Copa America Betting – Arg., Chile Vie for Title

Argentina (-137) vs Chile (+400), Draw (+250)

New year, new venue, same finalists: a year after Chile (4-1-0) beat Argentina (5-0-0) in the 2015 Copa America final, the Argentinians will have a chance for redemption when they meet Chile (somewhat ironically) at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for South America’s biggest soccer trophy (Sunday, June 26, at 8:00 PM Eastern).

Chile’s 2015 Copa crown was the first in the country’s history. A lot of things went right for Chile last year: the tournament was played on home soil, the referees arguably gave them some favorable calls, and they won the toss-up that is penalty kicks against Argentina in the final. As a result, not many were expecting the team to do quite so well this time around in the US.

But, a year later, Chile have proven everybody wrong. After destroying Mexico 7-0 in the quarterfinals, they took care of Colombia 2-0 in the semifinals. They’ve averaged 3.2 goals per game in the tournament and their pressure-based game has improved each time out.

Yet, they come into Sunday’s final as massive underdogs, and not many pundits are griping. Argentina have looked unstoppable all tournament, winning all five of their matches, including a 4-0 thumping of the host Americans in the semis, and 2-1 win over this same Chilean team in their Copa opener.

With Lionel Messi on top form, you’d be hard-pressed to find any country anywhere in the world that would be favored over Argentina right now. Their offense, on the whole, has been even better than Chile’s, averaging 3.6 goals per game.

While Messi has easily played the best tournament of his career while wearing the national uniform, he hasn’t been the only player impressing; striker Gonzalo Higuain has scored four goals in the last two games.

Chile will play hard and, given how well the team’s know each other, the final will be a close one. That said, I can’t see Argentina failing in the finals against the same team two years in a row, not when Messi and the rest of the squad is playing this well.

Pick: Argentina (-137).

(Photo Credit: Jimmy Baikovicius (Flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/])