Dream finale

Rivals Brazil, Argentina face off in Copa America title game

Adriano's tournament-leading six goals in five games has put enough bite in Brazil's attack to reach the Copa final. AP

LIMA (Reuters) -- World champion Brazil meets archrival Argentina on Sunday in a perfect finale to a Copa America that has already surpassed expectations. (LIVE COVERAGE)

The clash in Lima's national stadium comes less than two months after Brazil's 3-1 win in their World Cup qualifier in Belo Horizonte, when Ronaldo won and converted a hat-trick of penalties.

The Real Madrid striker will not be present this time. Along with Kaka, Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos, he is one of several top players to be rested for the tournament by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Yet the five-time World Cup winner has still managed to reach the final in an awesome demonstration of their strength-in-depth.

"We've shown the magnitude of Brazilian football," Parreira said.

Meanwhile, Argentina has almost certainly kept coach Marcelo Bielsa in a job by getting this far.

The introverted coach, who last week admitted he had trouble understanding himself, had not been expected to survive a poor tournament after a spell of lackluster performances and unremarkable results.

IMPRESSIVE SCORING

Instead, Argentina has scored 14 goals and conceded four on its way to the final. Twenty-year-olds Javier Macherano and Carlos Tevez have both looked outstanding and Bielsa appears to have secured his position.

Brazil has also been unveiling alternatives to the old guard, in particular striker Adriano who is the Copa's top-scorer with six goals in five games including a hat-trick against Costa Rica.

The two giants of South American football have not met in the final since the Copa America was re-invented in the late 1980s and it appears organizers did not intend them to clash this time either.

Along with host Peru, the pair were top seeds for the three first round groups and would have met in the semifinals if everything had gone to plan and they had won their groups.

Peru, meanwhile, would not have run into either of them before the final.

However, all three teams finished as runners-up in their groups, meaning that Argentina faced Peru in the quarterfinals while Brazil fell into the other half of the draw.

Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa has refused to accept that his team is the favorite despite Brazil's absentees.

"The question of favorites is a game which overloads the responsibilities or a team and lightens the load of the other," he said.

"The obligations which we feel arise from the sentiment of wanting to win."

Parreira said: "Argentina are a team who do everything well. They mark well, they run a lot and they play well when they've got the ball.

"They're a team who can play and stop the opposition from playing."

But he added: "There's no reason for us to be afraid of them."

Brazil: 1-Dida, 13-Maicon, 3-Luisao, 4-Juan, 6-Gustavo Nery; 5-Renato, 8-Kleberson, 10-Alex, 11-Edu; 9-Luis Fabiano, 7-Adriano

Argentina: 1-Roberto Abbondanzieri; 8-Javier Zanetti, 2-Roberto Ayala, 6-Gabriel Heinze, 3-Juan Pablo Sorin; 5-Javier Maschero, 16-Luis Gonzalez, 11-Carlos Tevez; 19-Cesar Delgado, 9-Luciano Figueroa, 18-Cristian Gonzalez

Referee: Carlos Amarilla (Paraguay)

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