Copa America round-up

Things I really liked about the first round of games:

• the lack of diving
• not too many dirty fouls
• lots of goals
• teams who try to actually play football

I'm a bit put out that the second round has seen some of this degenerate a bit. But anyway, on to the news.

In Group A, Uruguay beat Bolivia 1-0, while Venezuela had a scrappy 2-0 win over Peru. Congratulations to the hosts, who collected only their second win ever in the competition and can now look forward to very possibly qualifying for the second round. As for Uruguay and Peru, file under 'must do better', although the latter was probably unlucky to lose like they did.

In Group B, Mexico became the first team to qualify for the second round with their comfortable 2-1 victory over Ecuador, escaping the Group of Death completely unscathed amidst ever-lessening calls for coach Hugh Sanchez's head after their Gold Cup debacle. Brazil beat Chile 3-0, but the Brazil Offside, for one, still isn't very impressed. They were a touch lucky to win by that scoreline and still have some work to do to qualify.

Later today will see Group C in action with the USA taking on Paraguay and Argentina facing Columbia. That's On Point has a good preview of the USA game. As for the Argentineans, coach Alfio Basile has warned against excessive hype and emphasised that it was a dangerous moment to face Columbia, having been beaten as they were in the first round. He's in earnest, given that one of the darkest moments of Argentina's footballing history was that 5-0 home defeat to Columbia which occurred when he was in charge. The starting line-up for Argentina will be the same as it was for the match against the USA. Hasta El Gol Siempre has you covered for Columbia's.

Come on, boys.