Raphael Claus of Brazil will referee the Copa America final.
Argentina vs. Colombia in the Copa America final will have a Brazilian referee. It was announced that Raphael Claus will officiate Sunday’s game.
He was the referee for Argentina’s 1-0 win vs. Colombia in the South American World Cup qualifiers. Claus was also the referee for Mexico vs. Venezuela at this Copa America.
I have a Colombian friend who gave me his condolences last night. I told him to play the game, if he thinks Argentina is going to roll over and die , he’s wrong. Colombia is going to try to kick the shit out Argentina, and injure players like they did with Uruguay. Conmebol can’t allow that again, so this game needs to controlled by the ref.
I read the following story, but I’m not sure if it’s true:
Lionel Messi will come face to face with his former adversary, Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, in the Copa America final. The two had a heated exchange during Argentina’s World Cup qualifying match against Paraguay in 2020. Claus awarded a controversial penalty to Paraguay after a challenge by Martinez Quarta on Miguel Almiron. Messi was displeased, pointing out to the referee that Argentina had not been awarded a penalty for a similar incident earlier in the game. Angel Romero converted the penalty, but Argentina’s Nicolas Gonzalez equalized just before halftime.
Messi’s frustration grew when a potential winning goal for Argentina was disallowed by VAR due to a foul in the build-up. “Two times you’ve f***** us,” Messi was heard saying to Claus, as Paraguay held Argentina to a 1-1 draw. Now, they will meet again.
Messi will be attempting to rebuild a bridge he previously burned, which is likely causing concern for Scaloni.
Forgot to add that this was the same match where Palacios was badly injured but the player who caused that injury was just shown an Yellow card!!!! So IMHO Conmebol should not have assigned Raphael Claus for the final. He is known for his past issues with team albiceleste.
Almerione was the culprit and he wasn’t even given a yellow card despite the fact that he fractured Palacios’s spine. That was a classic piece of south American refereeing, that.
Sounds a like bad ref indeed ! As surely amongst ARG team most certainly very disliked as, that what happened to Palacios in that game sounds horrifying and no wonder with those other Call’s as sounded going clearly as Paraguay
’S favorite, well no wonder MESSI was pissadraama with him and might be still, though the whole ARG team has put this aside as only will their focus and concentration drop if they will be getting in a disagreements with this ref and hopefully, that will be the case, though not expecting any favor’s from this ref as quite the opposite…
If were up to espn pundits and time vickery, Argentina won’t have win anything for last three finals according to them because they have always doubt about Argentina ability to see games especially our defense but guess what I liked that they are making Colombia favourites over us .I”m convince that we will beat Colombia on Sunday and we will celebrate insha Allah
You’re absolutely right about Vickery he is a argentine hater and always undermine argentina success. After brazil won against Paraguay he said brazil is copa America contender. Such a bullshit statement.
Bro the guy is always baised to Brazil and somehow he doubts Argentina even though we are world champion, he always talks about otamendi mistake of last second save emi martinez made against France but he doesn’t say anything about our last second chance when montiel cross to Lautaro, it should have been a goal if Lautaro would have make his header on target, the fact is that, he doesn’t give enough credit to Argentina because it’s only south American team to made two finals for the last three world cups as well they have reached three finals for the last four copa America tournament.
Tim Vickery is a good journalist but he is english and lived in Brazil from 1994 so you know why he is little biased against us. We should not give too much emphasis to their opinions afterall its just their predictions
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNUq7Jhx/
Bielsa going off on the pitch conditions and mentions Scaloni.
Watch it
He is absolutely right. It shouldn’t be in USA. It was ridiculous decision. Domenguiz is a crook bastard
They all are crooks for life !
LET’S GO ARGENTINA, I’M PUMPED 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🫵🫡✌️🤌👌💪✊️
Check out this article from ESPN.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40537440/copa-america-final-predictions-analysis-score-odds-2024
They all predict a Colombia win.
It’s funny to be the world champions and number one in the rankings for years and considered an underdog in a final. Just because Colombia is playing well.
I am looking for Di Maria to play his heart out and for everyone to try to help him win it! I expect a really good game from us and a scrappy win. Because “siempre tenemos que sufrir”
I hope the guys give them a reality check also I hope Colombia plays same as they played against everyone no hiding and counterattack. They talking so much yet same team couldn’t do shit to Varzil and referee saved them tbh.
Its better to play as an underdog. We won all our finals when we were underdogs. As a favorite we lost to chile. I think messi and dimaria etc fully aware that this time they are not favorites so they will try their best to prove the critics wrong. Im relaxed because we have won the wc all other things are just bonus. If we win another Copa great even if we lose its not end of the world
I don’t think we are playing poor! Not upto our standards, yes ! It just that oppenents are too scared to attack us like Ecuador did in the final mins of that game because we have the fire power to score, the defense to stop counters and midfield to counterattack ! Most importantly, our midfield knows how to slow the game to our advantage! We have only panicked when the opponent push all their players forward at the end of the match in a desparate attempt to score as we saw agasint Australia, Netherlands and France in the world cup and Yes, we failed to capitalize on the chances we created when they left their backline open for us to exploit. But no way Colombia will play the match in an all-out attack suicidal approach from the get-go!
I believe we are being overly critical of Messi and Dimaria due to their age. Yes, they have lost pace but they are nowhere near the decline of Mascherano experienced in 2018 World cup, who wasn’t even good enough to be on the bench for us. Regarding Messi , he has been walking up on the pitch like forever. However my concern is that he is playing too high up the field and which is why he gets caught offiside or loses posession often when trying to outrun defenders. He will be far more productive and effective if he takes on a pure attacking mid/playmaker role in the team. His exceptional positioning will still get him into goal scoring positions but trying to outrun young and fast defenders is no longer is strength.
As for Dimaria, I wouldn’t be surprised if Scaloni brings him off the bench agasint tired Colombian legs. However if the starts,it will force the fullbacks to stay back the entire time he is on the field.
I want Argentina to win more than anything else. But speaking critically of our form is not being a hater. We are not as good as we were when we win the World Cup. When we won the copa last, that team was ascending;this team win or lose is descending. There are some old players that need to be replaced, including Messi in the starting lineup. It’s not blasphemy to say that. In TyC sports today, there is an article of some player saying Messi and DiMaria can be covered by anyone now because they have slowed down and they are not the players they used to be. Sadly he is correct. Look at the pace Uruguay and Colombia play at. We just don’t play at that pace anymore. We did in the World Cup. We have one player that runs all the time, that’s Julian. I pray we win, but if we lost by 2 goals it wouldn’t stun me seeing we almost got embarrassed by Equador. Win or lose anybody that thinks 35 to 40 year old players being the core of your team will win anything at the biggest stage. I hope for the best here, but frankly, we will not have the home field advantage as living in Florida it is loaded with Columbian fans, and we need to bring our A game to win. If we get to penalties, I feel more confident because of Dibu but that’s all I see right now being honest. The easy path got us to the final but it won’t help us win it, especially if our form doesn’t get better immediately.
Yes i was kind of expecting to hear that Florida is loaded with Colombia’s as it does not surprise me and, though there might more ARG fan’s on stadium, though not Fully sure of it, but anyhow forsure plenty Colombia’s fan’s will be on the stands too and i agree, that there won’t so big kind of home advantage if any at all..?
I agree Colombia is showing much better form than Argentina not just in this copa, but for the past 1-2 years. But I still think, we will win this Final due to following reasons:
1) Argentina now has a Champions attitude and has learnt the art of winning ugly, like Real Madrid. They have been doing just enough to win the games. More focused on results than style.
2) Colombia would be mode worn out than Argentina. So Argentina would be in a better level physically. Colombia also has their key defender out.
3) This is still Argentina of Messi & DiMaria. I believe we will see the best version of Argentina in this Copa in the final.
DiMaria will get the final game he deserves. Messi & argentina will lift another cup.
1 wc final lost – another won
2 Copa finals lost – 1 won, another to be won on Sunday.
Messi & DiMaria would fix all the problems before they leave.
I hope this ref does a good job. If I recall correctly he got into it with Messi back in 2020 or 21 during our qualifying match vs Paraguay or Chile. So I don’t know about him. Plus he’s Brazilian 😂
Here’s the deal… Argentina just needs to play its own game. We need to not worry about who we are facing…we need to worry about playing our own style.
One of the main reasons that Brazil sux for last decade is because they lost their style.
We reinvented ourselves in 2020 and brought back the tango.
We just need to be ourselves and play with passion, skill, confidence, quick passes and discipline.
Yes Tango is deffently what ARG needs so Fully agree on ARG must play their own game and be themselfs with Fully focused and get their self’s together as Team
Preach brotha
A fair no nonsense REF. which is good considering how this tournament has gone with fouls.
Some people in here have been acting as if ARG is playing Prime Brazil with Ronaldo, Cafu, Romario, Ronaldinho, Zico and company!!!
In case you have not noticed, ARGENTINA are the WC and COPA Champs, why I mention that? because they’ve been there and done that ALREADY and it’s something that they could never claim before but can now.
Messi and company are playing at home with ARG support everywhere, proper GRASS turf and they are hungry as ever. DiMaria said many months before that this will be his LAST, YOU THINK he won’t play his heart out???
Colombian fans have been acting as if they already won the WC after beating Uruguay, LET THEM.
Nobody and I MEAN NOBODY expected ARGENTINA to play the way they did Vs France for 78mins, they punched them in the mouth and Frenchy had ZERO answers until mistakes happened…….have some faith.
Agree with most of the stuff you wrote. But do you think we were even close to those 78 minutes in any of the games so far in this tournament? IMHO we were close to the rest 42 mins at best. The team was virtually shaken up by the Ecuador match which was coming up clear in some of the post-match statements. On top of that our route to the final has been easier compared to Colombia’s. So our supporters are just curious and concerned about our own performers and not really considering Colombia as Prime Brazil with Ronaldo, Cafu, Romario, Ronaldinho and Bebeto!!! 🙂
Here is what I think, ARG was pressed for all the games in the WC except for Croatia and for the 1st 78mins vs France.
Croatia game was the only game I felt comfortable from start to finish. The France game was going the exact same way until that PK.
ARG has not played well or should I say has not clicked on all cylinders in this COPA yet just like in the WC because all games were a struggle until they figured it out.
I think the lousy turf has a lot to do with it, Messi’s injury Vs Ecuador when everybody sucked except for you know who and yet managed not to lose their heads especially after Messi’s miss and won the game.
ARG has not played their best game yet and if they’re not going to in the final then when?
Messi is well-rested and thankfully shows no signs of the injury and if you thought he was saving himself for the final like me, then we’re in the same boat.
Colombia has issues with missing players and maybe some injuries, rough play will not be tolerated and one less day of rest.
Comments are closed.