A look at Saturday’s Copa America games
GROUP A: COSTA RICA vs. PARAGUAY
Where: Orlando, Fla. Time: 2 p.m. PDT. TV: KTTV-TV (Channel 11, Los Angeles), Univision, UDN
The buzz: Costa Rica made it to the quarterfinals of the last World Cup and it was carried there by goalkeeper Keylor Navas. But Navas, now the starter at Real Madrid, came out of last week’s Champions League final hobbled by a foot injury and the first choice to replace him, Esteban Alvarado of Turkish club Trabzonspor, is also hurt. That leaves longtime backup Patrick Pemberton as the likely starter. Paraguay is led by Seattle Sounders forward Nelson Valdez and 22-year-old Derlis Gonzalez, who has already played four professional seasons, the last at Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine.
GROUP B: HAITI vs. PERU
Where: Seattle. Time: 4:30 p.m. PDT. TV: FS2, Univision, UDN
The buzz: Wedged into a group with two of the top 13 teams in the world, neither Peru nor Haiti is likely to survive the first round of this tournament. Peru did reach the semifinals of the last Copa America, but given its poor play in World Cup qualifying – one win and a goal differential of minus-6 in six games – last summer’s performance looks like a fluke. Haiti is also crashing back to earth. After advancing out of group play in the 2015 Gold Cup for just the second time in a dozen years, it needed to beat Trinidad & Tobago in a playoff to qualify for this event.
