Copa America: Wrapping up the Quarter-finals. 7/18/11.

Yesterday we saw several great games around the world as the Women's World Cup was won by Japan in penalties, and the last two games of the quarter final round of the Copa America were played. For those of you who don't remember, Brazil were facing Paraguay while Chile had Venezuela on their plates. So, to the first of these two highly-anticipated matches! Brazil and Paraguay both had several chances throughout the match but unfortunately, it will probably most be remembered for the number of cards given. Interestingly enough, things were relatively quiet on this front in the first half with only Paraguay's Enrique Vera collecting one in the 20th minute. However, in the second 45 minutes, the dams burst and the cards flowed forth. First came Brazil's Andre Santos who received a yellow in the 56th minute, just 3 minutes late Maicon received one too. But Paraguay started feeling left out I suppose, so Edgar Barreto came on in the 63rd, and collected a yellow in the 64th. Elvis Marecos pulled a similar stunt, coming on in the 70th and collecting just a minute later. Now then, at this point not one goal had been scored for either side. In fact, as the end of regulation time was reached, things were still level 0-0. So, to extra time! The 102nd minute was probably the most exciting part of this time as two red cards were shown after an ugly exchange. Brazil's Lucas Leiva and Paraguay's Antolin Alcaraz were the two men sent off. And so, we arrived at penalties. Brazil shot first, and Elano did not convert. Neither did Thiago Silva, Andre Santos, or Fred. For the opposition, Edgar Barreto was unsuccessful, but Marcelo Estigarribia and Christian Riveros both converted for Paraguay, winning them the match 2-0. Meanwhile, in San Juan, Argentina, in the Estadio del Bicentenario, Chile and Venezuela fought it out for the last semi-final position. Oswaldo Vizcarrondo opened the scoring, for Venezuela, in the 34th minute. It was a while in coming, but Chile did equalize in the 69th minute through Humberto Suazo. However, the Venezuelans weren't content with ending regulation time drawn 1-1. So, in the 80th minute, Gabriel Cichero was able to strike one for them, much to the pleasure of their fans; and the dismay of Chile's. Now, then, we have to look at an unfortunate reality of the match: the poor conduct. While the goals did flow in this game, the cards flowed just as much as they had in the Brazil v.s. Paraguay game. In the 26th Chile's Mauricio Isla collected a yellow while the Venezuelan Cesar Eduardo Gonzalez received one 10 minutes later. However, worse was to come as the 1st half drew to a close with Venezuela up 0-1. Brazil collected the first two: Gary Medel took a yellow with 5 minutes left in the half while Pablo Contreras was given one in the first minute of stoppage time of the half. Then, Venezuela's Tomas Rincon actually saw red in the second minute of stoppage time. And so the half ended. The second half was more civil as both sides played their games, each scoring once. Arturo Vidal of Chile collected a yellow in the 79th while Gary Medel received a second yellow and a sending-off 2 minutes after Venezuela scored what would be their winner. And so, onwards to the semi-finals where Peru and Uruguay face-off while the giant-killing duo of Paraguay and Venezuela will play out the other match. Good luck trying to predict who will win these two!