10 facts you did not know about the tournament

Anecdotes? With 113 years of history, about the CONMEBOL Copa América is possible to write countless books with exciting stories that would make vibrate all the football lovers in the world.

Since Uruguay 1916, until the United States in 2016, here the 10 facts about the CONMEBOL Copa América you will love:  

10. Only one Cup was played by Pelé. With only 19 years, «O Rei» play the South American Championship of 1959, however, although he was accompanied by Garrincha, Didí and Zagallo, with whom he won the World Cup in 1958, Brazil couldn’t play in the same way as in Argentina.

9. The national team of Paraguay played the final of the CONMEBOL Copa América 2011 without winning not a single match. The team tied all three matches of the group stage against Ecuador (0-0), Brazil (2-2) and Venezuela (3-3); tied in the quarterfinals against Brazil (0-0) and against Venezuela in the semifinals (0-0), winning the definition on penalties. In the final, Uruguay defeated them 3-0.

   

8. Sergio Livingstone is the player who has participated the most in the tournament, after playing 34 games. The last game of the former goalkeeper was on March 28, 1953 against Bolivia. The active players with more participations in the CONMEBOL Copa América are the Argentine Javier Masherano (26), his compatriot Lionel Messi (21) and the Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo (20).

7. The Mexican Luis Hernandez scored in the 1997 edition, which was played in Bolivia, the goal number 2.000 of the CONMEBOL Copa América. It was in the match in which Mexico tied 1-1 against Costa Rica, on June 19 in Santa Cruz.

6. The CONMEBOL Copa América Centenario which was held in the United States in 2016 to celebrate 100 years of the tournament, was the first edition of the competition that took place outside the South American territory.

5. For the edition of the CONMEBOL Copa América Centenario a special trophy was designed to be delivered only when the tournament reaches 100 years, it means, until the 200^th birthday we will see a national team raising the trophy again. It is currently held by Chile.

4. For the first time in the CONMEBOL Copa América History, the tournament will use VAR technology (Video Assistant Referee). The South American football Confederation has been using this type of technology in other tournaments such as CONMEBOL Libertadores, CONMEBOL Sudamericana and CONMEBOL Recopa.

3. The first goal of the CONMEBOL Copa América was scored by the Uruguayan José Piendibene, on July 2, 1916, when the tournament was called the South American Football Championship. It was at the minute 44 of the match against Chile, which ended up winning Uruguay 4-0 at the Gimnasia and Esgrima stadium in Buenos Aires.

   

2. The Argentinian striker Martín Palermo squandered three penalties at the CONMEBOL Copa América in 1999, in Luque (Paraguay), in a game in which Colombia beat Argentina 3-0. The funny fact is that the «cafeteros» also got two penalties and squandered one. This year will be two decades of this fact.

1. Diego Armando Maradona played the CONMEBOL Copa América in 1979 with the t-shirt number 6 and not with the 10 one of the National team of Argentina. The legendary player from Argentina did not use the number 10 that was assigned to another player and made his debut in the tournament in the second match of the Albiceleste that lost 2-1 against Brazil in the Maracaná.