In front of 53,158 on a warm Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Brazil and Ecuador played out a 0-0 draw in Southern California’s first taste of the Copa America Centenario, which is a special cup competition involving North and South American teams.
The 16-team tournament takes place in 10 cities across the United States, and three of the 24 group stage matches are taking place at the Rose Bowl.
Brazil, a team that is historically known as an attacking powerhouse, could not find the target and failed to score a single goal over 90 minutes on Saturday. Though the Brazilians did create chances early in the game and nearly scored with Ecuador's goal keeper saving a close range effort off the crossbar.
The match was hardly short on controversy, too, as Ecuador seemed to score on an error by Brazilian goal keeper Allison. The linesman on the opposite side of the field decided that the ball had gone out of play prior to the going over the goal line on Miller Bolanos' cross.
Another look: Did the ball fully cross the line before Miller Bolanos' cross? #MyCopaColors #BRAvECU https://t.co/EdrqSIvhr3 — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 5, 2016
After watching several replays, one still had trouble figuring out whether or not the goal should have been given, as the ball could not clearly be seen going out of play. In soccer, the entire ball must go over the line to be out, and since no angle clearly appeared to show the ball completely crossing over, Ecuador manager Gustavo Quinteros verbally shared his anger after the match.
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Ecuador Manager: "I saw it 25 times right now on video and the ball never went out completely. maybe 60-70% went out." — Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) June 5, 2016
Although Brazil created chances early, without the likes of Neymar, who is sitting out for the Olympics, the Brazilians could consider themselves lucky to walk away with a 0-0 draw.
Neymar, however, did make an appearance at the Rose Bowl, as the Barcelona forward enjoyed the game, alongside actor Jamie Foxx and singer Justin Bieber.
So Neymar, Justin Bieber and Jamie Foxx walk into a soccer game ... #CopaAmerica pic.twitter.com/tmxwjqzSG7 — Megan Armstrong (@meganKarmstrong) June 5, 2016
Saturday was the first of three games that will be played at the Rose Bowl. Colombia and Paraguay will meet in Pasadena on Tuesday, June 7, and Mexico and Jamaica will play on Thursday, June 9th in Pasadena.
