By Jose Bautista, DPA
Caracas (Venezuela) : All teams have already made their debut in the Copa America in Venezuela as the start of the tournament impressed spectators with a generous count of goals and many surprising results.
Perhaps inspired by Argentine legend Diego Maradona's honorary kick-off, a total of 24 goals have been scored in the first six games of the Copa, an outstanding average of four goals per match.
Moreover, Brazil – the land of "jogo bonito" and everyone's candidate when it comes to attacking football – is one of only three teams among 12 participants that have not scored.
Indeed, Brazil appears as the main casualty of this first round of games in Venezuela. The team coached by Carlos Dunga is admittedly playing the Copa with its second-best squad, without the likes of Ronaldinho and Kaka who chose to rest after a long European season.
However, the five-time world champion hardly expected to lose so clearly, by 2-0, to a Mexican side that is also lacking its stars Pavel Pardo, Ricardo Osorio and Carlos Salcido and which was troubled by the recent loss to the United in the Gold Cup final.
Precisely a Mexican, Olympiakos striker Nery Castillo, scored what is so far the best goal of the tournament. Castillo showed off his quality by lifting the ball to get past defender Maicon and then to beat goalkeeper Doni.
The other possible candidate to lift the trophy July 15 in Maracaibo, Argentina, did better for itself despite an early scare. Playing with coach Alfio Basile's first-choice side, with the likes of Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme and Hernan Crespo came back from behind to beat a young US side by 4-1.
With the first results, Paraguay and Peru emerged as competition for the title. Paraguay, with a hat-trick from Bayern Munich striker Roque Santa Cruz, thrashed Colombia by 5-0. Peru, in turn, shocked Uruguay with a 3-0 defeat, while Chile had more trouble to beat Ecuador 3-2.
Host Venezuela got to the Copa America riding the wave of substantial recent improvements. The "Vinotinto," the nickname for the team from the only South American country where football ranks behind other sports such as baseball, is no longer systematically the worst team in the region.
The host meant to consolidate this rise on home turf, also in the hope of increasing attendance figures in the country's stadiums. Instead, it allowed lowly Bolivia to equalize 2-2 only seven minutes from time in their match.
As the team moves into the second-round of play from Saturday, Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador and the host will be particularly under pressure to put things right and keep up their chances of going through to the quarterfinals.
On paper, such options remain almost intact, since eight of the 12 teams in the tournament – the top two in each of the three groups, plus the two best third-placed teams – are to advance.
However, Brazil in particular will need to do something about its image. And even in terms of results, the Copa America in Venezuela has already shown clearly that anything can happen.