Lionel Messi helped set up five goals as Argentina trounced Paraguay 6-1 in the Copa America semi-finals on Tuesday, setting up a final against hosts Chile.
Messi assisted in first-half goals by Marcos Rojo and Javier Pastore and one of Angel di Maria’s second-half goals. The Barcelona star also helped set up the final two goals by Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain.
Messi demonstrated his brilliant play-making abilities when he beat three defenders — poking the ball through the legs of one of them — in a remarkable run that culminated in Argentina’s fourth goal by Di Maria.
Photo: AFP
Striker Lucas Barrios scored the lone goal for Paraguay, who were trying to reach their second straight Copa America final after losing to Uruguay in the 2011 tournament.
In Saturday’s final, Argentina are to attempt to end a 22-year title drought to give Messi his first triumph with the national team, while Chile, boosted by the home crowd and its best generation of players in years, will be going for their first South American championship.
Argentina have not won a significant trophy since the 1993 Copa America, when Messi was six years old. Argentina were eliminated by eventual champions Uruguay in the Copa America quarter-finals at home in 2011, and lost consecutive finals to rivals Brazil in 2004 and 2007.
Photo: AFP
However, Argentina have won the previous four Copa Americas played in Chile — the last in 1991. The have also never lost to Chile in the tournament.
Argentina outplayed Paraguay during most of the match in Concepcion, controlling possession and creating scoring chances from the beginning. The team only struggled for a few minutes before halftime, but came back to crush their rivals in the second half.
Paraguay lost two key players because of injury in the first half — playmaker Derlis Gonzalez in the 26th minute and veteran striker Roque Santa Cruz in the 30th. Gonzalez was crucial in the quarter-finals against Brazil, scoring the equalizer and converting the decisive penalty in the shootout.
Rojo opened the scoring in the 15th after Messi’s free-kick into the penalty area. Paraguay defenders failed to clear the ball and Rojo easily found the net from the 6m line.
Messi than set up Pastore’s goal in the 27th by feeding him the ball in perfect position for a low shot from the top of the area.
Paraguay pulled one closer in the 43rd when striker Lucas Barrios fired a powerful left-footed shot from just outside the area after Argentina defender Nicolas Otamendi erred by trying to move the ball forward with a long pass.
Di Maria added to Argentina’s lead just two minutes into the second half after entering the area free of any defenders and scored again five minutes later, after Messi’s spectacular run past three Paraguay defenders. Pastore received the pass from Messi, but his shot was saved by Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar, and Di Maria found the open net off the rebound.
Messi also started the play that led to the fifth goal, an 80th-minute header by Aguero after a left-side cross by Di Maria. In the sixth goal, Messi poked the ball forward to set up Higuain’s close-range shot in the 83rd.
Messi nearly scored himself with a curling free-kick in the 39th that barely missed and also came close in the 68th with a close-range shot that was saved by Villar.
Paraguay have never beaten Argentina in 24 Copa America matches.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier