The two bitterest rivals in recent Copa América history, Argentina and Chile will meet in Group A action on Tuesday at MetLife stadium. Argentina are defending champions of the tournament as well as the World Cup, while Chile are just eight years removed from their last Copa América title.
The Argentina national football team has been around since the year 1902 while Chile have been around since 1910. Throughout both clubs' history, Argentina hold the edge, overwhelmingly in head-to-head record having gone 62-25-8 (25 draws) against “La Roja”.
Tuesday’s match at MetLife Stadium will be a rematch of both the 2015 and Copa America Centenario (2016) finals, both of which Chile won in a penalty shootout. Tuesday’s match will even be played at the same venue that the 2016 final was played at, MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. That was where Argentina superstar, Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick in a penalty shootout, which led to Chile’s upset victory.
Argentina (the blue and whites) fared much better in their first game of the Copa America, defeating Canada 2-0 while Chile drew 0-0 with Peru. Heading into Tuesday’s clash, Argentina sit atop Group A, which both teams inhabit, while Chile sit in third behind Peru.
In a cruel twist of fate, Chile manager Ricardo Gareca finds himself facing his homeland, Argentina in this next game, while Argentina’s manager, Lionel Scaloni, is an Argentine as well, but will be representing the national team he represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Scaloni is also young by contemporary managerial standards. At 66-years-old, Gareca is 20 years Scaloni’s senior, but one thing Gareca doesn’t have in his trophy cabinet—a world cup trophy, which Scaloni won in 2022.
There’s experience coaching in general and then there’s experience being with one’s current team and Scaloni has the edge there. Scaloni has been the manager of Argentina since 2018 while Gareca was appointed Chile’s manager in Jan. 2024. Scaloni clearly gets the edge in terms of consistency being with one’s current team and he led Argentina to the Copa America title in 2021. Gareca’s previous experience managing an international team was with Peru from 2015-2022 with his best work being leading Peru to the finals at the 2019 Copa America. Peru ended up losing the final to Brazil.
Let’s get down to the history of both of these clubs at the tournament. Argentina have won the Copa America 15 times, which ties them for the record with Uruguay, while Chile have only won it twice but both victories came at two of the last three tournaments. The blues and whites (Argentina) have been finalists on 23 occasions while “la Roja” have been finalists on four occasions (1955, 1956, 2015 and 2016).
As for the players who will suit up either in bright red or white and blue on Tuesday, there are important things to note. Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo captained Chile at the 2016 Copa America and he will be back between the sticks in La Roja’s next match. Arturo Vidal, a prominent central midfielder in world football, and Gary Medel, a prominent defender were not included on Chile’s roster for this year’s Copa America. Players who were on the 2016 Chilean Copa America champions who are on this year’s team include Alexis Sanchez, Mauricio Isla and Eduardo Vargas.
Meanwhile, the Argentine team has seen an equal amount of turnover. Argentina no longer have superstars like striker Gonzalo Higuain and midfielder Javier Mascherano at its disposal, replacing them with serviceable young guns like striker Julian Alvarez who plays his soccer for Manchester City and Leandro Paredes who plays for AS Roma. The only players that were on the 2016 Argentine team who are on this year’s team are Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and Nicolas Otamendi.
All of this, combined with Argentina’s recent success at international tournaments stacks the odds in favor of the blues and whites over La Roja. However, the odds have always been against Chile when they have faced world soccer juggernaut Argentina in the past and while they don’t have much to brag about when it comes to head-to-head record, they still have two Giant wins against Argentina and that counts for a lot.
Tune in to watch Argentina face Chile on FS1 at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night. Who knows, there could be fireworks.
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