Copa America Will Have Its Own Drama

Early in their team’s faltering Euro 2004 campaign, disgruntled Dutch fans chipped in and bought Coach Dick Advocaat an airline ticket out of Portugal and had it delivered to his hotel.

Once Italy had been ignominiously ousted from the same tournament in the first round, irate Italian fans pelted the Danish consulate in Milan with eggs. Denmark’s tie with Sweden that eliminated Italy was the cause of their wrath.

English tabloids went even further. They published the home telephone number and e-mail address of Swiss referee Urs Meier, who had negated a goal that would have given England victory in the quarterfinals. Meier’s phone rang day and night for a week, and his e-mail was jammed with thousands of unflattering messages.

And then there was Portugal’s Brazilian coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who compared his players to an imaginary girlfriend selected somewhat in haste.

“You see what she looks like first thing in the morning -- really quite ugly,” Scolari said of the Portuguese team, which, ugly or not, at least made it to Sunday’s final.

All in all, Euro 2004 was a memorable tournament, and the 12-nation, three-week Copa America, which begins today in Peru, will have to go far to match it. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that Greece will not win it.

Things are off to a promising start, however, with Mexico Coach Ricardo Lavolpe already bringing the elements into the equation.

“The wind is going to be the biggest problem,” Lavolpe said in Chicalayo, where Mexico is training for Wednesday’s match against Uruguay. “Any kick from the middle of the field could end up in the penalty area.”

Mexico is one of two guest teams taking part in what essentially is South America’s championship. Costa Rica is the other.

Costa Rica fans will be eager to see whether their soccer federation acted in haste two weeks ago by dismissing American Steve Sampson as coach after two World Cup 2006 qualifying ties against Cuba.

The Ticos advanced to the next round, but the feeling was they should have done better and Sampson was fired June 22 and later replaced by Colombia’s Jorge Luis Pinto.

Costa Rica is in Group C with world champion Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. Mexico will play in Group B, with Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay. Group A consists of host Peru, Bolivia, defending champion Colombia and Venezuela.

The group winners and runners-up, plus the best two third-place teams, advance to the quarterfinals.

The 12 teams have taken different approaches to the tournament. Some, like Argentina and Mexico, have brought full-strength teams as coaches Marcelo Bielsa and Lavolpe struggle to hold on to their jobs.

Argentina will be without forward Hernan Crespo, who is about to be cut by Chelsea, defender Walter Samuel, recently signed by Real Madrid, and injured midfielders Pablo Aimar and Juan Roman Riquelme.

The only player missing for Mexico will be former Club America striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who is serving a one-year suspension from South American competition after instigating a brawl during this year’s Copa Libertadores.

Brazil, on the other hand, is fielding more or less a second-string team, one without Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Kaka, Cafu and other European-based stars. Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is using the tournament to evaluate talent for upcoming World Cup 2006 qualifying games.

Paraguay is fielding an under-23 team and using the Copa America as preparation for the Athens Olympics.

The tournament will be played against a background of anti-government protests, a planned general strike and a squabble that could ground a majority of domestic air travel.

Given that, it might still match Euro 2004 for incident and intrigue.