The 1945 South American Championship (, ) was the 18th international association football championship for members of the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL). Hosted by Chile, the competition ran from 14 January – 28 February 1945 and was contested by the national teams of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay.

Argentina won the competition for the seventh time after Brazil won 1–0 against Chile in the final round of match of the round-robin tournament.

Background In 1910, the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) organised a tournament to mark the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution. The Copa Centenario Revolución de Mayo was contested by the national teams of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and is considered to be a precursor to the South American Championship. Six years later, the AFA organised a second tournament, this time to celebrate the centenary of the Argentine Declaration of Independence. Alongside the three who had contested the Copa Centenario Revolución de Mayo, Brazil were invited to compete and the South American Championship was born. During the competition, the four associations of the competing teams met on 9 July 1916 and founded the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL).

Uruguay were the defending champions having won the 1942 edition after defeating Argentina 1–0 in the final and decisive match. Uruguay were also the most successful team in the history of the competition having won the trophy on eight occasions.

Paraguay and Peru withdrew prior to the start of the competition so only seven of the nine CONMEBOL members would compete.

Format The tournament was played as a round-robin where each team would play all of the others once. The winner would be decided by the total number of points obtained across all matches played. Should two or more teams be tied with the greatest number of points, a play-off would be organised to decide the winner.

Participants

Squads

Venue All matches were held at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago. SantiagoEstadio NacionalCapacity: 70,000

Summary The competition began on 14 January when a hat-trick from Juan Alcántara helped hosts Chile to a 6–3 win against Ecuador. Four days later, Argentina began the tournament with a 4–0 win against Bolivia and, on 21 January, Brazil defeated Colombia 3–0. Three days later, Chile won 5–0 against Bolivia and defending champions Uruguay recorded a 5–1 win against Ecuador in their first match. On 28 January, Uruguay defeated Colombia 7–0 and Brazil won 2–0 against Bolivia. Three days later, Chile won 2–0 against Colombia and Argentina recorded a 4–2 win against Ecuador. On 7 February, Argentina defeated Colombia 9–1 and Brazil won 3–0 against Uruguay. With just over half the matches played, Argentina, Brazil and Chile were tied at the top of the table with six points from six.

Four days later, Bolivia and Ecuador played out a goalless draw and Chile drew 1–1 with Argentina. On 15 February, Uruguay won 2–0 against Bolivia and Argentina won 3–1 against Brazil to move two points clear at the top. Three days later, Colombia won their first match of the competition by defeating Ecuador 3–1 and Chile defeated 10-man Uruguay 1–0. With four games left to play, Chile and Argentina were tied on nine points at the top, three clear of Brazil. On 21 February, Bolivia and Colombia drew 3–3 and a hat-trick from Ademir helped Brazil to a 9–2 win against Ecuador.

The final two matches were played three days apart on 25 and 28 February. First, Argentina defeated Uruguay 1–0 in their last game to sit two points clear of Chile and eliminate Brazil from the championship permutations. In the last match, Brazil defeated Chile by the same score line to hand the title to Argentina.

Table

Results

Goalscorers

References