The Orinoco and Caroni rivers converge at Puerto Ordaz -- a carefully-planned city in the east of Venezuela. The largest body of fresh water in the country, Lake Guri, empties into the Orinoco at Puerto Ordaz before being dumped into the Atlantic Ocean at the Boca Grande delta at the north-eastern corner of the South American continent. And on Wednesday, 11 July, Mexico were dumped out of the Copa America by Argentina at Estadio Polideportivo Cachamay -- home to Puerto Ordaz' local football team, Mineros de Guayana.
Mexico manager Hugo Sanchez, celebrating his 49th-birthday, could have been forgiven for approaching the match with considerable optimism. After all, his squad brushed-aside Brazil in the group-phase before embarassing Paraguay 6-0 in the quarterfinal. And for much of the first half, Mexico went tit-for-tat with Argentina.
A Juan Roman Riquelme free-kick in the dying moments of the opening period changed all that. The Boca Juniors field-marshall floated the ball into the box where it was deflected past Mexican goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez by the left boot of Gabriel Heinze.
The Manchester United left-back was instrumental in Argentina's second goal as well. Heinze's superb through-ball fell squarely on the boots of Carlos Tevez before the latter passed to Lionel Messi. The Barcelona phenom proceeded to chip an out-of-position Sanchez with a brilliant effort.
Argentina, by now fully in control of things, proceeded to suck the life out of their opponents. On 65-minutes, just 4-minutes after the Messi wonder-goal, Tevez appeared to be tripped-up in the box. And although video-replays suggested that the former Corinthians marksman feigned contact, Chilean official Carlos Chandia pointed to the penalty-spot. Riquelme's successful conversion was his 5th-goal of the tournament and spotted Argentina an insurmountable 3-0 lead with 25-minutes to play.
It was too much for Mexico; and Argentina, pre-tournament favorites, will face Brazil in Sunday's Copa America final in Maracaibo. Mexico will remain in Puerto Ordaz for the third-place game with Uruguay on Saturday.
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