BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Chile defeated Ecuador 2-0 in the opening game of the 2015 Copa America and broke the tournament's 13-year tying streak for hosting teams. The last time the home team won its opener was in Colombia in 2001, 5,084 days earlier.
It took everything Jorge Sampaoli's squad had to overcome Ecuador. The lack of a point man to allow the team to settle into their game, organize their ideas and avoid clumsy losses of possession behind their midfielders nearly led to a very unpleasant outcome for Chile. Their performance, however commendable with its formation (an utterly offense-focused 3-4-3) showed just how hard it can be for home teams to cope, even with the support of their fans.
The idea that passion is a double-edged sword came to the forefront in the Estadio Nacional in Santiago. When it comes to analyzing the actual play, it is obvious that Chile will need Alexis Sanchez to be at his best in each game, just as Pep Guardiola's FC Barcelona did with Lionel Messi in his time as a false 9. The protege from Arsenal is the lighthouse signaling the coast, letting the Chilean ship sail forward without foundering on the reefs.
Every time the player from Tocopilla touches the ball, something good or surprising happens. If the lighthouse were to go dark, all that would be left is the fighting spirit of Arturo Vidal and the pride of a group of players dedicated to the cause but with no structure. This makes the former Barca player indispensable.
The fact is that Chile have only three other forwards on their 23-player roster, and just one of them has been on his game this season: Angelo Henriquez, who plays for Dinamo Zagreb and who comes to the Copa at the level he was expected to (21 goals in 17 games in the Croatian league, plus six goals in six cup games and three goals in six games in the UEFA Europa League).
Eduardo Vargas and Mauricio Pinilla have experienced an annus horribilis at Queens Park Rangers and Atalanta, respectively, and were called up because of their history with the team. The influence of their pasts gave them the spots that Junior Fernandes and Mark Gonzalez couldn't have.
Yes, Sampaoli and his Chilean side are strongly committed to playing with no set striker, keeping possession of the ball, increasing the number of midfielders who arrive and rejecting static play in any way possible. It's like musical chairs: whoever stops loses their place.
The "Little Bielsa" from Casilda demands constant movement to hide the lack of killers inside the box and advocates the need to have three or four players always ahead of the ball to offer more passing choices to playmakers Jorge "El Mago" Valdivia or, in his absence, Matias Fernandez. Sampaoli won't even consider aerial play. It irks him. He considers his team unfit to hold their own in the air -- as was the case with Guardiola in the era described above -- because, with the exception of Pinilla (1.85m), his forwards are no taller than 1.75 and weigh a mere 70 kilos on average. They are no aerial threat. That's why he always insists on and stresses the need to keep the game low to the ground to counteract the firmness of physically strong and well-equipped defenders.
This was the only way to defeat Ecuador: by punching through along the sidelines (1-0, penalty kick from Vidal) and paying attention to second chances (2-0, recovery in offensive transition and assist from Sanchez to Eduardo Vargas). Sanchez came into this tournament after a 2014-15 season in which he scored 16 goals in 35 Premier League games, knocked in another five in eight cup games and also had four goals in nine Champions League games. He is the key that unlocks this team that reached its peak during the last World Cup.
In 2014 at Maracana Stadium in Brazil, Chile dethroned Spain from its exalted position and gave the Netherlands a run for its money. It now seeks to reload the weapons that have of late begun to rust and reboot itself to win its first title as champion of South America. It is now one step closer to that goal, and it has the talent to back its dreams of glory.