When the Copa America Centenario kicked off on June 3 at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, to new age pop of the rather unmemorable Jason Derulo, along with reggaeton star J Balvin and reggae-pop band Magic!, audiences across the world could be forgiven a double take and an eye-rub.
The Copa America, that last footballing bastion of pure adrenaline, theatrics and emotion, being played in the corporatised, sanitised, melamine confines of the Levi’s, Gillete, Metlife stadiums?
The United States is not particularly renowned for their interest or prowess in the sport of "soccer", and the 100th anniversary of this mega tournament surely deserved a worthy host?
“Esunpaísdonde no se siente el fútbol”, roughly translated as “This is a country where they do not feel football”, proclaimed Wilmar Valdez, the Uruguayan Football Association president, after his team was dumped out of the competition in the group stages. Valdez’s sore complaint is harsh, and possibly from a mindset that refuses to see change.
The US audience for the sport has grown manifold in the last decade, coinciding with higher profile football superstars choosing to make Major League Soccer their final port of call, and a distinct rise in quality of the national team. While average attendances and TV ratings have been standard to good in the group stages, these numbers should rise significantly in the knockout stages, and are already better than last year’s edition held in Chile.
As for the atmosphere, it’s been familiar bedlam for the most part, with Mexico averaging attendances above 68,000, Argentina and Lionel Messi attracting huge numbers, and the US team getting their country behind them with 52,000-plus average support for their games. American fans are getting into the spirit of hosting a tournament that has 16 countries participating for the first time. A successful tournament might well put them in pole position for the 2026 World Cup hosting race.
Allez la France
While there were justified concerns about attendance, atmosphere and ratings about this edition of the Copa America, there were other problems across the pond in France. The Euro 2016 group stage commenced on June 10, a week after Magic! crooned “Why you gotta be so rude" at the Levi’s Stadium. Laptop key-tapping and hand-waving expert David Guetta drowned out what were hopefully a chorus of boos as he opened the tournament to an audience soon reduced to longing for a Ricky Martin in his stead.
Thankfully, the opening match provided no such agony, as Dimitri Payet made himself a household name with a rasping left-footed drive in the last few minutes of the game, handing France the victory. An expanded Euro 2016 has 24 countries taking part, almost making it a mini World Cup, which has 32 nations. The massive worries before the tournament were to do with a dilution of the overall quality of football on offer and audience fatigue by the time the knockouts arrived. An ominous terror threat loomed over this edition as well, on the back of the attacks in Paris in November 2015.
Euro 2016 – Simplicity in synchronicity
An international team can be counted on to be haphazard collection of talent, a poor reflection of the top clubs in that country. This time however, at least till now, the football on show has been interesting to excellent, with well-drilled European opponents homogenised to the extent that they almost nullify each other.
In the game between a tactically superior Italy and a disjointed Belgium, the Italians showed their class by sticking to a plan, playing to negate the opponent’s strength and skillfully optimising their own. It’s almost akin to a game of chess, or the close knit understanding of a masterful orchestra.
While there have been no massive upsets till now, there have also been no clear picks for winners in most matches. An expanded field leads to relatively less glamorous match-ups, but the smaller nations have shown great desire and ability, with disciplined formations and a clear game plan. Many of the footballers on show play in the top five leagues in Europe, but even their teammates from smaller clubs have gelled well with them.
Copa America – Flair and festivity
In contrast to the Copa America, the Euros arguably have "better" teams (the nations competing have an average Fifa ranking of 21 as opposed to 33 for Copa America), and greater star-power. However, a straight-up comparison based on stats is a tedious exercise and negates the intangibles that come with watching the sport itself.
Having started relatively slowly, owing ostensibly to the shorter break afforded to the players from the end of their club seasons, the Copa America kicked on with some memorable matches, particularly the ones between Mexico and Venezuela, and between Chile and Bolivia.
In contrast to the orchestral synchronicity and discipline of their European counterparts, a football match between two South American nations is the closest one can get to pure chaos on the football pitch. This is a group of 11 rockers laying on the distortions, thrashing their cymbals, pounding the double bass, lying on the floor screeching and howling, eventually creating a work of pure art and emotion – and subsequently throwing themselves into the pure pandemonium of a frenzied crowd.
The games have undoubtedly been immense fun, with the crowd getting in on the act. A 50 million-strong population of Hispanic and Latino origin people have responded with gusto to the teams of their forefathers coming to play in their adopted homeland. Every piece of spellbinding trickery is cheered, every dive is roundly jeered, and all on-pitch confrontations draw howls of anger and hisses of derision toward the opponent. If this is a football initiation party for the American public, they’re doing a good job of not throwing up and passing out early.
As both tournaments move on, the Copa to the knockout stage and the Euros to the latter part of the group stage, the football-watching audience emerges as the real winner. What were once dreary months without football have been replaced by heavily marketed juggernauts of epic proportions.
Viva el fútbol!
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