game on ESPN. A guide to the competitors began with the two teams European audiences knew least about.
The format was generous to the smaller nations. The twelve teams were split into three groups of four, with the top two in each group and the two best third-placed sides going through to the quarter-finals. Eight of twelve would survive, so even a minnow could reach the knockout rounds with a draw or two and a decent goal difference. That arithmetic mattered for both teams in this preview.
Bolivia: the altitude and the counter-attack
Traditionally one of the weakest teams on the continent, Bolivia pull off the occasional shock at home, where the Estadio Hernando Siles in La Paz sits around 3,600 metres above sea level. Visitors from lower ground struggle to breathe, let alone press. In qualifying for the 2010 World Cup Bolivia thrashed Argentina 6–1 in La Paz, then were brushed aside 3–0 in Buenos Aires.
Their one Copa América title came in 1963, when the tournament was held in Bolivia. They were runners-up in 1997, when it returned to Bolivia. Away from home they had made it out of the group stage only once in two decades, reaching the quarter-finals in 1995.
Much of that mid-1990s side, led by Marco Etcheverry, the country's finest player of the modern era by some distance, had qualified for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. They lost two games, drew one and scored a single goal, against Spain in a 3–1 defeat. Etcheverry, nicknamed El Diablo, later became a star of Major League Soccer with D.C. United, but that 1994 squad set a standard no Bolivian generation has matched since.
Quinteros and his 4-5-1
The coach in 2011, the Argentine-born Gustavo Quinteros, had been part of that 1994 team. He set Bolivia up to play on the counter, hoping to pinch goals against stronger opponents, usually in a 4-5-1 that became a 4-2-3-1 in possession. Most of the squad played their football at home and were unknown to European viewers.
The big exception was Marcelo Martins, a strong, quick centre-forward who had made his name with Vitória and Cruzeiro in Brazil before joining Shakhtar Donetsk in 2008. He never really settled in Ukraine, and loan spells at Werder Bremen and Wigan Athletic came to little, but at his best he led the line superbly for his country. Ricardo Pedriel of Sivasspor, formerly of Steaua Bucharest, was another option up front. A newer call-up was the midfielder Edivaldo, Brazilian by birth but with a Bolivian mother, who had been spotted partly because he wore his nickname, "Bolivia", on the back of his club shirt.
Bolivia's problem was never really the attack. Their forwards and midfielders were capable. The defence was another matter: ageing, short of pace and vulnerable to balls played in behind, conceding in virtually every game. The quick strikers of Argentina and Colombia, both in their group, looked set to enjoy themselves.
The opening game
Bolivia were handed the tournament's opening fixture against the hosts, an obvious attempt to start the party with a home win. It did not quite go to plan. In La Plata on 1 July, Edivaldo, the man with "Bolivia" on his shirt, put the visitors ahead, and Argentina needed an acrobatic Sergio Agüero equaliser to rescue a 1–1 draw amid whistles from their own crowd. Bolivia did not win a game and went out in the group stage, but they had punctured the hosts' mood on the first night, and Argentina never quite recovered.
Martins went on to become Bolivia's record goalscorer, and the altitude of La Paz and El Alto has remained their great weapon in qualifying ever since.
Venezuela: La Vinotinto on the rise
The nickname comes from the colour of the shirt, a deep burgundy that translates roughly as red wine. For decades it was the kit of a side other teams expected to beat comfortably.
As in several Caribbean countries, baseball is Venezuela's national game. Historically the weakest team in CONMEBOL, they had never qualified for a World Cup, and their best Copa América finish was fifth, in 1967. But football had been growing. Venezuela hosted the 2007 Copa América well, and results through the 2000s improved to the point where the rest of the continent, if not yet Brazil and Argentina, had started taking them seriously.
In qualifying for the 2010 World Cup they beat Ecuador and Colombia at home, drew away to Brazil and Chile and finished eighth, above Peru and Bolivia. The young coach César Farías had a squad with a good mix of youth and experience, the core of which had grown up together, and their spirit showed. Unlike Bolivia they played an aggressive, attacking game, usually in a 4-3-3, switching to the counter only against the continent's two giants.
Arango, Maldonado and Rondón
The record caps holder José Manuel Rey had anchored the defence for more than a decade, and injury left them short of experience at the back. In attack, though, there was real class. Juan Arango, probably the greatest player the country had produced, was still captain and chief creator at 31. After years in Mexico and a spell at Mallorca, he was then at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
His passing fed Giancarlo Maldonado, Venezuela's record goalscorer at the time with 20 goals in 53 games, a well-travelled technical striker then at Atlante in Mexico who scored with flicks and dinks as well as headers and tap-ins. Out wide were Nicolás Fedor of Getafe and Salomón Rondón, who had just scored regularly for Málaga in La Liga and was attracting interest from abroad.
The most exciting prospect was the teenager Yohandry Orozco, who had become an internet sensation months earlier with a solo goal against Peru at the South American Under-20 Championship, running from his own half past at least four players before shooting into the top corner from outside the area. He had signed for Wolfsburg in January.
From group of death to semi-finals
The draw put Venezuela with Brazil, Paraguay and Ecuador, and survival looked unlikely. Instead they produced the best tournament in their history. They held Brazil 0–0, beat Ecuador 1–0 and drew 3–3 with Paraguay thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser. In the quarter-final they beat Chile 2–1.
The semi-final against Paraguay finished goalless after extra time, and Venezuela lost on penalties. They then lost the third-place match 4–1 to Peru, but fourth place was a landmark. Paraguay went on to lose the final 3–0 to Uruguay at the Monumental.
What came after
Rondón became the most famous player of that generation, with spells at West Bromwich Albion, Newcastle United and Everton in the Premier League, and he too became his country's record scorer. Yet the World Cup has still eluded Venezuela. They missed out again on the 2026 tournament, despite its expanded format, and remain the only CONMEBOL nation never to have played at the finals.
The rest of that summer's preview series covered the outsiders, Mexico and Costa Rica, the under-achievers, Colombia and Peru, and finally the giants, Argentina and Brazil. For more South American football writing, blogs such as GolGolGolGolGol covered the tournament in depth, with regular updates on the accompanying Twitter page. Those who remember the stars can try the Copa América sticker quiz, though Edivaldo's nickname is a giveaway that no sticker ever needed.