The Copa América Centenario was the centennial competition of the Copa América, a soccer tournament which is held between countries of from North and South America. The Copa América originally started in 1916; therefore the 2016 games were the Copa América Centenario or the Centennial Cup America.
The Copa América Centenario was held in ten venues across the United States, which was the first time that the cup had been held outside of South America. Usually, the Copa América is held every four years, but the Copa América Centenario was specially organised edition to celebrate the tournament’s centenary. The usual field of 12 teams was expanded to 16 for the Cup, all members of either CONMEBOL; the South American football confederation, or CONCACAF; the football confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Favourites To Win
Chile was the winners of the regular Copa América tournament which was held in 2015. They were thus the favourites to win the Copa América Centenario as well and had very favourable odds from many different bookies. The underdogs for the final match were the Argentineans, who were also Chile’s opponents in the final match the previous year. In the end, the Chileans won out against the Argentineans, after a very close penalty shootout.
Dark Horse Prediction
The dark horse for the games was Uruguay. Many NZ betting sites offered great betting odds outside bets on the South American team as they had both Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani playing up front, and Diego Godin in the back line. This presented a very strong team and coupled with the fact that they beat both Peru and Chile 2 – 2 in Brazil, they had a potentially decent chance of winning the Cup. As it turned out they didn’t even make it to the quarter finals, losing to Mexico three nil in the group D games.
Copa América Centenario MVP
The Copa América Centenario MVP, or Most Valued Player was a bet taken on who would win the Golden Ball Award at the end of the tournament. Lionel Messi was a favourite to win the award, but after missing a penalty for the first time in his career in the final of the Copa América Centenario, the award passed on to Alexis Sanchez of Chile. Sanchez was a totally unexpected MVP, awarding punters with very good payouts for those who bet on him.
Top Scorer
The top scorer is a bet on who will score the most goals during the tournament. The winner of this award is given the Golden Boot trophy. During the tournament and before it the top scorer favourite was Luis Suarez of Uruguay who had been as prolific in his goal scoring as Messi. He had scored 40 goals to date in the season before the start of the Copa América Centenario and was the only player to beat Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi to the Golden Boot. Unfortunately for Suarez the Golden Boot went to another Chilean player Eduardo Vargas, thus putting Chile at the top of the log in both goals scored as well as matches won.