After a lopsided semifinal between the United States and Argentina yesterday, Colombia faces Chile tonight in what looks to be a close fight for a spot in the Copa America Centenario final. Outside of Colombia's 2-0 opening win against the USMNT, the team hasn't met some lofty expectations. In contrast, Chile has steadily improved since opening with a loss to Argentina and walloped Mexico 7-0 in their quarterfinal.
In Colombia's last match against Peru, the heavily-favored team failed to finish off Peru in regulation play, requiring penalty kicks to get to this point. In 90 minutes, los Cafeteros played a physical, ugly game while Peru held them to one shot on target. Peru didn't really get out of their own half until the final 10 minutes but forced an incredible save from David Ospina in the 92nd minute before the match went straight to penalty kicks, per the weird rules that govern the Copa. Ospina made another stunning save in penalties, stopping left back Miguel Trauco to help Colombia advance.
Chile did not have a stressful or close quarterfinal. The only bad thing to come from Chile's thorough rout of Mexico is that midfielder Arturo Vidal will be out of the semifinal due to yellow card accumulation. Earlier this tournament it wouldn't have been a big deal since Vidal was frankly pretty mediocre, but he looked great against Mexico and Chile will certainly miss the all-action midfielder. Chile silenced a heavily pro-Mexico crowd, doing us all a favor, and the team has positive momentum going into tonight's match.
The last time the two South American giants met, Vidal and James Rodriguez each scored in a 1-1 tie during World Cup qualifying last November. In the past four matches, each side has won once to go with two ties.
Location: Soldier Field (Chicago, Illinois)
Kick-off time: 8:00pm Eastern
Available TV: Fox Sports 1 (English), Univision and Univision Deportes (Spanish)
Available streaming: Fox Sports Go and Fox Soccer 2Go (English), Univision Deportes (Spanish)
For listings in other countries, check out LiveSoccerTV.com.