The real question is who is the final favourite ? For me its an even game i' ll tell you why...

Despite Argentina being Favourite on paper, Chile plays more like a team and have the home advantage wich is Huge in a South American game, the ref could be another variable of the game who would never have a bad call in favor of Chilean rivals, ref wont risk his life so when he doubts the call will be for the home team favour ( I may be wrong, some ref have enough caracter and fairness to do the job correctly ).

The presence of Messi wont let Chile develop their attacking Football as they used to do, we will see in the first 15 minutes who would dominate the midlefield battle and from that we will see teams adapting their tactics...

Argentina last Copa America win was in 1993, Chile has never won it and the staff, players and coach all look motivated and determined to win.

Argentina and Messi wants badly a national trophy, a Copa isnt a World cup, but its a real consolation no matter what people say, waiting for more. Maradona for example never won Copa America and the style of play of South American Football, the motivation and work rate make every team dangerous...

So Copa isnt easier to win, nor more complicated but you should adapt to the weather, the atmosphere, the refs, the pressure, the end of the season form, the small time for nations to prepare...

I dont think its an Alexis/Messi duel, because its disrespecting Isla-Vidal-Valdivia-Bravo and Mascerano-Pastore-Romero-Aguero who were incredible in most of the game, we can also mention some part time achievers like Vargas or Di Maria.

The battle of coaches will be key, both are good and both cant lose this game.

The game is on Saturday and could be Historical for many reasons so to all Football lovers, dont miss that game, quality Football in the air, big expectation, Hungry teams for national victory.

I wont hide the fact that i want Argentina to win it for Messi, for all what this player has accomplished in Europe, he deserves to enter his country hall of fame from the big doors despite already having the love and the respect of his nation, a major trophy would make things clear.

I also have a little sympathy for Chile, Jara and Vidal gates aside, for me they played the best Football of the tournment and i like Bravo-Alexis for obvious reasons...

I predict a close game ( a surprise like Germany-Brazil is always welcome :p ) :

2 - 2 : Argentina on penalties.

Your favourites ? Predictions ? Informations on the game ? Feel free to talk about the topic or South American Football in general.

I haven't seen a single game in this years Copa America thus far (job-related reasons), so I'm not an expert on the topic but from what I've seen in the highlights, the best two teams are in the final. Judging from media coverage and comments on FR and social media, Chile got favoured quite a bit by the refs in the majority of their games, so that's probably one of the factors that Argentina really has to watch out for, meaning that they should keep cool heads and don't get affected by the provocations of the Chileans. Like you, I hope that Argentina win, too, because of multiple reasons (Jara, Vidal, Refs, Messi etc.) but I suppose that it will go down to penalties where anything can happen.

If Argentina played anything like they did against Paraguay, they should destroy Chile. I predict 3-5 goals for Argentina.

I think Argentina's attack is too strong for Chile to hold them 2-3 for Argentina. But, I would really like to see Alexis with trophy.

Chile doesn't fully desrved to be in the final. They have had questionable calls go their way every single game. I expect the final to be the same. Argentina has been playing but were lacking the finess to finish the chances like they did against Paraguay. They wrecked the team (albeit some luck from the early injuries). Chile has yet to really impress scraping by against Uruguay and Peru, who with 1 man down most the game almost took the game to penalties.

I think Argentina will win it. 2 consecutive finals, thats pretty great.

@Rai

Two consecutive finals? Wasn't it Uruguay-Paraguay last time?

@D: He's talking about the WC final, Germany - Argentina. Was probably meant as 2 consecutive finals in major national competitions.

2-0 for Argentina. I think they will break them in second half.

@Dynastian

thing is that Chile is not Paraguay

Amazing first half.

Congrats Chile. I couldnt watch the game but Argentina lost in the Finals, with penaties, again. Unlucky for them.

Deserved win for Chile, they were clearly the better side yesterday. They showed more intensity, more aggression, more desire to win and gave Argentina absolutely no space and no time to create something magical due to their early pressing. The Chilean coach did a fantastic job, contrary to Tata Martino who apparently got his two jobs only because of Messi. Speaking of Messi, that was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from him. He always talks about how he wants to give everything for his country and how much winning some titles with Argentina would mean to him, but what the hell was THIS?? If you give everything, but it just doesn't work out on that day.. okay, that's understandable, it can happen to everybody.. but it's like Messi didn't even try to win, he just stood on the pitch and was invisible for 90 minutes (mind you, I didn't watch extra time, I can only tell you my opinion on the first 90 mins). Agüero was terrible, too, but at least he tried more than Messi.

Keep playing Higuain instead of Tevez, you just can't get it worse.

@Juan Messi didnt perform to his standart but its a little exagerated vision of his game, there was no movement, nobody of his team oppened space for him not even once, he should have done better because he is Messi, but he is far from being the worst Argentinian on the pitch.

Higuain costed Argentina a World cup and a copa America, Messi was playing in the line of midlefield, the tactic was infernal for him and Pastore who used to link with him didnt, they were isolated geniously for the reason that Chile got a good tactician coach and also Argentina was very predictible and Messi dependant whole tournment.

Without even mentioning the penalty miss.

Messi was far below his standarts knowing what he is able to do with a ball, but he got no help and seemed tired and limitted physically after a Huge season, i dont think he did it on purpose, Messi may seem walking on the pitch but he is far from being a lazy player, even at 5-0 he keeps playing.
The defeat was a collective one, i would blame Rojo and Higuain more than him, Rojo was schooled by Isla whole game, Chile had a highway on the left flank, all the actions were from there plus causing stupid fouls, and not far from getting a red card, Di Maria injured in both finals costing his team a precious substitution, Biglia is useless in creating chances and going forward, Lavezzi wasted many chances, Aguero did his best but was a little isolated like the rest.

Martino didnt take any risk in the tactic and looked clueless and predectible, its far from being only one man defeat, in fact despite his decent performence comparing to his standarts, he was one of the only players who created chances.

No, I believe @JuanMata10 is correct. Messi has a distinct lack of effort in matches where he doesn't get in his groove. If things don't go his way, he tends to give up and go invisible. It's different from being invisible due to heavy marking. Messi wasn't man-marked that heavily. He faced worse against Bayern and still came out on top. He just simply didn't have things going his way and apparently decided to give up. This is what separates a fine line between Messi and Maradona for me. Messi is perhaps the more skillful player, but Maradona's never-say-die attitude is far superior to Messi's careless approach at times.

I think you overrate a little Maradona, Messi is human just like any other player and people tend to forget it, Maradona wasnt MOTM every game, he failed miserably vs Germany in 1990 and was stopped for dopping in 1994, never won Copa America and didnt have half of Messi consistence during his career...
We only know the highlight of his career and yes the game that time was very harsh but tactics were less elaborate than now, now you are marked by 3 or 4 players and in Messi case, teams tries to isolate him and get the ball before he even touch it...
Plus this year Messi played as a midlefielder, far from being a striker and he matched Ronaldo stats wich is outstanding, we can compare Messi influence to Maradona, and actually only him could be compared to Maradona, not even Pelé.

If you watch Maradona highlight vs Germany in WC final loss 1990, Maradona was whining whole game, he flopped badly because he is also a human.
1986 was his establishement year, he was unknown to England and other teams and his legendary goal wasnt more complicated than Messi vs Bilbao for example,he got time and space and the pace wasnt the same ( still legendary for the period ) anyway Messi and Maradona are different players, Maradona was more physical, Messi is the best modern Footballer in History.

After what did Messi this year, Vs Atletico Vs Bilbao vs Sevilla vs Bilbao vs PSG vs Manchester city Vs Bayern Munich Vs Villareal vs Ajax and the list is long, you cant say this, the timing is not appropriate to make a generality from the 80th game of Messi season, thats unfair and doesnt link up with reality.

His Copa wasnt like what he showed before, but he did some good job, involved in 6 goals vs Paraguay playing very far from goal and being constantly agressed.

How many games did we watched from Maradona, i watched some when Maradona lost the game and other where he won thanks to a teammate, if Higuain didnt flopped in those games you would be saying the complete opposite...

When you dont have the ball and your team is defending, you cant say that you gave up, you just dont have the ball, and when you get it from midlefield, you are systematically fouled, they never let him start one of his legendary runs and that was really smart, Argentina got outplayed in any domain and they were lucky to have Messi, without him Chile would have been attacking much more, his teammates didnt benefit from the space created defending on Messi, thats the difference at Barça, Messi can find Neymar or Jordi Alba, even Rakitic sees the space and goes in, then get assisted wonderfully like Vs City. With Argentina you got Rojo, Di Maria injured then Lavezzi who didnt take his responsability and prefered to assist Higuain, put Neymar instead and the ball would have been curved with the right foot in the net wich happened at least 10 times this season from the same situation.

I think no one will ever replace Maradona for Argentina. Messi was the closest to match him, but not for the national team.

I kinda feel a bit sorry for Messi, losing 2 straight titles and so close to win must be very frustrating...

@Dynastian it wasn't Messi who disappeared, it was whole Argentina attacking force who disappeared. Messi's game was one of his worse but they are national team with one of the strongest attack in the world, they can't rely just on Messi every time.

And everyone is blaming Higuain that he costed Argentina World Cup and now Copa America. Okay he missed really big chance in the final, but they didn't lost the game because of him. 2nd, yea his penalty was really awful, but he wasn't the only one who missed it. By the way that chance in 90 wasn't that easy as u think, Lavezzi's pass was really awful.

The Problem is not Messi guys.
Messi plays just like in every game.
Sometimes he is amazing doing everything sometimes he is good dictating the tempo and creating chances for the team and sometimes he is bad(less times).
The problem is Argentina.
They are not a team.
They are a group of high class individuals.
Everyone who gets the ball have no idea what he should do with it.
if you want to change that you have to spend hours of working on your tactics and the most important of all you need to have the balls to change what is really not working in the game.
For example Di Maria playing shit substitute Di Maria not Pastore only because he hasnt the reputation of Di maria.
The Same goes for everyone

Well lets take a little example : last year and this year...

Between Ronaldo and Messi, Ronaldo last year had a full season with Madrid, scoring 17 goals in CL, doing all the runs and fighting every minute, he went exhausted into world cup, he showed absolutely nothing and it was understandable. Lost 4-0 vs Germany, drew Vs Ghana painfully and i cant remember the third rival.
Messi did the opposite, he had clearly kept energy for world cup, and it affected his performences with Barça a little but he was full strenght ready for world cup scoring last winner in the 2 first games, from absolutely his own, one solo run and one last minute shot outside the box, that was the start of his very good world cup.

This year is the opposite, from January to June Messi gave his all in every competition, he scored a big numbers of goals and was the focal point of Barça attack, he did some legendary performences in CL and Copa, also in the league.

He didnt played Argentina friendlies for an obvious reason, to regenerate some juice it wasnt enough to be at 100% whole competition.

Lets take another example, Aguero, last year he ended up champion of PL with a huge season, end up dead in World cup, this year he was fit considering his moderated playing time and extra energy saved ( on purpose or not ).

We cant talk about Hazard mediocre performence in the world cup or Costa, its almost the same for everyone when you have a competition in June, what you did the whole year affect your form. In a high level in 2014/15, even the best players in the world cant play at 50% of their abilities and its good like this because the actual level is incredible.

Messi failed to do a miracle alone vs Chile, everyone saw it, Messi was walking and i dont understand how people can say he doesnt give a fuck, actually a trophy with Argentina would be better than a treble with his club im 100% sure, he just couldnt do what he is able to do because the rival was very strong and because he wasnt at 100%.

I dont blame his potential, he is by far the best player of the last decade or even more.

I dont think Maradona would have won facing this actual Chile with current Argentinian form, vs Jamaica they looked inconsistent, they were not really safe in the back and when you see Messi touching most of his balls in his own part of the field, that means that the work isnt done.

Anyway even if Messi won one of those finals we couldnt say that he was better than Maradona considering that they havent the same facilities nor the dificulties, both eras were much different and both players are the best of their eras.
Maradona was built to play that time, Messi was built to play now, i wouldnt have said that Messi is better if Argentina had won anyway.