Football Dispatch

Summer Football

11 July 2007

The lights went out on Uruguay's quest for a 15th Copa America title, yesterday. After 14-minutes of play in the 1st-half of Uruguay's semifinal fixture with Brazil in Maracaibo, the floodlights at the Jose Pachencha Romero Stadium failed -- leaving the players, and 40,000-spectators, in darkness. The two sides were subsequently dismissed from the field for an early half-time.

The break seemed to hurt Brazil most. Inter Milan defender Maicon had opened the scoring just prior to the power-outage; and Dunga's Selecao looked poised to ride a wave of momentum throughout the remainder of the period. As it happened, the two teams required a further 20-minutes after the re-start in order to settle. After 36-minutes, however, Deigo Forlan finally equalized for Uruguay. But the scoreline was not level for long. Real Madrid forward Julio Baptista vaulted the defending champions back into the lead just 4-minutes later.

Uruguay seemed to carry the play through much of the following half-hour. Their extended periods of possession finally paid-off in the 70th-minute as Sebastian Abreu restored equality on the scoresheet.

Neither side were particularly interested in chance-taking as the minutes ticked from the referee's watch and the spectre of penalty-kicks loomed. Forlan, recently signed by Atletico Madrid to replace the departed Fernando Torres, missed his country's first spot-kick. Robinho's corresponding goal provided Brazil the immediate advantage. And when Diego Lugano fluffed his effort, the entire Brazil squad raided the pitch in a frenzy of celebration. They may have been somewhat excessive in their revelry, however, as a bust-up involving players from both sides ensued almost immediately.

When things finally settled, Brazil manager Dunga was appropriately reflective on Brazil's turn-around at the competition. "To be a winning team," commented the football icon, "you have to know how to suffer." Brazil have been without Ronaldinho and Kaka for the duration of the tournament and relied on 23-year-old Robinho to carry them through the group-phase.

Uruguay, for their part, have now gone 12-years without a Copa America title. Ironically, that last championship came after a penalty-kick triumph over Brazil in the final in Montevideo. In 1999, Uruguay were runners-up to Brazil in Paraguay.