Central & South America

Maximilian Araujo, Darwin Nunez and Matias Vina scored as Uruguay beat Panama 3-1 in their Copa América Group C match in Florida on Sunday.

Uruguay, who have won the Copa America a joint record 15 times, were rewarded for their blistering early pace when Araujo fired home a sublime curling effort from the edge of the area in the 16th minute.

WHAT A GOAL

Uruguay takes the lead off this STUNNER from Maximiliano Araújo pic.twitter.com/zlecaGpYej

June 22 (Reuters) - Venezuela struck twice in the space of 10 minutes in the second half to come from behind and earn a 2-1 victory over Ecuador in the Copa America on Saturday, getting their Group B campaign off to a winning start.

Ecuador vs. Venezuela | Group B | Copa América 2024 game highlights, recap

Ecuador played most of the match with 10 men after their captain Enner Valencia was sent off in the 22nd minute for a high boot, but Jeremy Sarmiento smashed home just before halftime to put them in front.

ATLANTA — Canada coach Jesse Marsch said Argentina should be fined after the defending champions emerged late from the dressing room for the second half in their Copa América opener on Thursday.

After the first half ended goalless, Argentina opened the scoring four minutes after the restart through Julian Alvarez while Lautaro Martinez scored a late goal in a 2-0 win.

Argentina emerged for the second period around five minutes after Canada.

Jesse Marsch Argentina complaint

Argentina’s 2-0 victory vs. Canada on Thursday in Copa América wasn’t smooth sailing. It literally wasn’t smooth because the Mercedes-Benz Stadium grass put in place caused issues for both teams.

Members of Argentina and Canada said that the grass put in place wasn’t up to par. Atlanta United and the NFL’s Falcons play on turf inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, however the artificial turf was replaced with grass on Sunday.

Copa América grass issue

The replacement grass was basically placed over concrete creating a uniquely bad surface to play on.

Racism is still the biggest plague of the “Beautiful Game”, and it reared its ugly head on Thursday as Argentina and Lionel Messi fans racially abused Canada’s Moïse Bombito on social media.

Fans weren’t happy about the tackle on Messi from the Colorado Rapids star during the Copa América opener between Canada and Argentina. During the second half Messi went down and received treatment following this tackle from the Canada defender.

The Copa América kicked off with Argentina defeating Canada 2-0 on Thursday, however a FOX audio delay frustrated fans who tuned into FS1.

For the entire first half of the opening match commentators John Strong and Stu Holden were on a roughly two second delay. 

FOX has had audio issues in the past, but thankfully this time at least the audio was behind rather than two seconds ahead. There’s nothing worse than the commentators spoiling what you’re about to see.

Here were some examples of what the audio delay looked like in the highlights during the first half.

Argentina defeated Guatemala 4-1 Friday night at FedEx Field near Washington D.C. in a friendly with Lionel Messi scoring twice. The first Messi goal vs Guatemala came after a terrible goalkeeper blunder and gave the Inter Miami star the easiest goal of his career.

In the 12th minute Guatemala had a surprise 1-0 lead against the defending world champions. Disaster then struck in the Guatemalan penalty area as goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen had a careless giveaway.

If there’s one guy you don’t want to give the ball away to in front of your goal, it’s Messi.