In the Copa America final, Argentina is led by Messi and Alvarez

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Argentina turned on the style in their 2-0 win over Canada on Tuesday at East Rutherford, with Lionel Messi in the spotlight as they look to win their third consecutive major title. The world champions will look to defend their title in the final of the Copa America where they will cross paths with Chile.

As the defending Copa champions, the team that was beaten by Uruguay in the semi-finals on Wednesday will face the winner of the match between Uruguay and Colombia in the final on Sunday in Miami that is highly anticipated.

In front of a capacity crowd at the 82,500 MetLife Stadium, the 15-time Copa champions produced what could be considered their best performance of the tournament, and much like their world cup victory in 2022 they appear to be peaking at the right time.

Messi, after scoring one of the first goals in this tournament, told TyC Sports that he thought what was going on among this group, what is going on with the Argentina national team, was crazy.

Despite the fact that I did not experience anything like this in the last Copa America, in the last World Cup – I am living in it just like I experienced it in the last Copa America and in the last World Cup… These are the last battles I will ever have, so I am enjoying them from the very beginning,” said the 37-year-old.

There is great credit to be given to the Canadian side who, in their first Copa America appearance, reached the last four, but Messi and company simply proved to be too much for the Canadians in the tournament.

As a result of the tournament, we haven’t been able to perform to our full potential,” said Canada’s American coach Marsch, who noticed that his players started to look tired after the first half had ended.

It is true that one can become physically and mentally fatigued over a period of time, and this was a significant part of what happened with us tonight,” he said.

In the past Marsch’s side had progressed by attacking opposition teams with high-energy football from the very beginning, but their dominance and resilience eventually culminated in a sensational final half after they took control thanks to a display of excellent football from their left-winger Jacob Shaffelburg, who fired just wide following a cut in from the flank.

The veteran wide-man Di Maria was seeing plenty of the ball down the right in this final tournament for his country, and he provided an early warning of his threat by picking out Messi with a pass inside which the forward could only flash past the post with five seconds left in the game.

Rodrigo De Paul was the one to make the breakthrough when he picked up the ball on the half-way line, glanced up, took a quick glance at Julian Alvarez and lofted the ball over the top into the net in the 22nd minute.

Having been restored to the starting line-up ahead of Lautaro Martinez by City, the Italian forward delivered a deft first touch that took him away from Moises Bombito, giving him just enough space to fire home the ball.

It’s a classy triangle 

With Di Maria, Messi, and De Paul making up the classy triangle, Canada’s defense were under constant threat from these three players, and the former even threatened a second with a chip from the right that lifted over the crossbar.

It is evident from the confidence with which Argentina built up its attack that coach Lionel Scaloni’s team is playing. It is a well-drilled squad, but one that has never let its organisational solidity take over its creative performance.

It was only two minutes before halftime that Messi was provided a slide-rule pass from former Real Madrid winger Di Maria, who worked himself space for a shot on his right foot, but he was narrowly wide of the right crossbar by Max Crepeau.

The American coach of Canada, Carl Marsch, had a number of tasks ahead of him at the interval if he wanted to bring his team back on level terms. However, any strategy the coach might have had was wiped out when the world champions doubled their lead, just six minutes after the restart.

From the byline, Enzo Fernandez pulled the ball back the excellent De Paul and Messi was able to direct the ball into the target with his side-footed shot from the byline.

There was a brief moment in time when the Canadians thought Messi may have been offside, but the VAR review revealed that defender Derek Cornelius had actually played him onside by playing him onside.

Since Argentina had established a cushion of two goals, they were able to sit back, conserve their energy, and wait for the Canadians to challenge them.

While Canada came close to troubling Emiliano Martinez in the final minutes of the match, it had to wait until the last minute in order to force him into action after some sloppy defending had forced the keeper into action.

Despite this, Scaloni’s team won with ease and it now looks like they will be just one win away from becoming the first team to win the Copa America 16 times.

Timenews1 published that news.

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