Chi Chi Chi! Le Le Le!

It's all over until next year and Chile are officially the Champions of South America having won their first ever Copa America on Saturday night! It wasn't exactly a classic of a final in Santiago by any stretch; if anything it mirrored the rest of the tournament which was far from a classic, however it was a match in which the hosts showed what their all about and ultimately deservedly ran out as eventual winners.

So, who starred for Chile?

To be fair, who *didn't* star for Chile at some point over the course of the tournament? Alexis Sanchez, despite not being quite at his best during the latter stages of tournament, showed what quality we all know he possess; Arturo Vidal, Chile's other world class name, had a better and more consistent tournament, yet it wasn't without it's controversial moments. Should he have seen red for a moment of madness involving Carlos Zambrano? As for the car crash, we all know just how serious that could've been. Claudio Bravo as you'd expect, especially given his excellent campaign for Barcelona this season, was a rock in between the sticks for La Roja and put the final nail in Argentina's coffin in the penalty shoot out, saving Ever Banega's weak effort.

As for the rest of Chile's star performers, the majority aren't what the majority would consider as "world class" stars. Ex-Cardiff man Gary Medel was outstanding at the heart of Chile's ever-changing defence; Isla, Jara, Francisco Silva, Mena, Jose Rojas AND Albornoz all featured alongside the Chilean Pitbull at one stage or another. The midfield trio of Marcelo Diaz, Charles Aranguiz and Jorge Valdivia are sometimes overlooked, all three are capable of playing for top teams across Europe - Aranguiz, who has been linked with Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City would be an outstanding edition to any team. Only Diaz made it into the official Team of the Tournament; both Aranguiz and "El Mago" Valdivia were easily deserving of a place in the team, perhaps both over Diaz himself. I suppose that joint top-scorer Eduardo Vargas didn't have a bad tournament either. He's another member of the Chile squad that have been relegated with Premier League sides and given the quality he clearly possesses, it tricky to work out why - he's clearly good enough for a top side, but why does he never seem to be able to consistently perform if he's not being managed by Sampaoli?! One of football's mysteries, that.

Have Argentina improved since the World Cup?

I don't think so. We all remember Argentina's World Cup campaign; frustrating and low scoring, but in the end they got the job done and I feel their Copa America campaign of 2015 was a similar story. The only goals Argentina conceded in the tournament were to Paraguay, 3 of them in total, La Albiceleste managed to keep clean sheets against Uruguay, Colombia and Chile which is no mean feat. However, you still get the feeling they should be offering more given their attacking firepower that they clearly possess, as Paraguay found out first hand in their 6-1 demolition, and the only time you really feel Argentina got going.

So who were their star men? As you'd expect given their defensive record, a lot of the plaudits went to their defensive players; the Spanish based duo of Nicolas Otamendi and Javier Mascherano were both named in the official Team of the Tournament. Sergio Aguero was not named in the official team, however seeing as Peru's Paolo Guerrero is not on FUT due to him being based in Brazil with Flamengo, I've included the little Argentinian who was desperately unlucky to substituted in the final to my Team of the Tournament. Then we have Lionel Messi and boy did the little magician try and try, but there's not much you can do when Gary Medel is at your ankles 24/7. He wasn't poor by any stretch, but he didn't have the level of impact on the tournament we would expect to have seen if he was in a Barcelona shirt, for example.

As for the rest?

I was hugely impressed with Peru, who came into the tournament off of a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign. They'd hired former Velez Sarsfield and Palmeiras coach Ricardo Gareca and the effect he had on the squad was simply unimaginable. Paolo Guerrero finished as the tournaments top scorer for the 2nd time running, home-based players Carlos Cueva and Carlos Lobaton were upstanding; the former was another named in the official TOTT, but is of course, like Guerrero, not on FUT. I therefore had to find a Peruvian to go into my TOTT instead of Cueva and I found it in the form of Hoffenheim's fullback and speed-demon Luis Advincula, who had an outstanding tournament and is now being monitored by the likes of West Ham.

Colombia's Jeison Murillo, one of Inter Milan's latest acquisitions, was named Young Player of the Tournament after fighting off the likes of Derlis Gonzalez of Paraguay.Speaking of Paraguay, they're unlucky to not have a representative in this TOTT, Lucas Barrios was another one of their men who had a good couple of weeks in Chile. It was a tournament to forget for some of Colombia's star men though; James Rodriguez, Juan Cuadrado and Radamel Falcao just a few that really failed to make an impact before being dispatched by Argentina on penalties. The less said about Uruguay and Brazil the better - of course both were missing their star men for disciplinary reasons, however the rest of their squads hardly covered themselves in glory.

Again, huge congratulations to the hosts, Chile. They're a nation that I didn't necessarily think would win, however they're the nation that I wanted to win. And do you wanna know what's best? We get to do this all again next year in the Copa America Centenario, which is being hosted in the United States! It will feature 16 teams from both COMNEBOL and CONCACAF, including all of the South American sides from this year's competition, the USMNT, Mexico, World Cup surprise package Costa Rica, Jamaica, plus two more... god am I looking forward to that!

I leave with my Team of the Tournmanet. Enjoy folks! #PACKPARTY

Team of the Tournament

Starting XI

GK: Claudio Bravo (Chile / FC Barcelona)

RB: Luis Advincula (Peru / 1899 Hoffenheim)

CB: Nicolas Otamendia (Argentina / Valencia CF)

CB: Gary Medel (Chile / Inter Milan)

CB: Jeison Murillo (Colombia / Inter Milan)

CDM: Javier Mascherano (Argentina / FC Barcelona)

CDM: Marcelo Diaz (Chile / Hamburger SV)

CAM: Arturo Vidal (Chile / Juventus FC)

RW: Lionel Messi (Argentina / FC Barcelona)

ST: Sergio Aguero (Argentina / Manchester City)

ST: Eduardo Vargas (Chile / Napoli)

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Squad Link: http://www.futwiz.com/en/custom-squad/183690

@Rawrdrigoo