No Surprise, the Copa America is off to a Great Start

Well things are going exactly as planned in the Copa America, aren’t they? Peru put a hurting on Uruguay 3-0 in the opener and Mexico knocked off Brazil 2-0. Ho Hum.

In all seriousness, the competition is off to a fantastic start. There have been those pair of surprises, as well as a couple of high scoring games between Chile and Ecuador, and Venezuela and Bolivia. The quality of play has been beautiful and at times it has been breathtaking.

Thursday night features another couple of intriguing matches, this time from Group C. First we will see Paraguay take on Colombia. Paraguay is consistently among the top tier teams in South America, having qualified for the World Cup the past three times. The country has had a bit of a dry spell since winning the Copa America in 1979. It has made it to the quarterfinals five out of the past six competitions, but has progressed no further than that.

They face a Colombia team that is hungry for the taste of success. After making three straight World Cup appearances, Colombia did not qualified the past two times. The country can point to a Copa America championship in 2001, however.

The evening’s second game features Argentina and the United States. Argentina has all of its big guns for the tournament and on paper they appear to be the team to beat. They face a United States side that is made up largely of young, inexperienced players. On paper they are the weakest in the group, but as we all know games aren’t played on paper.

Here are the highlights from the first four games of the 2007 Copa America.

Peru 3-0 Uruguay

Venezuela 2-2 Bolivia

Mexico 2-0 Brazil

Chile 3-2 Ecuador