The Copa America has a rich history and has been running longer than the likes of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships and has regularly evolved in order to expand and increase its exposure and popularity in South America and beyond.
The first finals took place in 1916 and involved just four nations: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Chile, and this quartet fought it out for the first four editions of the competition. By 1947, the competition regularly involved eight teams, and by 1975, this had increased to 10 entrants.
CONMEBOL, South America’s football governing body, opted to increase the size of the Copa America again in 1993, inviting two teams from CONCACAF (North and Central America), a move that has certainly helped to boost interest in the tournament.
The event now attracts football fans from across North and South America and beyond, not least because of the astonishing atmosphere generated by the competition but also by the high quality of the teams taking part.
The Copa America is always a hard fought competition, and though clearly the likes of Argentina and Brazil are regularly favourites, there have been plenty of occasions when so-called ‘lesser’ nations have triumphed.
Indeed since 2001, six different countries have won the tournament, which goes some way to show just how competitive the competition is.
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USA vs Ecuador Copa America Tournament Record
In 1993, when the Copa America was increased to 12 teams, the United States made their bow in the competition but struggled to impress, securing just one point from their three games.
Two years later, though, it was a completely different story. No doubt buoyed by their performance at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the United States beat Chile and Argentina in the group stage before knocking out Mexico in the Quarter-Finals to set up a Semi-Final with Brazil, which they lost narrowly with AS Roma defender Aldair scoring the game’s only goal.
Their third appearance in the finals, in 2007, was an instantly forgettable one as the US lost all three games and were on the first flight back home from Colombia.
2016, the tournament’s centenary celebration edition, was hosted in the United States, and Jurgen Klinsmann’s side performed very well indeed, once again getting all the way to the Semi-Finals, losing to Argentina on this occasion with Barcelona legend Lionel Messi among the scorers in a 4-0 drubbing.
Ecuador earned their place in their first Copa America in 1939 but failed to win a single game in their first five appearances, that duck coming to an end in 1949, where they still performed poorly.
Fourth-place finishes were secured in both 1959 and 1993, and it’s not a coincidence that these successes came when they hosted the tournament, not least because of the tough conditions related to playing at high altitudes, which clearly Ecuadorian players will be more accustomed to.
La Tri have certainly improved in more recent editions of the tournament, and in 2016, they reached the Quarter-Finals with former West Ham forward Enner Valencia proving effective in group stage games against Peru and Haiti before they were beaten by the US in Seattle.
At the 2021 Copa America in Brazil, Ecuador somehow emerged from their group successfully despite not winning any of their four games; they were then dumped out of the Quarter-Finals by Argentina 3-0.
USA vs Ecuador Head-to-Head
The United States and Ecuador have played each other in two previous Copa America campaigns.
The first of these came in 1993 when Ecuador won 2-0 in Quito, and the second was in 2016 when the United States edged out their opponents 2-1 in the Quarter-Finals, with former Fulham and Tottenham forward Clint Dempsey scoring the opener.
