Uruguay and the USA have everything going for them in Group C of the Copa América

Uruguay and the home team, the United States, are the teams in Group C of the Copa América-2024 chosen as favorites to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Led by Argentine Marcelo Bielsa and with high-level players such as midfielder Federico Valverde and strikers Darwin Núñez and veteran Luis Suárez, ‘Celeste’ presents itself as an opponent to be beaten.

At the same time, as locals, the football ambassadors have material to respond to, with a squad led by Christian Pulisic.

This bracket is completed by Bolivia, undergoing restructuring, and Panama, hit by a wave of injuries.

Group action begins on Sunday with the United States-Bolivia matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Uruguay-Panama at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

Uruguay: goals from Núñez and ‘madness’ from Bielsa

With the aim of winning the sixteenth Copa América title, the Uruguayan team faces the tournament among the main candidates.

Your assets? The solid qualification for the 2026 World Cup is being achieved under the command of Bielsa, with an overwhelming attack in which Darwin Núñez – heir to Luis Suárez – took a step forward with five goals and three assists.

The Uruguayans, with 13 points from six games, are only surpassed in the table by three-time world champion Argentina, who has 15, whom they beat 2-0 in Buenos Aires, last November.

‘Celeste’ has a good crop of players established in elite clubs in Europe, including Núñez (Liverpool), Valverde (Real Madrid), Miguel Ugarte (Paris Saint-Germain) and Rodrigo Bentancur (Tottenham). “That always generates excitement,” says Bielsa.

🎥 𝑀𝑢𝑒́𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜, 𝑚𝑢𝑒́𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜

Official Midday @CopaAmericaa list.

📺 Watch more on https://t.co/qVMBrYJR1J and Youtube! #TheTeamThatUnites Us pic.twitter.com/kmHEQvOdZg

— Uruguayan National Team (@Uruguay) June 21, 2024

USA: high potential

United States coach Gregg Berhalter has a squad with important names to do well as the home team. Pulisic (Milan), Giovanni Reyna (Nottingham Forest), Tyler Adams (Bournemouth) and Weston McKennie (Juventus) are at the head of the American team.

They are a team with potential, as they showed when they won the Concacaf Nations League for the third time in March, with a 2-0 victory over neighbors and arch-rivals Mexico in the final.

“They can bend us, but not break us (…). We are ready for the Copa América”, commented Berhalter after the last friendly in preparation, in which the US team drew 1-1 with Brazil. “We feel like we’ve taken a small step, not a big step, but ultimately an important step,” he said during the press conference.

The United States finished fourth in their previous host appearance, at the 2016 Copa América Centenário.

Panama: plague of injuries

Panama received some last-minute bad news.

Their captain, midfielder Aníbal Godoy (Nashville SC, United States), is out of the Copa América due to a muscle injury in his left leg.

It is another absence for Spanish coach of Danish origin Thomas Christiansen, who joins defenders Fidel Escobar and Andrés Andrade and striker Cecilio Waterman. Luck seems to have turned its back on the Panamanians.

Bolivia: restructuring

Bolivia’s coach, Brazilian Antonio Carlos Zago, is frank: the Copa América will be complicated for his team.

“We are aware and sincere of our difficulties”, published Zago on social media, highlighting that the preparation phase was focused on consolidating a new generation, with a group of players with an average age of 25.7 years. “We’re going to get as much experience as possible in this competition with the mission of improving every day.”

A symbol of the changing of the guard is the recent retirement of the top scorer in the history of the Bolivian national team, Marcelo Moreno.

The renovation, however, had its obstacles. An unusual example: young Moisés Paniagua, 16 years old, one of the biggest promises in Bolivian football, was left out because his father, in an oversight, did not sign the necessary authorization for Paniagua, a minor, to travel abroad.