Argentina qualified for the 2024 Copa America quarterfinals with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Chile in the group stages. This also marked sweet revenge for the reigning World Champions over the Chilean side that had defeated them in the Copa America 2016 final at the MetLife Stadium.
The group game was a pretty tightly contested affair between two of the Copa America favorites. Argentina controlled the majority of the game, and veteran goalkeeper Claudio Bravo actually kept his side in the game for a long time. But then Lautaro Martinez scored from a rebound attempt from a corner in the 84th minute.
The goal itself was a bit of a contested one and had a lengthy VAR check. That is because it appeared an Argentine player might’ve been blocking the vision of Bravo when the corner was taken and before the goal was scored. The striker was seen from multiple angles, including one from over the top to determine if Bravo was indeed impeded.
It turns out that he wasn’t and Argentina got their winning goal in the dying minutes. However, a brilliant meme has been created thanks to all the angles being used by the VAR team to determine if the goal was legal or not. A popular meme showed the lines divided in the box, with the players inside the area being claimed to ‘represent’ Argentina.
There was a line drawn on top of the goal-line, representing Chile inside the goal and the area beside it as well. This might be a bit difficult to grasp for a lot of fans, but the geography nerds will probably have a blast in decrypting it.
To understand this meme, one would need to know the geographical location of South America and where all the countries are situated on a map. If one knows their geography well, it’ll be well known that Argentina and Chile are neighboring countries in South America and that Chile is actually the Southernmost country in the world.
The borders of Argentina and Chile (on a map) are divided by a similar line that has been created to form this meme. Argentina is also represented to be a bigger country by the penalty area, while Chile’s size is represented in the tiny side areas of the field – including the penalty box itself.
The Argentina-Chile border is the longest border of South America and the third-longest in the world. It stretches over a length of 5,300 kilometers, separating the two countries along the Andes mountain range and the island of Tierra del Fuego. However, there has been occasional border disputes between the countries that have led to tensions.
Those tensions have escalated into football and resulted in Argentina and Chile sharing an intense rivalry on the field. That is why the matches tend to be aggressive and heated, with the recent Copa America clash seeing 21 fouls being committed. There is a competitive rivalry between the fanbases too, which is why the Argentine fans were especially delighted to getting a win over their neighbors.
Argentina and Chile could meet again in the Copa America if able to reach the final. Lionel Messi’s side has already stamped their authority as clear-cut favorites to win the thing, while Chile will need to work hard and produce something special to get revenge over their fiery neighbors.
