Chile vs. Bolivia
Copa America Centenario
June 10 | 7 pm ET | Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts
TV: FOX, UniMás, UDN
Defending Copa America champions Chile and their underdog neighbors Bolivia will face down the prospect of an early flight home when they meet in New England on Friday night, with neither side able to afford further setbacks after losses in their opening matches.
Can Chile chin up?
La Roja stood toe to toe with vaunted Argentina – albeit with Lionel Messi on the bench – in their sold-out tournament opener, only to be undermined by a few crucial, timely errors in a 2-1 loss in Santa Clara, California. Conventional wisdom suggests that advancement to the knockout rounds can still be booked straightforwardly, however, as they're favored against Group D rivals Bolivia and Panama.
But they'll have to hold their nerve. Chile actually saw more of the ball and completed more passes, and at a higher accuracy rate, than their illustrious opponents on Monday. Yet they struggled to carve out a proportionate number of clear chances in the Argentine box, and two costly turnovers were viciously punished by Angel di Maria and Ever Banega. They can expect even more of a reactive mentality from Bolivia, putting further onus on Alexis Sanchez and his attacking colleagues. Perhaps we'll see more of the hard pressing that marked Chile's salad days under Marcelo Bielsa and Jorge Sampaoli?
Cross-Andes upset watch
Bolivia are one of only two CONMEBOL nations to have tasted defeat to CONCACAF opposition in this event thus far, having fallen 2-1 to Panama in a scrappy but absorbing encounter in rain-soaked Orlando on Monday. So La Verde are now in real trouble if they want to buck their historical reputation and sneak into the quarterfinals again, as they did in last year's edition. Speaking of history, they could turn to geopolitics for motivation: These two nations share an uneasy history and have even gone to war in the past, with landlocked Bolivia's access to the Pacific Coast a long-running grievance.
Their goal vs. Panama came from Juan Carlos Arce ramming home a close-range finish after a set-piece delivery into the Canaleros' penalty area was poorly dealt with, and similar opportunism on restarts could be the key to knocking off Chile. Arce is arguably Bolivia's most dangerous attacker, though North American audiences may want to keep an eye on New York Cosmos striker Yasmani Duk. His looks at goal are generally few and far between in manager Julio Cesar Baldivieso's defensive-minded formation, however.
Gotta be better, Bravo
Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo plays his club soccer at mighty FC Barcelona, yet his Copa campaign got off to a nightmarish start. Both of Argentina's goals slipped inside his near post, a cardinal sin for a 'keeper – though it may be harsh to assign him blame for Banega's winner, which took a nasty deflection off his teammate Mauricio Isla's boot. Chile manager Juan Antonio Pizzi during his postgame press conference backed up Bravo on the second goal, saying the 'keeper was in position to make the save before the deflection.
Bolivia are unlikely to be quite so merciless. That said, it's imperative that Bravo provide a stable, confidence-inducing foundation for colleagues like Sanchez and Arturo Vidal to build upon in more advanced areas.
