Chile took home the 2015 Copa America on Saturday, marking a day that will forever be in the country's history.

After 99 years of futility, the nation finally had a moment to celebrate soccer in its country. The result didn't came easy, with Argentina a strong opponent, but the team managed the game quite well and took advantage in the penalty shootout.

How did the team manage the feat? In a penalty shootout, the luck certainly played a role, especially considering that Gonzalo Higuain's horrid miss changed the complexion of the shootout for both sides. 

To get to the shootout, however, Chile had to shut down Argentina. That came down to a brilliant plan by one person, Jorge Sampaoli. Chile's taskmaster had to know Argentina would enter the contest with a 4-3-3 formation.

He probably watched the 6-1 thumping of the Paraguayans at the hands of the Argentinians and likely noticed something quite crucial: Messi was a factor on not one, not two, not three, not four, not even five, but all six goals. More importantly, he saw Messi factor in on those six goals without scoring one himself.

So he likely knew that the plan had to be to shut down Mess,i and by doing so, cut off Argentina's offensive supply system.

He played his cards perfectly.

Opting for a 4-3-1-2 that had become a custom for his side since the knockout rounds, Sampaoli clogged the midfield and had his defenders, particularly Jean Beausejour, harass Messi for the full 12-0 minutes.

The result? Messi was knocked off his game, often looked isolated and lacked any sort of impact. The decision to stack three in the midfield in front of the back four also limited Messi's ability to cut into space and make his trademark runs and dribbles.

Here is Messi's stat line for the evening: one shot (none on target), a passing success rate of 74 percent, just two touches in the opposition penalty area, one key pass, 71 touches, seven dribbles, one accurate cross, no accurate long balls and no accurate through balls.

This is a man who completed 83.7 percent of his passes throughout the tournament, had 4.5 shots on goal per game, had 2.3 key passes per game, had 7.1 dribbles per game, had 1.8 long balls per game and 0.3 through balls per game. All of Messi's numbers in the final were below his averages throughout the tournament.

Shutting down Messi was only part of the plan. The other part of the plan stemmed from Chile retaining its identity.

After the Paraguay blowout, Sampaoli had to know that attacking Argentina would put his dubious defensive quartet at risk of exposure. Yet he knew that to sit back and let Argentina win the ball would be disingenuous to his team's identity, thus stripping the side of its best chance to win.

Chile is at its best on the attack. Pressuring, running at the opposition, putting them on high alert. That is Sampaoli's game, and he did not sway from it in this match.

The result was actually rather unexpected.

Argentina, which had always been on the front foot throughout the tournament and was starting to look increasingly comfortable in that role, suddenly had to be cast in a position it was not used to. It was a position the team had coped with increasingly well in last summer's World Cup, but without any other preparation in this tournament, the Argentina side looked lost against the aggression of Chile.

Chile looked the more dangerous side throughout, putting up 18 shots, four on target, to Argentina's eight. One got the sense that this would be Chile's night and that the big powerhouse Argentina would falter yet again. And it did.