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The first two quarterfinals are played at the Copa America in the United States. Defending champions Argentina face Ecuador in Houston, while debuting Canada face Venezuela in Arlington, with both games going to penalty shootouts.
Argentina opened the quarter-finals, and they scored after more than half an hour: Lisandro Martínez took a corner kick, but it was too late, and the Ecuadorian goalkeeper kicked the ball out of the goal. In the second half, Rodrigo De Paul’s handball earned Ecuador a penalty, but the ball rolled gently onto the post.
In injury time, Kevin Rodriguez scored and Ecuador led 1-1. In South America, extra time only happens in finals, so they went straight to the penalty shootout, and Messi first shot the ball onto the crossbar. However, Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez convincingly stopped the shots of Ecuador’s first two Angel Mena and Alan Minda, and Argentina played everything after Messi: Nicolas Otamendi finally scored the winning goal.
Venezuela faced Canada, who started strongly and took a well-deserved lead in fifteen minutes thanks to a goal from Jacob Schaffelberg. Canada then held on for a long time, until twenty minutes after the break: Venezuela’s all-time leading scorer Salomón Rondón equalized for his country by blasting the ball past Canadian goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau from distance, but it was too far from his goal.
Here, too, it went to penalty shootouts, which were thrilling: both teams scored an early goal, conceded, scored again, conceded again. Jonde Cádiz struck for Venezuela, and Alphonso Davies fired wide again for Canada. However, Wilker Angel’s situation went awry, and Ismael Kone calmly sent Canada into the semifinals, the greatest moment in Canadian soccer history.
Argentina and Canada will play in East Rutherford on Tuesday night. The other two quarter-finals will be played on Saturday night: Colombia vs. Panama and Uruguay vs. Brazil, at 00:00 and 03:00 NL respectively.
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