Copa América oral history: Former USMNT players recall tournaments past. ‘It was wild’

Venezuela 2007

The U.S. returned to Copa for the third time as an invited guest. But most of the regulars didn’t go after helping the Americans beat Mexico in the Concacaf Gold Cup final, which was played in Chicago three days before the 2007 Copa kicked off. Left back Jonathan Bornstein was one of the few players who competed in both events. The U.S. opened the tournament with a 4-1 loss to Argentina and a youngster named Lionel Messi, who had just turned 20.

Jonathan Bornstein: The Gold Cup roster was pretty much all European-based. But the European players needed to go back to before their seasons, so that Copa America squad was a majority of MLS guys.

Brad Guzan: It was more or less a completely different group.

Bornstein: Everybody was aware of Messi, but there were a lot of very high quality players on Argentina: Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano. I can still remember the intensity with which they passed the ball. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. I remember a really hard driven ball into [Juan Román] Riquelme, and he just cushions in front of him like it was like a soft pass. Just the speed and the pace at which they did things, it was another level. I was like, ‘Damn, that’s how I have to play.’ It was a great learning experience for the entire team.

It was an experience off the field, too. Political relations between Venezuela and the U.S. had deteriorated significantly in the years before that edition of the Copa América.

Bornstein: We weren’t very welcome. We always had to have security with us. For our safety, we couldn’t leave our hotel compound. When we would drive from the hotel to the practice field, we’d have a helicopter overhead with soldiers holding machine guns leaning out the door. That’s the thing I remember the most.

Guzan: The helicopter was only 100 feet above us. We had a decoy bus, we had Humvees in front and behind, had to take different routes to training. The training pitch was surrounded by armed soldiers. It was wild.

The U.S. narrowly lost its next two games, to Paraguay and Colombia.

Bornstein: We might not have been playing in Europe at the time, but we were quality soccer players representing our country. I remember Bob [Bradley, the U.S. coach] mentioning, like, ‘This is the team that was chosen, and this is the team that’s got to get the job done.” That was the mentality of the group, even if we didn’t get the results we wanted. The last two games we were in. If a couple of bounces had gone our way, for sure we could’ve gotten points out of them.”

USA 2016

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the inaugural Copa América, CONMEBOL and Concacaf joined forces to organize an expanded 16-team event to be hosted in packed NFL Stadiums across the U.S.

Bedoya: It was special to play in that Copa América Centenario. I grew up in a Colombian household, and we always watched the Copa. Colombia won it in 2001, when the tournament was held there. My family was so happy. After the World Cup, it’s the biggest trophy there is for South American teams.

Guzan: It was exciting to be part of a Copa América again. Hosting it added another element to it.

The U.S. dropped its opener to Colombia, then reeled off victories against Costa Rica and Paraguay to top the group. That set up a quarterfinal with Ecuador in Seattle, which the home team won 2-1.

Guzan: The pitch wasn’t great. It was super heavy. That said, we were up for it. We knew we put ourselves in a perfect spot to get a big result, and we did. It was a fantastic day for U.S. Soccer.

The only downside? Bedoya and fellow midfielder Jermaine Jones were suspended for the semifinal against Messi’s Argentina.

Bedoya: That’s one of my biggest regrets. I wish me and Jermaine were available for that Argentina game, because we all know what happened.

The shorthanded U.S. lost 4-0. Messi opened the scoring early by beating Guzan with an inch-perfect free kick, and Argentina never looked back.

Guzan: It’s not every day you have someone who can get the ball up and over the wall and still have it move away from you into the top corner. You’re trying to allow the wall to do its job and not cheat. Obviously, he scored. But I’m not sure we even touched the ball during the first 20 minutes of that game.

The defeat sent the Americans to the third place match, where they again faced — and lost to — Colombia.

Bedoya: It’s not a final, but it’s still a match you want to win. You want to finish as high as possible. I grew up cheering for the Colombian team. It’s a special game for myself and my family. But I represent USA. I’m American. So yeah, I definitely wanted to win the third place game. Unfortunately, we fell short again. But overall, we had a good Copa América. I thought we played pretty well given the opponents we faced.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered the United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him at @ByDougMcIntyre.