Copa América Venezuela 2007 | |
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Copa América 2007 official logo
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Tournament details | |
Host country | Venezuela |
Dates | 26 June – 15 July |
Teams | 12 (from 2 confederations) |
Venue(s) | 9 (in 9 host cities) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Brazil (8th title) |
Runners-up | Argentina |
Third place | Mexico |
Fourth place | Uruguay |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 26 |
Goals scored | 86 (3.31 per match) |
Attendance | 1,050,230 (40,393 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Robinho (6 goals) |
Best player | Robinho |
The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held between 26 June and 15 July in Venezuela, which hosted the tournament for the first time. The defending champions were Brazil.
The competition was won by Brazil who went on to beat Argentina 3–0 in the final.Mexico took third place by beating Uruguay 3–1 in the third-place match. Brazil thus won the right to represent CONMEBOL at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
As with previous tournaments, all ten members of CONMEBOL participated in the competition. In order to bring the number of competing teams to twelve, CONMEBOL invited Mexico and the United States, the two highest ranking CONCACAF teams in the FIFA World Rankings. Just as in every tournament since 1993, Mexico accepted the invitation without reservation. The United States, on the other hand, rejected the invitation due to scheduling conflicts with the 2007 Major League Soccer season. CONMEBOL then proceeded to invite Costa Rica, the third highest CONCACAF team in FIFA's ranking. In the end, the United States accepted the invitation.
For this Copa América, the organizing committee decided to choose eight cities to hold the tournament. Before the selection of cities, at least 14 cities presented proposal before the committee, of which they rejected proposals from Maracay, Valencia, Valera, Portuguesa and Miranda for not meeting established requirements. The cities of Barquisimeto, Barinas, Caracas, Ciudad Guayana (Puerto Ordaz), Maracaibo, Maturín, Mérida, Puerto la Cruz and San Cristóbal were selected to host the tournament. Having selected eight cities, the organizing committee reconsidered the candidacy of Barquisimeto based on the proposed new stadium for the city. Because of that, Barquisimeto was selected as the ninth host city. With nine host cities, the 2007 edition broke the previous records for host cities set by the 2004 Copa América in Peru, which used seven.