Best player
Sometimes the obvious choice is the only choice. Despite his back injury, Lionel Messi was magnificent in this tournament, as balletic and graceful and incisive as ever, scoring five goals, including that stunning free-kick against the USA, and registering four assists. A penalty miss in the final was the only mark against him. JW
Best player? Toss up between Lionel Messi putting his team on his shoulders again, and staggering just short of line, and Arturo Vidal, who was mad and brilliant and everywhere in the final. And won. A nod to Alexis Sanchez too, of course. GP
I know it’s boring and obvious, but you can’t look beyond Messi. What else can you say about him? He passes better, dribbles quicker and finishes more decisively than anyone else on the planet, and this tournament showed that. He’s on a higher plane. Truly the best. TH
Messi. It’s not only the spectacular goals and inspired assists and the narrative of the world’s best player trying to captain his country to a first major trophy since 1993. It’s the buzz he generated just by turning up, giving the Copa much-needed star power. TD
Forget the fact that he piled on the goals and the assists, or that he scored a hat-trick in nine minutes against Panama. Or that he single-handedly eliminated the hosts whilst scoring the best goal of the tournament. Messi delivered and as his Barcelona team-mate Gerard Pique once said, “Ronaldo is the best human in the world, but Messi ... he’s not human.” LME
Best goal
Choosing free-kicks always seem a bit of a cop-out when selecting a goal of the tournament – after all, players get to practise hitting a stationary ball over an over. But Messi’s strike against the US was mind-blowingly good, hit with pace and disguise into the very corner. JW
The Messi free kick against the USA was sublime. But it was also brutal in illustrating the minuscule margin for error the USA had been trying to operate within since Messi made the third minute goal. Chris Wondolowski’s grimace after his foul to concede the free kick said everything. He knew what he’d done. GP
Some fine contenders to choose from: Messi’s free kick against USA was obviously excellent, and Jhasmani Campos for Bolivia against Chile was a wonderfully pure dead ball strike. Hector Herrera’s opener against Uruguay came from the cross of the tournament from Andres Guardado, but I’m going for Jesus Corona’s dribble and shot against Venezuela: the acceleration, balance, and the quality of the finish were outrageously good. TH
Corona’s equaliser for Mexico against Venezuela edges out Campos’s free kick for Bolivia, because how often do we see a player with the technique and audacity to dribble into the heart of the defence past five opponents? TD
There were some gems including Campos’s free-kick, Velazquez’s volley or Ayala’s wonder strike. To me, there are two finalists: Tecatito’s Messi-esque run or La Pulga himself and his set piece against USA. I’m going with the latter. LME
Best match
What do we mean by best? Perhaps it wasn’t the highest quality or even the most exciting, but the game that caused jaws to drop and that will be recalled by future generations was Chile’s 7-0 evisceration of Mexico in the quarter-final. JW
The wide open group game between Argentina and Chile created an expectation for the final that it could never match, as too many Argentina players abdicated responsibility in hope that Messi could magic something. GP
Mexico-Uruguay was enjoyable, and showcased the best and worst of El Tri; Venezuela-Uruguay was dramatic, and featured that excellent Luis Suárez tantrum; and Argentina’s 4-0 thumping of USA was a masterclass. But how often do you see a 7-0 demolition like the one Chile put on in the quarter-final? Mexico completely fell apart, but it was a game to watch open-mouthed. TH
There weren’t many close, goal-laden encounters; Chile 4-2 Panama and Colombia 2-3 stick out. Even though it was uncompetitive, Chile’s 7-0 crushing of an in-form Mexico was momentous, ludicrous and truly dramatic, so deserves selection for its shock factor in a tournament that saw the same teams contest the final as last year. TD
I’m inclined to go with Peru-Colombia as the atmosphere at MetLife Stadium was breathtaking. Despite the fact that there were no goals in regular time it was a fantastic battle. The intensity of the occasion, Ospina’s heroics and a mix of South American grit and panache made it a memorable evening. LME
Biggest problem/gripe
The structure. Sometime tournament organisers will start to think of players, fans and journalists rather than the egos of host cities, but not here, not yet. Asking teams to undertake long trips from one side of the country to the other and back again is ludicrous. JW
The ticket prices. If there were questions over how seriously the teams were taking it, there were few questions over how seriously the average fan would have to take this tournament to justify the expense of these games. By the later rounds, the packed houses didn’t seem to care about the cost, but the empty seats in group games were avoidable and some of the prices were obscene. GP
That knockout games go straight to penalties after 90 minutes is clearly absurd, and needs fixing as soon as possible. It alters the whole grammar of the game, and makes playing for penalties a realistic possibility. The officiating was substandard, too – far too many games were spoiled by red cards – and a personal peeve: why do matches never start on time? TH
An average crowd in excess of 45,000 is impressive, especially without many travelling fans, and underlines that the US would be superb World Cup hosts. But ticket prices so high that even Brazil played in half-empty stadiums and only 29,041 were present for the US-Colombia third-place game reduced mainstream interest and smacked of exploitation. TD
Normally I like to stay clear from criticizing officials but this Copa had it’s fair share of awful refereeing. Calamities such as Ecuador’s disallowed goal against Brazil and Raul Ruidiaz’s Hand Of God 2.0 come to mind, but it was the impulse to hand out yellows that did it for me. We already know how certain players enjoy showing their dramatic talents. The refs - as if they were watching the Oscars - ate it all up. LME
Team of the tournament
Ospina (Colombia); Fuenzalida (Chile), Brooks (USA), Ramos (Peru), Beausejour (Chile); Fernandez (Argentina), Mascherano (Argentina), Vidal (Chile); Messi (Argentina), Vargas (Chile), Sanchez (Chile). JW
Bravo (Chile); Medel (Chile), Layun (Mexico), Funes Mori (Argentina); Banega (Argentina), Mascherano (Argentina), Cueva (Peru), Vidal (Chile) ; Messi (Argentina), Cuadrado (Colombia), Sanchez (Chile). GP
Ospina (Colombia), Fuenzalida (Chile), Godin (Uruguay), Mascherano (Argentina), Rojo (Argentina), Vidal (Chile), James (Colombia), Messi (Argentina), Sanchez (Chile), Vargas (Chile), Rondon (Venezuela). TH
Ospina (Colombia); Fuenzalida (Chile), Brooks (USA), Otamendi (Argentina), Trauco (Peru); Vidal (Chile), Mascherano (Argentina), Coronoa (Mexico); Messi (Argentina); Vargas (Chile), Higuain (Argentina). TD
Ospina (Colombia); Funes Mori (Argentina), Brooks (USA), Rodriguez (Peru), Murillo (Colombia); Guerra (Venezuela), Banega (Argentina), Aranguiz (Chile); Wood (USA), Vargas (Chile), Messi (Argentina). LME
How did the host nation do?
Roughly as well as expected in that last four or last eight always seemed the realistic target. They were naïve against Colombia but battled hard and showed enough quality – and, surprisingly – tactical flexibility in other matches to deserve their place in the semi-final before being comprehensively outclassed by Argentina. JW
As well as could be expected. And no more. Klinsmann did enough to keep his job, matched his own pre-tournament benchmark for success, and watched his side lose to teams objectively better than they are. GP
When they lost 2-0 in Colombia in tame fashion in the tournament’s opening game, it didn’t look good for USA. But they roused themselves to hammer Costa Rica, and showed commitment, heart and spunk to sneak past Paraguay and Ecuador. The 4-0 defeat by Argentina was humiliating, but reaching the semi-finals was an acceptable outcome for a team that still looks short on true star quality. TH
Fourth? They’d have taken that before the tournament. But this was a mixed month. Bobby Wood, Jermaine Jones and John Brooks enhanced their reputations, the much-heralded Christian Pulisic and Darlington Nagbe were non-factors, the team is over-reliant on Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley and there’s still no evidence that the coach has a coherent plan that will bear fruit in 2018. TD
As a whole, USA should be extremely proud of reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 1995. We can all look for scapegoats in regards to the 4-0 thrashing against Argentina but there are three reasons why it happened: 1) Tactically, Klinsmann got it wrong and did the exact opposite of what his team had been doing throughout the tournament. 2) Messi. 3) Argentina are the best team in the Americas. LME
