Copa América Centenario facts for kids

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Copa América Centenario
Centennial Cup America (English) Copa América Centenário (Portuguese) Coupe Amérique Centennaire (French)

Tournament details
Host country	United States
Dates	June 3 – 26
Teams	16 (from 2 confederations)
Venue(s)	10 (in 10 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Chile (2nd title)
Runners-up	Argentina
Third place	Colombia
Fourth place	United States
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	91 (2.84 per match)
Attendance	1,483,855 (46,370 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Eduardo Vargas (6 goals)
Best player	Alexis Sánchez
Best goalkeeper	Claudio Bravo
Fair play award	Argentina
← 2015 2019 →

The Copa América Centenario was a special international soccer tournament for men. It was held in the United States in 2016. This competition celebrated 100 years of CONMEBOL (the South American football group) and the Copa América tournament. It was the first time the Copa América was played outside South America.

This tournament was a special edition, not the regular 45th one. It was planned by CONMEBOL and CONCACAF (the North and Central American football group). The tournament had 16 teams, which was more than the usual 12. All ten teams from CONMEBOL played, plus six teams from CONCACAF. Even though it was an official Copa América, the winner did not get a spot in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. However, Chile, who won this tournament, had already qualified for the Confederations Cup by winning the 2015 Copa América.

Chile became the fourth country to win two CONMEBOL tournaments in a row. The other countries were Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. Argentina, on the other hand, lost its third major final in a row. They had lost to Germany in the 2014 World Cup and to Chile in the 2015 Copa América.

Planning the Tournament

In February 2012, Alfredo Hawit of CONCACAF said the tournament would likely happen in 2016. It was meant to celebrate CONMEBOL's 100th birthday. Nicolás Leoz, the CONMEBOL President, hoped for a "big event" to celebrate this milestone.

CONMEBOL officially announced the tournament on October 24, 2012. CONCACAF confirmed it on May 1, 2014. On September 26, 2014, FIFA added the tournament to its official calendar. This meant clubs had to let their players join their national teams for the competition. The tournament took place in June 2016, at the same time as UEFA Euro 2016.

Tournament Challenges

There were some doubts about the tournament happening due to issues with sports officials. Some people involved with the media rights for the event faced problems. However, on October 23, 2015, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, and the U.S. Soccer Federation confirmed the tournament would go ahead as planned.

The Special Trophy

The trophy was designed exclusively for this edition

A new trophy was made just for this tournament. It was first shown on April 28, 2016, in Bogotá, Colombia. This "new" trophy was a special commemorative one. The winning country got to keep it forever. The original silver Copa América trophy would still be given to winners of the regular tournaments.

The Centenario trophy looks like the original one but is covered in matte gold. It has the Copa América Centenario logo on the front. On its sides, there are images of North and South America connected. This celebrates the tournament being held outside South America for the first time. The base of the trophy has 16 spots where the names of all 16 participating nations are engraved. It also features the logos of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. The years "1916–2016" are there to mark 100 years of CONMEBOL and the Copa América. Phrases like "La Copa del Siglo" (The Cup of the Century) and "Uniting the Americas" are also included.

Choosing the Host Country

Luis Chiriboga, the President of the Ecuadorian Football Federation, mentioned that the United States and Mexico might host parts of the competition. Jeffrey Webb, then CONCACAF President, preferred the United States because of its large market and many stadiums.

On May 1, 2014, it was announced that the United States would host the tournament. It would run from June 3 to June 26, 2016. Some people, like Uruguay Football Association president Wilmar Valdez, criticized the choice of the U.S. He felt that the U.S. was "a country where they don't feel football."

Stadiums Used

On January 8, 2015, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL announced that 24 U.S. cities were interested in hosting games. Stadiums needed to have a capacity of at least 50,000 people. The final list of 10 venues was announced on November 19, 2015.

Pasadena, California (Los Angeles Area)	East Rutherford, New Jersey (New York City Area)	Houston, Texas	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rose Bowl	MetLife Stadium	NRG Stadium	Lincoln Financial Field
Capacity: 92,542	Capacity: 82,566	Capacity: 71,000	Capacity: 69,176

Foxborough, Massachusetts (Boston Area)			Santa Clara, California (San Francisco Bay Area)
Gillette Stadium			Levi's Stadium
Capacity: 68,756			Capacity: 68,500

Seattle, Washington	Chicago, Illinois	Glendale, Arizona (Phoenix Area)	Orlando, Florida
CenturyLink Field	Soldier Field	University of Phoenix Stadium	Camping World Stadium
Capacity: 67,000	Capacity: 63,500	Capacity: 63,400	Capacity: 60,219

Teams That Played

All ten CONMEBOL countries played in the tournament. Six teams from CONCACAF also joined. The United States (as host) and Mexico automatically qualified. The other four CONCACAF spots went to:

Costa Rica (won the 2014 Copa Centroamericana)
Jamaica (won the 2014 Caribbean Cup)
Haiti and Panama (won special playoff games)

CONMEBOL (10 teams)	CONCACAF (6 teams)
Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile (title holders) Colombia Ecuador Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela	United States (hosts) Mexico (automatic qualifier) Costa Rica (winners of 2014 Copa Centroamericana) Jamaica (winners of 2014 Caribbean Cup) Haiti (qualified via playoffs) Panama (qualified via playoffs)

The Draw for Groups

Map of the participant countries.

The teams were put into groups in a special draw on February 21, 2016, in New York City. The United States was placed in Group A as the host. Argentina was in Group D because it was the highest-ranked CONMEBOL team by FIFA in December 2015. Brazil (Group B) and Mexico (Group C) were also chosen as top teams. Some people thought other strong teams like Uruguay or Chile should have been top seeds too.

Teams were divided into four pots based on their FIFA rankings.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Argentina (1) Brazil (6) Mexico (22) United States (32) (hosts)	Chile (3) Colombia (8) Uruguay (11) Ecuador (13)	Costa Rica (37) Jamaica (54) Panama (64) Haiti (77)	Paraguay (46) Peru (47) Bolivia (68) Venezuela (83)

Team Rosters

Each country had a team of 23 players. Three of these players had to be goalkeepers. The teams had to submit their final lists of players by May 20, 2016.

Match Officials

Héber Lopes was chosen as the referee for the final.

Referees and their assistants from different countries were chosen to officiate the matches.

Opening Ceremony

The tournament's opening ceremony happened at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on June 3, 2016. It took place just before the first match. The ceremony featured musical performances by singers J Balvin and Jason Derulo, and the band Magic!.

Group Stage Matches

Group stage Quarterfinals Fourth place Third place Runner-up Champion

All game times were in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The top two teams from each group moved on to the next round, called the quarterfinals.

How Teams Were Ranked

Teams in each group were ranked based on:

Most points from all group matches.
Goal difference (goals scored minus goals against).
Most goals scored.
If teams were still tied, their ranking was decided by:

* Points in matches between the tied teams. * Goal difference in matches between the tied teams. * Goals scored in matches between the tied teams. * Finally, a drawing of lots if still tied.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States (H)	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Colombia	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6	Advance to knockout stage
3	Costa Rica	3	1	1	1	3	6	−3	4
4	Paraguay	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

Source: CONMEBOL & CONCACAF
(H) Host.

Copa América Centenario Group A Copa América Centenario Group A

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Peru	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Ecuador	3	1	2	0	6	2	+4	5	Advance to knockout stage
3	Brazil	3	1	1	1	7	2	+5	4
4	Haiti	3	0	0	3	1	12	−11	0

Source: CONMEBOL & CONCACAF

Copa América Centenario Group B Copa América Centenario Group B

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Venezuela	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	7	Advance to knockout stage
3	Uruguay	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
4	Jamaica	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Source: CONMEBOL & CONCACAF

Copa América Centenario Group C Copa América Centenario Group C

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Argentina	3	3	0	10	1	+9	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Chile	3	2	1	7	5	+2	6	Advance to knockout stage
3	Panama	3	1	2	4	10	−6	3
4	Bolivia	3	0	3	2	7	−5	0

Source: CONMEBOL & CONCACAF

Copa América Centenario Group D Copa América Centenario Group D

Knockout Stage

All times are EDT (UTC−4).

In the knockout stage, if a game was tied after 90 minutes, a penalty shoot-out decided the winner. This applied to the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the third-place match. For the final, if it was tied, extra time would be played first, followed by a penalty shoot-out if needed.

Bracket

Copa América Centenario knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Copa América Centenario knockout stage

Semi-finals

Copa América Centenario knockout stage

Third place play-off

Copa América Centenario knockout stage

Final

Copa América Centenario final

Tournament Statistics

Top Goal Scorers

Eduardo Vargas, top scorer

Chile's Eduardo Vargas won the Golden Boot award for scoring six goals. There were 91 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 2.84 goals per match.

6 goals

Eduardo Vargas

5 goals

Lionel Messi

4 goals

Gonzalo Higuaín

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Sergio Agüero
Éver Banega
Víctor Cuesta
Ángel Di María
Nicolás Otamendi
Juan Carlos Arce
Jhasmani Campos
Gabriel Barbosa
Lucas Lima
Charles Aránguiz
Frank Fabra
Marlos Moreno
Cristián Zapata
Celso Borges
Johan Venegas
Michael Arroyo
Jaime Ayoví
Miller Bolaños
Christian Noboa
Antonio Valencia
James Marcelin
Jesús Manuel Corona
Javier Hernández
Héctor Herrera
Rafael Márquez
Oribe Peralta
Abdiel Arroyo
Miguel Camargo
Víctor Ayala
Christian Cueva
Edison Flores
Paolo Guerrero
Raúl Ruidíaz
Jermaine Jones
Bobby Wood
Gyasi Zardes
Graham Zusi
Mathías Corujo
Diego Godín
Abel Hernández
Josef Martínez
José Manuel Velázquez

1 own goal

Frank Fabra (against Costa Rica)
Je-Vaughn Watson (against Uruguay)
Álvaro Pereira (against Mexico)

Awards and Recognition

Tournament Winner

2016 Copa América Centenario champions
Chile 2nd title

Individual Player Awards

At the end of the tournament, these special awards were given out:

Golden Ball Award (Best Player): Alexis Sánchez
Golden Boot Award (Top Scorer): Eduardo Vargas (6 goals)
Golden Glove Award (Best Goalkeeper): Claudio Bravo
Fair Play Award (Team with best sportsmanship): Argentina

Final Match Best Player

Claudio Bravo

Team of the Tournament

A group of experts chose the best 11 players from the tournament:

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Claudio Bravo	Mauricio Isla Nicolás Otamendi Gary Medel Jean Beausejour	Javier Mascherano Arturo Vidal Charles Aránguiz	Lionel Messi Eduardo Vargas Alexis Sánchez

Tournament Marketing

Several songs were part of the tournament's theme:

"Superstar" by American rapper Pitbull featuring Becky G was the official song. Both artists performed it during the Final.
"Breaking All the Rules" by English rock musician Peter Frampton, who also performed during the Final.
"In My City" by Indian Singer Priyanka Chopra, who performed during the Final as well.

Broadcasting the Games

The tournament was shown on TV in many countries around the world.

In the Americas

Country	Broadcaster	Ref.
Latin America	DirecTV Sports
Argentina	Televisión Pública Argentina (Argentina matches only), TyC Sports (all matches)
Bolivia	TV Boliviana (all matches)
Brazil	Rede Globo (Brazil matches only), SporTV (all matches)
Canada	Univision Canada (Spanish)
Chile	Canal 13
Colombia	RCN TV, Caracol TV
Costa Rica	Repretel, Teletica
Cuba	Cubavision International
Ecuador	Gama TV
Haiti	CONATEL, Tele Haiti
Jamaica	CVM TV
Mexico	Televisa, TV Azteca
Panama	Telemetro, TVMax, RPC-TV
Paraguay	Paraguay TV, Unicanal
Peru	América Televisión
United States	Fox Sports (English); Univision (Spanish)
Uruguay	DirecTV, Equital (Monte Cable, Nuevo Siglo, TCC)
Venezuela	Meridiano TV

Around the World

Country	Broadcaster	Ref.
Arab World Algeria Bahrain Comoros Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mauritania Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Somalia Sudan Syria Tunisia United Arab Emirates Yemen	beIN Sports
Australia	beIN Sports, SBS
Azerbaijan	CBC Sport
Western Balkans Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Macedonia Montenegro Serbia	Arena Sport
Baltics Estonia Latvia Lithuania	Viasat Sport Baltic
China	SMG, LeSports, PPTV, QQLive
Equatorial Guinea	RTVGE, Asonga TV, Canal+
Finland	Viasat
France	beIN Sports
Germany	Sat.1, Kabel eins
Greece	Skai TV
Hong Kong	now TV, ViuTV
Hungary	Sport TV
Iceland	Stöð 2 Sport
India	Sony ESPN, Sony ESPN HD
Indonesia	Kompas TV
Iran	IRIB Varzesh
Ireland	Setanta Ireland
Israel	Sport 1
Italy	Sky Italia
Japan	SKY PerfecTV!
Kenya	Startimes, Canal+
Malaysia	Astro
Myanmar	Sky Net
Netherlands	Fox Sports Netherlands, NOS
New Zealand	Sky Sport
Nigeria	Startimes, Canal+
Norway	Viaplay
Poland	TVP
Portugal	TVI
Russia	Match TV
Singapore	StarHub TV, Singtel TV
South Africa	Startimes
South Korea	KBS
Spain	Movistar+
Sub-Saharan Africa	Startimes, Canal+
Sweden	Viasat Sport
Taiwan	CTV, TTV, CTi TV
Tajikistan	TV Varzish
Thailand	True Visions
Turkey	A Spor, A Haber
United Kingdom	Premier Sports
Vietnam	SCTV, VTVCab