Copa America Centenario: While Brazil struggles, Ecuador appears poised for a long run

On the surface, Saturday’s Copa America Centenario game between Brazil and Ecuador at the Rose Bowl looks like the soccer equivalent of two ships passing in the night.

Brazil, the five-time world champion, is struggling. It was pummeled in the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup, has won just two of six games in qualifying for the next World Cup and is without its top goal-scorer and two of its most-experienced defenders.

Ecuador, on the other hand, is ascending and appears well-positioned to make a long run through this tournament. It sits atop the table in South American World Cup qualifying, where it has beaten Argentina and Uruguay, and brings a roster loaded with skill into the Saturday match-up with a crowd of more than 50,000 expected to attend (7 p.m., FS1, Univision, UDN).

But looks can be deceiving. So while Brazil will be without forward Neymar and defenders Thiago Silva and David Luiz, it won’t be without talent.

“Every player who’s here is good enough to play here and go for the championship,” said Jonas Goncalves Oliveira, known simply as Jonas, who scored 34 goals for Portuguese club Benfica last season. “We don’t feel like we’re secondhand players.”

The Brazilian roster chosen by coach Dunga, a former national-team midfielder whose penalty kick decided the 1994 World Cup at the Rose Bowl, is a young one: Only 13 players are older than 24 and six are age-eligible for this summer’s Olympics, an under-23 tournament.

Dunga, also known as Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, said his emphasis this summer is on the Olympics, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has never won an Olympic title in soccer and doing so at home will help make up for the humiliation of the last World Cup.

But that change in focus doesn’t mean Brazil is conceding the Copa America. Although Neymar is resting for the Olympics and Kaka and Douglas Costa were scratched with injuries, 13 of those remaining on the roster play for major European clubs, including defender Filipe Luis (Atletico Madrid) and midfielder Casemiro (Real Madrid), who squared off in last week’s Champions League final.

“They have the quality to play on the first team,” Dunga said. “This is a unique opportunity to show [that].”

One of those auditioning is Gabriel, a 19-year-old forward who is already being hailed as the next Neymar – comparisons the teenager is doing his best to avoid.

“Gabriel is Gabriel, Neymar is Neymar,” he said quietly in Portuguese following a training session at the StubHub Center. “Those guys clearly are great players. But everyone here has the quality and the level to be a great team in Copa America.”

On the other side Ecuador, which has not advanced out of a Copa America group stage since 1997, will be getting its inspiration from something bigger than competing for a roster spot. In April Ecuador was devastated by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed more than 650 people and left 26,000 more homeless. And the national soccer team has become a welcome distraction for a wounded country.

“As Ecuadorans, they talk about the earthquake,” said Mauricio Alarcon, an Ecuadoran-born advertising executive who has led fundraising efforts in the U.S., referring to the national team players.

After the quake, several teams in Ecuador – where nine national team members play – held fundraising matches or turned their stadiums into collection centers for food, clothing and medicine.

In the Copa America, Ecuador will be without leading scorer Felipe Caicedo, who was scratched with an injury. But it will have English Premier League veterans Jefferson Montero (Swansea City), Enner Valencia (West Ham United) and Antonio Valencia (Manchester United).

Follow Kevin Baxter on Twitter: @kbaxter11

kevin.baxter@latimes.com