Copa América 2001

Infobox International Football Competition
tourney_name =
year = 2001
other_titles =


size =
caption =
country = Colombia
dates = July 11 - July 29
num_teams = 12
confederations = 2
venues = 7
cities = 7
champion = Colombia
count = 1
second = Mexico
third = Honduras
fourth = Uruguay
matches = 26
goals = 60
attendance =
top_scorer = flagicon|COL Víctor Aristizábal (6)
player = flagicon|HON Amado Guevara
updated =

The Copa América 2001 was held in Colombia, from July 11 to July 29, 2001. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body.

There is no qualifying for the final tournament. CONMEBOL's ten South American countries (French Guyana, Suriname and Guyana are CONCACAF, not CONMEBOL, affiliates) participate, along with two more invited countries, making a total of twelve teams competing in the tournament.

Prior to the tournament, three meetings were held by CONMEBOL authorities who were concerned about potential security issues in Colombia. They announced the cancellation of the tournament. [cite news |last=Vickery |first=Tim|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/1463050.stm |title=Colombia seize first Copa crown |publisher=BBC |date=2001-07-30|accessdate=2008-01-24] Venezuela offered to host the competition, but at the last minute, CONMEBOL decided to return the organization to Colombia, and the tournament was held on schedule.

Complaining about the sudden reversal, and claiming that Argentine players had received death threats from terrorist groups, the Argentine Football Association decided to withdraw from the competition, in spite of long days of debate, during which Colombian authorities proposed to implement additional protection measures. Despite the general disappointment of the Argentinian people, most Argentinians considered that their reasons were genuine and the incident did not generate any significant disagreement inside that country, though the decision was criticized in Colombia and elsewhere. The Canadian Soccer Association also withdrew for similar reasons. After the cancellation was announced Canada disbanded their training camp and Canadian players returned to their club teams. The Canadians worried that their security was threatened due to their win over Colombia at the previous year's Gold Cup.

Because Canada and Argentina withdrew, on July 6 and July 10 respectively, Costa Rica and Honduras were invited. The Honduras team was a last minute invitee and arrived with barely enough players on July 13, 2001 in an airplane provided by Colombia Air Force after the tournament started and just few hours before its first game. Although Argentina withdrew, when its replacement Honduras defeated and eliminated the favorite Brazil 2-0 in quarter-finals on Monday, July 23, 2001, all Argentinians celebrated the elimination of Brazil because of the Argentina and Brazil football rivalry. Some Argentine newspapers published news like "We lent our T-Shirts to our replacement Honduras in order to beat our rival Brazil", as Honduras' uniform is a T-shirt with white and blue stripes, similar to Argentina's, except that the Argentine uniform uses sky blue.Fact|date=October 2008

Venues

July 11, 2001

Group B

July 12, 2001

Group C

July 13, 2001

Best third-placed teams

At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third-placed teams of each group. The two best third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals.

July 23, 2001

Third Place match

July 28, 2001

References