On Saturday 10th of July, Argentina finally won their first major title in 28 years! Surely the long wait came to a beautiful end for the Argentinians and most of all, the three-time Ballon d'Or winner, Lionel Messi. It was a hard fought game as both sides, Argentina and Brazil, battled to draw first blood.
However at the 21st minute of the pulsating Copa America Final, Argentina's Rodrigo de Paul had a perfectly lobbed ball from their half on to Angel Di Maria's path then a final chip over Brazil's Keeper Ederson saw the first goal of the final, the scores read, Argentina (Di Maria '21) 1 : 0 Brazil.
Brazil went on to push and thump on the Argentinians but to no avail in finding an equalizer due to the outstanding shield of defense manned by the likes of Romero and wonder keeper Emiliano Martinez.
Argentina's win was a hard fought triumph for the football maestro, Lionel Messi who has had years of club and individual honors but no title while in the famous blue and white stripes. Messi finished the tournament's joint top goal scorer with 4 goals and was elected joint best player alongside Brazil's Neymar.
Brazil came close minutes into the second half when Richarlison had a goal disallowed then with a heart stopping shot, forcing Emiliano Martinez to make a wonder save that kept the game alive in their favor.
Brazil also came close to doubling their lead later on in the game when Brazil poured their team completely forward including their 5-man offensive pack of Richarlison, Neymar, Vinicius Junior, Roberto Firmino and Gabriel Barbosa. The victory was Argentina's 15th Copa America title, drawing Uruguay as the all time leading Winners.
Their win also extended a sequence of undefeated matches to 20 under coach, Lionel Scaloni. Brazil on the other hand went down and got their first major competitive defeat since losing to Belgium in the quarter finals of the 2018 World Cup.