Copa America 2024 Group D Primer: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay

Brazil are one of the tournament favorites but it's Colombia that has been playing the best soccer in the group.

Photo Courtesy of U.S. Soccer

It is entirely possible that Group D has the second and third favorites for the Copa America crown. This would of course mean elevating Colombia to third favorites ahead of attacking juggernauts Uruguay and hosts USA but it’s not an outlandish claim.

Colombia sits unbeaten in CONEMBOL World Cup qualifying, just thrashed the Yanks in a friendly — and while they might not boast the offensive output of the other powers in South America — there is a consistency to this team that I think is going to carry over to the World Cup in a couple of years after two third place finishes in the 2016 and 2021 Copa America’s.

Still, Brazil is Brazil and until knocked off their pedestal, they’ll always be favorites to make the final of everything…but late last year ran a qualifying gauntlet of at Uruguay/at Colombia/vs Argentina and lost all three, getting shutout twice.

Can Brazil and Colombia right their names into the quarterfinals already or can Costa Rica or Paraguay make an impact on this group stage? As always these primers are more informational than expertise.

TV SCHEDULE

June 24

Colombia vs. Paraguay: 6 p.m., FS1, Univision/TUDN — NRG Stadium, Houston, TX

Brazil vs. Costa Rica: 9 p.m., FS1, UniMas/TUDN — SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA

June 28

Colombia vs. Costa Rica: 5:45 p.m., FS1, UniMas/TUDN — State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ

Paraguay vs. Brazil: 9 p.m., FS1, UniMas/TUDN — Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV

July 2

Brazil vs. Colombia: 9 p.m., FS1, Univision/TUDN — Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA

Costa Rica vs. Paraguay: 9 p.m., FS2, UniMas — Q2 Stadium, Austin, TX

BRAZIL [BRA/D1] 

Head Coach: Dorival Junior (BRA) 

FIFA Ranking* (at time of seeding in Nov 2023): 5 Nickname: La Selecao   

Qualification: CONEMBOL, Automatic 

Appearance: 38th Best Finish: Champions (nine times, last in 2019)  

Roster Breakdown: 3 Domestic, 8 England, 7 Spain, 3 Italy, 3 Portugal, 2 France 

Recent Matches (played in USA): Friendly W vs Mexico 3-2; Friendly D vs USA 1-1 

Player To Know: MID Bruno Guimaraes, Newcastle Utd (ENG), 22 Int’l caps/1 Int’l goal – We stan Magpies at TBM in honor of a great founder but when you have a roster loaded with world-class talent, you can pick just about anyone in this spot. Guimaraes had a solid EPL season with seven goals last year. 

Player To Watch: FW Vinicius Junior, Real Madrid (ESP), 30 Int’l caps/3 Int’l goals – How a player with double-digit La Liga goals the last three years and over 20 in all comps for three years only has three international goals is beyond me but that Neymar guy is hurt so...breakout Golden Ball/Young Player lock for Vini?  

Tournament Outlook 

A fairly young group by Brazil standards, but never lacking talent. The five-time World Cup champions have been to one semifinal on the global stage in the last two decades since their last title in 2002. Like the USA, this is a tremendous test run for a group of players that’s going to be two years older and with stars already playing at the highest level in the world. They’re seemingly the favorites of a loaded bottom half of the bracket but every knockout game will be a battle if La Selecao want to make it back to the Copa America final for a third straight time and right the ship on their middling qualifying campaign too. 

USMNT Recap: 1-1 Draw Should Leave Fans Hopeful

COLOMBIA [COL/D2] 

Head Coach: Nestor Lorenzo (ARG) 

FIFA Ranking: 15 Nickname: La Cafeteros 

Qualification: CONEMBOL, Automatic 

Appearance: 24th Best Finish: Champions (2001) 

Roster Breakdown: 1 Domestic, 6 Brazil, 6 England, 3 Russia, 2 Argentina, 2 Italy, 2 Spain, 1 Belgium, 1 France, 1 Qatar, 1 Mexico, 1 Saudi Arabia, 1 Turkey 

Recent Matches (played in USA): Friendly W at USA 5-1; Friendly W vs Bolivia 3-0 

Player To Know: AM James Rodriguez, Sao Paulo (BRA), 100 Int’l caps/27 Int’l goals – A club career that has tapered off since stints at Real Madrid and Porto, Rodriguez had a plague of injuries that didn’t help his production though his  

Player To Watch: W Luis Diaz, Liverpool (ENG), 49 Int’l caps/12 Int’l goals – Made 37 EPL appearances for Liverpool this year (32 starts) while notching 8 goals and 5 assists making the jump to full-time starter. Already has two goals in qualifying and if there’s more of that then the Cafeteros can live up to their dark horse status. 

Tournament Outlook 

This Colombia team hasn’t lost since WCQ began last year, they sit third in CONEMBOL in those standings and in between have won friendlies against the USA, Mexico, and Spain. Why is the bottom of the Copa America bracket so difficult? You’re looking at it. Arguably the second through fifth-best teams in the tournament could make the knockouts from Groups C and D and I’ll let you all debate whether or not to put Colombia higher than the USA because you could make a great case to do so. 

COSTA RICA [CRC/D4] 

Head Coach: Gustavo Alvaro (ARG) 

FIFA Ranking: 52 Nickname: Los Ticos 

Qualification*: CONCACAF Play-in Winners vs Honduras 3-1, play-in winners seeded in Pot 4 prior to draw 

Appearance: 6th Best Finish: Quarterfinals (2001, 2004 

Roster Breakdown: 14 Domestic, 3 MLS (USA/CAN), 1 Belgium, 1 Colombia, 1  

Recent Matches: CONCACAF WCQ W vs St Kitts and Nevis 4-0; WCQ W at Grenada 3-0

Player To Know: FW Joel Campbell, Alajuelense (CRC), 139 Int’l caps/27 goals - The one-time Arsenal man is still a talent on this team and the Ticos will need him on the scoresheet often if they want to play in the USA in 2026.

Player To Watch: F/W Ariel Lassiter, CF Montreal (MLS/CAN), 21 Int’l caps/1 Int’l goal - The former LA Galaxy starlet actually became a scoring powerhouse for Alajuelense for a couple of seasons before making his way back to MLS. If he can be another threat in the Ticos attack with Campbell then the Ticos should have enough firepower in CONCACAF qualifying.

Copa America 2024 Recap: USMNT Kicks Off Tourney With 2-0 Win Over Bolivia

Tournament Outlook 

This is a tremendously young Ticos side and while a smattering of that talent is overseas, the bulk of this roster coming domestically and without a lot of international experience does not give me the same confidence as say with Panama...maybe that’s cause the Ticos have been wrecked by the Canaleros three times in the last year in CONCACAF play and they have no wins against the top teams in their region of late. Costa Rica should be at the next World Cup, but there’s going to be a lot of growing pains before then and I think this tournament is one of them. Another group where seeding the worst teams to play each other last is detrimental to the group dynamic if things go chalk. 

PARAGUAY [PAR/C3] 

Head Coach: Daniel Garnero (ARG) 

FIFA Ranking: 53 Nickname: Los Guaranies 

Qualification: CONEMBOL, Automatic 

Appearance: 39th Best Finish: Champions (1953, 1979)  

Roster Breakdown: 8 Domestic, 4 Brazil, 3 MLS (USA/CAN), 3 Argentina, 2 England, 2 Russia, 1 Ecuador, 1 Mexico, 1 Spain, 1 UAE  

Recent Matches: Friendly D at Peru 0-0; Friendly L at Chile 0-3; Friendly W at Panama 1-0 

Player To Know: GK Carlos Coronel, New York Red Bulls (USA/MLS), 9 Int’l caps – The entire Paraguay keeper corps has just 12 international appearances, and Coronel has nine of them. The stalwart Energy Drinks keeper though is worth of this stage if he’s the starter. 

Player To Watch: W/M Miguel Almiron, Newcastle United (ENG), 55 Int’l caps/7 Int’l goals – The former MLS Cup winner with Atlanta, Almiron has been with Newcastle for five years and netted the Magpies their first Champions League goal in decades against PSG last year. 

Tournament Outlook 

Paraguay as a team just doesn’t score enough goals to be overly threatening, their trio of Almiron and strikers Derlis Gonzalez and Angel Romero have nearly 150 combined caps and just about 25 goals to show for it. Every game they’ve played so far in qualifying has been either 1-0 or 0-0 and while they have five points through six qualifiers...they have just one goal. I think the gap is too wide at the top of this group for Paraguay to steal a knockout spot but their defensive prowess could be the decider in goal difference in the final table for everyone else.

Copa America 2024: Group C Primers - Bolivia, Panama, United States, Uruguay

GROUP OVERVIEW

Let it be known that the seeding decisions for this tournament are terrible and I hate them. The two best group teams by seed always playing on matchday three in the group and not adjusting the knockouts to keep all the Group C and D teams together is weird. This group should go chalk but I’m leaning Colombia on current form to top the group. The knockouts are going to be a wild affair anyway in the bottom half of the bracket. Brazil and Colombia won’t even have to score a ton to make this a walkover.

GROUP PREDICTIONS

Colombia - Brazil - Costa Rica - Paraguay