Chile starts Copa America with a bang with 2-0 win over Ecuador

Chile got their stint as the Copa America host going in fine fashion, putting in a strong performance against Ecuador in the tournament’s first match and riding a pair of second-half goals to win 2-0.

The match got off to a roaring start when Alexis Sanchez showed off some fancy footwork to beat Ecuador’s defense and get off a point-blank shot in just the second minute -- but a poor finish saw his shot trickle wide of the post instead of snapping the back of the net. That moment would prove to be the theme of the first half: close, but no cigar.

Another early chance for Chile saw Jorge Valdivia find Sanchez running behind the defense, but his try to lob Alexander Dominguez saw the tall goalkeeper get close enough that he was able to snag the ball before it could get over his head. Over and over in the first half, Chile would work some fancy play, with Sanchez, Valdivia, Arturo Vidal and Mauricio Isla working some magical moments, but over and over either the final ball would be just off, or Dominguez would come up with a big save to keep Chile off the scoreboard.

Ecuador had a handful of moments in their own in attack, mostly from using their physical edge over Chile’s diminutive back line on set pieces, but for the most part the first half was completely controlled by Chile. The Copa hosts couldn’t find a way to finish off the fantastic moves they created, though, and halftime found the match still scoreless.

Chile changed things up with an aggressive, attacking substitute, bringing on forward Edu Vargas in place of wingback Jean Beausejour. The sub made sense: Chile’s attack needed another striker, and while Chile had defensive issues, they weren’t getting challenged much on the left flank Beausejour was patrolling, and two of their “center backs” are comfortable at left back anyways. The extra pressure Vargas allowed Chile to bring almost paid off quickly when Sanchez worked some magic again to dribble through the Ecuador defense, but he took too many touches and ran out of space before turning the ball over.

As the match opened up into more of a foot race, Ecuador tried to use their superior pace on the wings to open up Chile’s makeshift defense, but their players were too often not on the same page, failing to take advantage of what chances they had. Chile, for their part, kept changing the pace of their attack and building up some impressive chances, but they still couldn’t quite get that last ball needed to break Ecuador’s defense.

That all changed in the 65th minute, when Vidal burst into the box and was pulled down by Miller Bolaños. Ecuador players were upset, feeling that Vidal had gone down too easily, but Bolaños had clearly put his arm around the Chilean midfielder and pulled him around. Vidal stepped up to take the penalty himself and finished it expertly, slamming it to the top corner and past the outstretched arms of Dominguez.

Ecuador tried desperately to find an equalizer, but for all their efforts, they just couldn’t break down Chile’s defense. The versatile and fluid Chile setup in their defense and midfield kept flowing to the right areas and collapsing onto the ball, often forcing Ecuador into hopeful crosses or deep balls over the top that rarely found their target. Their best scoring chance of the whole match came in the 82nd minute when Chile failed to clear a free kick, but Enner Valencia’s header cracked off the bar instead of finding the back of the net.

Of course, that goal wouldn’t have mattered in the end: two minutes later, Ecuador made a terrible defensive mistake, with Sanchez pouncing on an awful pass back from midfield and feeding Vargas, who lashed the ball past Dominguez with ease to give Chile a 2-0 lead and assure them the win -- though not before an idiotic foul in stoppage time saw substitute Mati Fernandez earn a second yellow card and a send-off.

The win gets Chile off to a strong start, getting three points over what will probably be their most difficult opponent in Group A. The loss doesn’t sink Ecuador, though, as they match up well with a weakened Mexico side and should be able to beat Bolivia, but they’ll definitely wish that they’d done more with their performance today. If this first match of the Copa America is any indication, this is going to be a fun tournament.

Goals: Vidal (pen. 66’), Vargas (84’)

Goals: none

Alexis Sanchez is absolutely divine with the ball at his feet. His first touch, control of the ball and massive bag of tricks at his disposal makes him more dangerous on the ball than all but a handful of players around -- except for one minor issue. For all of his technical gifts, Sanchez is only an OK finisher, meaning he doesn’t score nearly as many goals as he really should for all his other qualities in front of goal.

For the days that his finishing touch just escapes him -- like it did in that second-minute chance that saw Sanchez whiff on an easy scoring chance -- Chile really need a second striker who can help pick up the slack, or at least help take some pressure off him and create matchup issues. At times in the past Edu Vargas has helped there, and he scored today, but his struggles with QPR this past season saw him start the match on the bench. If Vargas can’t be relied on, Chile need another option -- Sanchez can only do so much himself.

This Ecuador side play well enough to steal a draw or even a win from bigger teams now and then, and their brand of organized, physical football can definitely get them to the quarterfinal in this Copa America. But they’re not a truly effective, competitive side, not on the level of CONMEBOL’s better teams at least.

They’ve got a good, if very streaky, goalscorer in Enner Valencia, but they lack a player who can reliably create chances for him to exploit. That forces them to rely on counter attacks and set pieces, and while that style can work well in tournament settings, it’s just not consistently dangerous enough to make Ecuador a properly threatening side to be contended with. Add that to a mediocre defense and less than stellar depth, and Ecuador are limited to really just being a spoiler at this point -- a very good spoiler with potential to be more than that, to be fair, but they can’t be considered a serious contender just yet.

Jorge Sampaoli made waves last year at the World Cup when he set his Chile side up to play a chaotic, confusing and incredibly fun brand of football. Essentially eschewing the use of center backs in favor of defensive midfielders like Gary Medel playing in a sort of sweeper role, they played fast, fluid football that kept a lot of opponents off balance and drew worldwide praise. He’s kept that style up for the Copa America, but a number of its flaws were on display today against Ecuador. Ecuador’s physical front line was able to give Chile’s smaller back line that relies more on guile than brawn a lot of trouble, and that was far from the only issue that cropped up for the Copa hosts.

In midfield, they’d deployed a pivot of Charles Aranguiz and Marcelo Diaz, which didn’t work out terribly well. Aranguiz is used to playing a bit higher up the pitch, but with Jorge Valdivia starting with Arturo Vidal behind Sanchez, Aranguiz had to play a little deeper. He proved to be a poor partner for Diaz, with Chile’s midfield pivot too often getting overrun as Aranguiz struggled to properly mark and track Ecuador midfielders, and Diaz couldn’t do enough to cover for him.

The midfield problem is fixable -- any of David Pizarro, Francesco Silva or Felipe Gutierrez can help out a lot there, but their weakness against physical play is going to be more problematic as the tournament progresses. How they adjust to both issues will go a long ways towards determining how far Chile go in this Copa America.