The Venezuelan national team, ‘La Vinotinto’, advanced as leader of Group B of the Copa America 2024 that takes place in the United States, with a total of 9 points, the maximum that could be achieved in 3 games played in the group stage. The ‘chamos’ managed to defeat Jamaica with a score of 3 goals to 0 this Sunday, in the city of Austin, Texas, after having defeated Ecuador and Mexico.
With this result, Venezuela will be facing Canada in the quarterfinals of the continental championship.
The goals came thanks to the forwards Eduard Bello, Salomon Rondon, and Erick Ramírez, who were the protagonists of thousands of screams of emotion, joy, and tears of great passion and love for the Venezuelan feeling of all the fans who were in the stands of Q2 Stadium in Austin. It must be remembered that the match was directed by Fernando ‘Bocha’ Batista’s assistant, who was suspended for this match and was replaced by Leandro Cufre.
A negative aspect for the Venezuelans was that Darwin Machis would miss the game against Canada for having received his second yellow card against Jamaica.
The Vinotinto team, supported in Austin by almost 20,000 fans in the stadium and the 3-0 win over Jamaica, will head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington (Texas) for the quarterfinals against Canada, second behind Argentina in Group A. Jamaica, for its part, says goodbye to the championship without having added points, finishing fourth. Venezuela had four players on the verge of suspension (Machis, Christian Casseres, Nahuel Ferraresi, and Miguel Navarro) going into the match with Jamaica, and ‘Bocha’ Batista only lined up one player as a starter, Darwin Machis, who, despite having received his second yellow card, demonstrated a great level of play and contributed a lot to the Venezuelan offense.
Who scored with Venezuela against Jamaica?
Machis was a constant threat to the rival defense with his change of pace and could have put La Vinotinto ahead on the stroke of half-time with a cross from the left wing that almost surprised the rival goalkeeper, who made a very commendable and high-level intervention to prevent the players of ‘La Vinotinto’ from scoring first. But it was only a matter of waiting for Venezuela.
Four minutes into the second half, Jon Aramburu delivered a perfect cross from the left wing that Eduard Bello took advantage of to get past Ethan Pinnoch and head in for the 1-0. The Vinotinto released the tension and seven minutes later a goal came that did a lot of damage to Jamaica’s morale and Venezuela’s motivation skyrocketed. The protagonist? The number 9 scorer for the Tuzos del Pachuca, Salomon Rondon, who knocked out the goalkeeper after receiving a great pass from the star player of Girona of Spain, Yangel Herrera.
The Gladiator, as Rondon is known, celebrated his second goal in this Copa América and left Jamaica emotionally touched. Rondon is the top scorer in Venezuelan history; He has 43 goals in a total of 106 games played.
Everything works for Venezuela. Rondon was substituted in the 81st minute of the match, Eric Ramírez entered in his place and received a long and more than deserved ovation from the public. Less than four minutes later, Ramírez did not hesitate to face the rival goalkeeper in a one-on-one after a great assist from Kervin ‘Tuti’ Andrade and beat him to make it 3-0. The Q2 Stadium duel ended in a festive atmosphere for a Vinotinto that does not set limits.
