Feature Focus: Copa America 2007

Without the World Cup or a European Championship to focus on this summer, football punters could be forgiven for thinking that summer was going to be a quiet time of year. Never fear, we've got just the tonic. This year's big international tournament comes from the continent of la joga bonita – it's time for Copa America 2007.

This is the 42nd edition of what is South America's equivalent of the European Championship. With some fantastic teams featuring such as Brazil, Argentina and Mexico it promises to be a true feast of football to watch and indeed to bet on. This year's competition will be held in Venezuela for the first time and will be played between June 26th and July 15th. The Copa America is in fact the oldest international tournament in the world, dating back from 1916 when Argentina first decided to host the tournament to celebrate the first centenary of its independence. The great Uruguay team of the earlier part of the last century did in fact win that particular competition and currently share the record of 14 titles each with Argentina. Brazil have seven wins, Paraguay and Peru have two each and Bolivia and Colombia have just one trophy apiece. Although based in South America and run by the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), since 1993 two extra teams have been invited to play in each competition. Recently, Mexico and the USA have been asked to participate along with Japan, Honduras and Costa Rica. This year's invitees are again Mexico and the USA and both will be looking to make their mark on the tournament following a relatively disappointing 2006 World Cup.

The last Copa America (2004) in Peru was a terrific competition and the final between Argentina and Brazil turned into an epic match. With Argentina leading the match 2-1, Adriano managed to snatch a dramatic equalizer in the 93rd minute, forcing the match to penalties in which Brazil eventually triumphed 4-2. Brazil and Argentina remain strong favourites for this year's renewal with both nations trading around 2.8. Mexico sit next in the market at 11.0. However, current holders Brazil have been drawn into a particularly difficult group featuring Mexico, Chile and Ecuador. Coach Dunga has also chosen a squad looking ahead towards the Olympics, the only major title which has so far eluded Brazil, with superstars Kaka and Ronaldinho having been allowed to miss the tournament after arduous domestic seasons. Could the next generation of Brazilian talent unleash a new batch of stars?

Argentina may provide the greater threat. With an attack boasting Saviola, Messi, Crespo and Tevez, the Copa's most successful team should surely prove to be the most formidable force in this year's competition although they haven't won since 1993. Value could also be found in the Mexicans. The most successful of the invitees have reached the final on two separate occasions and feature a mostly domestic-based team with a few names known in Britain, namely former Bolton striker Jared Borgetti and Barcelona defender Rafael Marquez, if the latter recovers from a thigh injury in time. Uruguay (16.0) took a full-strength team to Australia for a friendly recently and have a relatively straightforward group featuring Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru. Many traders will look to take a position on them as they should guarantee themselves pretty smooth progress to at least the semis, only having to face the second-best third-placed team in the quarter-finals if they top their group.

Matches will be shown on Sky with most games kicking off at 22:30 and 00:50 GMT. All games will be in-play and will feature a wide range of markets including many specials. Happy punting!

Website for the Copa America
http://copaamericavenezuela2007.terra.com.br/default.asp?pag=home

International Rankings
http://www.fifa.com
http://www.eloratings.net/copa_america.html

Betting Guide

Tournament markets

Research the tournament schedule and set up. In this event there are three groups with the top pair and the two best thirds qualifying for the quarterfinals. So from the 12 teams, eight qualify for the next round! So don’t go crazy about the early results. Look up all the tie-breakers if teams finish on the same points. If teams win their group they will probably face an easier game in the next round but you never know for sure.

History

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Venue
1989	Brazil	Uruguay	Brazil
1991	Argentina	Brazil	Chile
1993	Argentina	Mexico	Ecuador
1995	Uruguay	Brazil	Uruguay
1997	Brazil	Bolivia	Bolivia
1999	Brazil	Uruguay	Paraguay
2001	Colombia	Mexico	Colombia
2004	Brazil	Argentina	Peru

The home nation has won three of the last eight tournaments including Colombia and Uruguay. Could Venezuela be the surprise packet at big odds?

If you are thinking about backing an outsider with the aim to lay off when they progress you must remember Argentina and Brazil take up nearly 75% of the book percentage and the outsiders will probably remain outsiders until one of these major nations are knocked out.

Match Betting

The normal team news and form is required research but remember in the final group games, nations who have already qualified may rest their stars.

Research the local weather and pitch conditions. Free-flowing games are more often high- scoring affairs, but a poor standard pitch and bad weather can sometimes help the underdog’s chances.

In-play betting

Have an idea of what type of game it will be (high or low-scoring) and what chances you rate each team of winning. You have the Betfair odds pre-game but don’t be scared to do your own odds which could disagree with Betfair.

Come up with a strategy of how you might trade this game. Are you favouring a particular result or do you just want to identify a trend and trade out for a profit? For example if you think it will be a tight start to the game with both teams not wanting to give anything away early, you might want to back under 2.5 goals and then after the first 30 minutes lay off if you think the price is ok.

Try to think one step ahead of the market and ask yourself what is likely to happen in the game and if this happens what will happen to the odds etc.