Colombia beats Paraguay in Copa America opener, extends winning streak to 9

Daniel Munoz scored in the 32nd minute and Jefferson Lerma in the 42nd as Colombia opened the Copa America with a 2-1 victory over Paraguay on Monday night in Houston that extended its winning streak to nine.

Colombia, which had 66 per cent possession, is unbeaten in 24 games since a 1-0 loss at Argentina in a World Cup qualifier on Feb. 1, 2022, winning 19 and drawing five.

James Rodriguez set up both Colombia goals in his 101st international match, which drew a pro-Colombia crowd of 67,059 to NRG Stadium;

"The players are very focused," Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo said through an interpreter. "They are very humble. They know this is a game-by-game situation. Today we had a tough match, and they prevailed. They know what is the right direction and what to do, and the most important match is the next match."

Julio Enciso scored Paraguay's goal in the 69th minute.

Colombia plays Costa Rica on Friday at Glendale, Ariz., and Brazil on July 2 at Santa Clara, Calif. Paraguay finishes Group D against Brazil on Friday at Las Vegas and Costa Rica on July 2 in Austin, Texas.

Colombia won the title in 2001 and lost to Argentina on penalty kicks in a 2021 semifinal. Paraguay won in 1953 and 1979 and was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the last two editions.

Rodriguez picked out a long cross to Munoz for an open eight-yard header, Munoz's second goal in 28 international appearances. Lerma scored on a glancing header from the middle of the penalty area on Rodriguez's free kick.

"James is very skilful with the ball," Lorenzo said. "He has great control. We always practice set pieces. They were marking in the zone. The idea was to win the possession, and if the ball reaches you, then you can touch it and put it in the back of the net. Lerma is a great jumper."

Rodrigo Morinigo, a 25-year-old goalkeeper, made his national team debut after Carlos Coronel started in June friendlies against Chile and Panama.

Enciso scored his first goal for Paraguay, beating Davinson Sanchez to Ramon Sosa's cross at the far post and redirecting the ball past goalkeeper Camilo Vargas.

"He's one of our best options," Paraguay coach Daniel Garnero said of Enciso, speaking through an interpreter. "We try to find him behind the line of the midfielders or defenders. Sometimes it's tough."

"When they have ball possession, it was tough to recover it, but I think it was an even game," Garnero said. "We didn't manage to bring home the points, but we tried to level the strength with the opponent."

Colombia was awarded a penalty kick by referee Dario Herrera of Argentina in the 84th minute after Gustavo Velazquez held the shirt of Yerry Mina in the penalty area but the call was reversed in a video review.

Brazil 0, Costa Rica

Brazil missed a string of chances and were left to rue a lack of quality in the final third after they were held 0-0 by Costa Rica in their Copa America Group D opener in Los Angeles on Monday.

Brazil, who came into the Copa America on the back of a run of poor results in recent months, dominated possession but lacked precision in front of goal with just three of their 19 shots on target.

"Now it's about being honest with ourselves, creating alternatives to create chances, scoring, results are important in this competition, points left at the beginning can complicate things at the end," Brazil defender Marquinhos said.

They were frustrated by a resolute five-man Costa Rican defence, who looked to contain their opponents and deprive them of space. The strategy paid dividends even if Gustavo Alfaro's side rode their luck at times.

Alfaro said Costa Rica had been written off before the match had even started.

"We were Bruce Willis in 'The Sixth Sense,' where the only one that did not know he was dead was him, right?" he said through an interpreter.

"Well, everyone thought we were dead before the movie started in our case."

Raphinha had an excellent early opportunity to score after latching onto a long ball over the top from Rodrygo, but Costa Rica keeper Patrick Sequeira came quickly off his line to snuff out the danger.

Brazil thought they had got the breakthrough in the 30th minute when a free kick was flicked on by Rodrygo into the path of Marquinhos, who poked it in at the far post but the goal was disallowed for offside after a lengthy VAR delay.

The one-way traffic continued after the break and Lucas Paqueta rattled the woodwork with a long-range effort in the 63rd minute before a venomous Guilherme Arana strike was kept out by a fine save from Sequeira.

Coach Dorival Junior brought on youngsters Endrick and Savio in the 70th minute as Brazil desperately sought a winner but Paqueta twice shot wide in the final 10 minutes as the nine-times champions failed to break the deadlock.

"We played a great game, we fought until the end, I had three chances myself, we were frustrated not to win, but we left with confidence, we fought," Paqueta said.

"We played our game, we have to improve our finishing, myself in particular and other players, so that we can win."

Brazil's all-time leading scorer Neymar, who has been sidelined by an anterior cruciate ligament injury, cut a dejected figure as he looked on from the stands.

Costa Rica, who had lost three times to Brazil at the World Cup and twice more in previous Copa America encounters, had only two shots during Monday's game with none on target but held on to claim what could prove a valuable point in their campaign in the United States.

Colombia lead Group D following their 2-1 win over Paraguay earlier on Monday.