On the Pelota

Zincha is pumped                                                                                                  © Getty Images

There's a big-deal soccer competition going on in Chile right now (June 11-July 4), and it's quite possible that no one in the United States who's not of South American origin has ever heard of it. It's the Copa América, and it's only the oldest such competition in the world. As a public service, then, The Guardian has compiled a handy-dandy study guide about the event. A few highlights: the 10 countries that participate are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela; the official ball this year is the Nike Cachaña; this seems to be Uruguay's contest to lose ~ they're the biggest winners in Copa history, followed closely by Argentina; some of the meets have been particularly colorful (and I'm not talking about the mascots), politics invading the field as it sometimes does: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/17/copa-america-brief-history-conmebol?CMP=ema_565