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Brazil too good in Copa America final

Rivaldo scored two goals and set up a third for Ronaldo as Brazil beat Uruguay 3-0 in an embarrassingly one-sided Copa America final.

The final yesterday saw Rivaldo, bitterly criticised for his earlier performances in the competition and sent off against Mexico, score with a rare header and then a classy chip in a seven-minute first-half spell to kill off a young Uruguay team.

The Barcelona player then set up a third for Ronaldo immediately after half-time as the pair finished joint topscorers with five goals each.

Brazil claimed the title for the second time in a row and their sixth overall, still way behind Uruguay and Argentina who are tied on 14.

Uruguay, who progressed to the final despite resting top players such as Paolo Montero, Gustavo Poyet and Alvaro Recoba after a long season in Europe, finally ran out of luck after a somewhat fortuitous run.

They won just one game in the tournament, qualifying from the first round as one of the best third-placed teams and then drawing both their quarter-final and semi-final ties before winning on penalties.

Ronaldo was celebrating both the title and the fact that, after an injury-plagued season with Inter Milan, he finally had a continuous run of matches without suffering pain.

''After a year of suffering, indecision, uncertainty and treatment, this is a very important moment and I'm very happy,'' he said.

Wanderley Luxemburgo was also celebrating a title after less than a year in one of soccer's hottest seats.

''Today was very important, not just for the conquest... but for the future,'' the Brazil coach said.

Thousands of Uruguayans made the 16-hour journey by road to Montevideo and a 30,000 crowd was roughly split half and half between them and Brazilian fans, who were outsung despite their team's win.

The game got off to a rough start with Brazil clearly determined to match their hard-tackling opponents in the virility stakes. Seven crunching fouls in the first three minutes set the tone for a first half which finished with two players from each team booked and a foul tally of 30.

Uruguay had slightly the better of the opening exchanges, Marcelo Zalayeta wasting an early chance when he shot instead of passing from inside the penalty area.

But Rivaldo quickly destroyed their hopes of an upset. In the 20th minute, Flavio Conceicao took a free kick on the left and Rivaldo headed in from an unmarked position at the far post. Seven minutes later, he ran onto another cross from the left by Ze Roberto and chipped the ball over goalkeeper Fabian Carini for a classy goal.

Uruguay, who had got through previous rounds by frustrating their opponents into submission, never looked as if they would be capable of recovering a two-goal deficit, though they came close to pulling a goal back on the stroke of half-time.

Right-back Martin Del Campo blasted a shot against the crossbar after a one-two on the edge of the penalty area and Andres Fleurquin fired the rebound over.

It was Uruguay's last real chance to save the game.

In the first minute of the second half, Rivaldo sent Ronaldo clear of the defence and the Inter Milan player scored with an emphatic left-foot shot.

Brazil had chances to increase their lead while Zalayeta missed a good chance for a Uruguayan consolation when he shot weakly at Dida, disturbing an otherwise quiet afternoon for the Brazil goalkeeper.

UNI

Goalscorers after yesterday's final: 5-Ronaldo, Rivaldo (Brazil); 4-Amoroso (Brazil); 3-Roque Santa Cruz, Miguel Benitez (Paraguay), Martin Palermo (Argentina), Luis Hernandez (Mexico), Marcelo Zalayeta (Uruguay), Ivan Zamorano (Chile); 2-Roberto Holsen (Peru), Ivan Kaviedes (Ecuador), Wagner Lopes (Japan), Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Mexico), Pedro Reyes (Chile), Victor Bonilla (Colombia); 1-Atsuhiro Miura (Japan), Jorge Soto, Israel Zuniga, Roberto Palacios, Jose Pereda, Nolberto Solano (Peru), Isaac Terrazas, Daniel Osorno, Gerardo Torrado, Miguel Zepeda, Franciso Palencia (Mexico), Ronaldo Assis, Emerson Ferreira, Alex (Brazil), Diego Simeone, Cristian Gonzalez, Juan Pablo Sorin (Argentina), Jose Luis Sierra, Raul Palacios (Chile), Jorge Bolano, Jhonnier Montano, Ivan Cordoba, Edwin Congo, Hamilton Ricard, Neider Morantes (Colombia), Erwin Sanchez (Bolivia), Gabriel Urdaneta (Venezuela), Ariel Graziani (Ecuador), Alejandro Lembo (Uruguay).
Note: Mexico and Japan were specially invited to take part.

UNI