Argentina look for revenge

Argentina are out to end their 14-year Copa America famine when they meet their rival South American footballing superpowers Brazil in tomorrow’s final.

Argentina are out to end their 14-year Copa America famine when they meet their rival South American footballing superpowers Brazil in tomorrow’s final.

Argentina set up this revenge meeting — they were beaten by Brazil on penalties in the last final in Peru three years ago — with a 3-0 rout of Mexico in Guayana on Wednesday.

Gabriel Heinze, Lionel Messi and Juan Roman Riquelme were all on the mark to ensure their place in tomorrow’s showpiece encounter at the Jose Pachencho Romero Stadium in Maracaibo. Argentina will be bidding for a record 15th Copa America title against the seven-times and reigning champions Brazil, who struggled to defeat Uruguay 5-4 on penalties on Tuesday in the first semi-final, which ended 2-2 after regular time.

Both teams have looked at this as a means to overcome the disappointment of missing out in last year’s World Cup in Germany and to lay the groundwork for qualifying for the 2010 edition in South Africa.

Brazil are an altogether different side to the one knocked out by France in the 2006 World Cup, with Dunga taking over as coach and stalwarts Ronaldo, Robert Carlos, Cafu and Adriano, all getting the axe. Ronaldinho and Kaka have also missed out on the competition having requested to be overlooked as they recover from their seasons in Europe. This has given the chance for Dunga to blood new talent which scraped through against Uruguay in a match that had to be stopped for a brief period due to floodlight failure.

Malaysia eliminated

Kuala Lumpur:Uzbekistan inflicted another defeat on Malaysia in Asian Cup Group C on Saturday, with the 5-0 victory eliminating the co-hosts from the competition after just two games.