World Cup runner-up Argentina came to the Copa America in Chile as favourite and was expected to put plenty of goals past its opponents.
Instead it is the lowest scoring team to reach the semifinals in which it clashes with Paraguay in the southern city of Concepcion on Tuesday.
“It’s terrible what it’s costing me to get a goal,” Lionel Messi, accustomed to breaking scoring records in Spain and Europe with Barcelona, said after Argentina beat Colombia 5-4 on penalties following a 0-0 draw in its quarterfinal.
Argentina’s attacking game is improving with each match but defences at the tournament, especially in its tougher half of the draw, have been hard, putting many men behind the ball to handle the likes of Messi and Sergio Aguero.
Aguero has scored two goals, Gonzalo Higuain one and Messi a penalty in Argentina’s four matches. Its defence has three cleans sheets since conceding two goals in a 2-2 draw with Paraguay in its opening match.
“I don’t understand, it appears there’s a different football in South America,” Aguero told reporters after earning a yellow card for dissent protesting at rough treatment from the Colombians and being denied a penalty.
“The referee said ‘This is (Latin) America, kids’, yet we’re from here,” the Manchester City striker added, commenting on something Mexican Roberto Garcia Orozco had said in the heat of the match suggesting forwards could not expect the same protection they were used to in Europe.
