The Copa America Colombia 2001 It was an extraordinary tournament for the Mexican teamalthough unfortunately El Tri fell 90 minutes short of glory. During this edition of the continental tournament, the teams of the CONCACAF They gave the surprise and went far beyond what was expected, because in addition to what Mexico had achieved, Honduras occupied third position.
This edition of the Copa América was marked by off-field situations. On the one hand, Colombia was close to not organizing the tournament as a result of an armed conflict that was taking place inside the country. Likewise, Argentina gave up participating a few hours before the inauguration as a result of a series of threats received by the Albiceleste delegation.
In the end Colombia did organize the tournament and was the team that won the title. This championship is the only one that the Colombian team has achieved in the continental tournament to date. In the match for the title, they beat the Mexican team by the minimum difference with a goal by Iván Ramiro Córdoba in the 69th minute.
Mexico The team was part of Group B and in its debut, it surprised everyone by beating Brazil, who came to the tournament as two-time champions, by the minimum difference. Later, El Tri tied with Paraguay without goals and closed its participation in the group stage with a minimum loss against Peru.
In the quarterfinals, Mexico beat Chile 2-0 to secure their ticket to the semifinals. However, in this round, the big surprise was caused by Honduras after defeating Brazil 2-0. Thus, two of the three invited CONCACAF teams snuck into the semifinal round while the Ticos succumbed in the quarterfinals.
Mexico secured its ticket to the grand final after beating Uruguay 2-1, while Honduras fell 2-0 to the Colombian team. This was how the grand final was decided, in which Colombia was crowned continental champion. For its part, Honduras closed its historic participation by winning the bronze medal after beating Uruguay in a penalty shootout in the match for third place.
The top scorer of the 2001 Copa América Colombia was Colombian Victor Aristizabal, who scored six goals during the tournament. The award for best player went to Honduran Amado Guevara. Finally, as a curious fact, Colombia finished its participation with a perfect record, achieving six victories in the same number of matches and lifted the title without having conceded a single goal.
Since then, Colombia has not been able to repeat this historic participation, so in the 2024 Copa América it will seek to surprise and be crowned for the second time.
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