He stepped up to the penalty spot knowing that if he made this kick he would secure the first Copa America title in the 99 years of the tournament for Chile. Everyone knows that Alexis Sanchez has guts, but what he did was amazing; chipping the ball and sending the ‘keeper the wrong way, winning the Copa America for his country in their home stadium. Santiago went mental.
After plenty of talk this season about his fitness levels being poor due to playing so many games for his club, and the cups for Arsenal as well after the World Cup. Now he has played through the full Copa America, and lots of eyes have been turned towards him to see if he could perform due to lot of physical strain on his body. Back in December, his club manager Arsene Wenger in an interview said that his fitness level is definitely in the red zone right now due to playing so many matches. He did score 16 goals in the Premier League, so it did not seem like he was too out of it during the season.
But something definitely seemed wrong as throughout the whole Copa America he only scored one goal in Chile’s six matches. That goal came in a 5-0 win over Bolivia, and in many interviews we kept hearing the phrase “He just doesn’t seem like Alexis Sanchez”. During the club season with Arsenal, Wenger said that he was always able to dig deep when it was needed. After a while though, he just couldn’t dig anymore. As we could see in a couple of his matches in Chile this summer, he just seemed exhausted and unfocused.
But having faith in his star player, Jorge Sampaoli put Alexis Sanchez to go forth, a spot that almost always means a crucial penalty kick. With the confidence from his manager, he stepped up and buried the penalty to give Chile the Copa America title and book their place at the 2017 Confederations Cup. That penalty was a very gutsy one, as he tried and scored the chip. That bold move should hopefully give him some confidence going forward as he gets ready to return to Arsenal for the upcoming season.
