A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Group A of the Copa América Centenario consisted of hosts United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. Matches began on June 3 and ended on June 11, 2016. All times are EDT (UTC−4).
The United States and Colombia advanced to the quarter-finals.
Teams
| Draw position | Team | Confederation | Method of qualification |
Finals appearance |
Last appearance |
Previous best performance |
FIFA Rankings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2015[nb 1] | June 2016 | |||||||
| A1 (seed) |  United States |
CONCACAF | Hosts | 4th | 2007 | Fourth Place (1995) | 32 | 31 |
| A2 |  Colombia |
CONMEBOL | Automatic qualifier | 21st | 2015 | Winners (2001) | 8 | 3 |
| A3 |  Costa Rica |
CONCACAF | 2014 Copa Centroamericana champions | 5th | 2011 | Quarter-finals (2001 and 2004) | 37 | 23 |
| A4 |  Paraguay |
CONMEBOL | Automatic qualifier | 36th | 2015 | Winners (1953 and 1979) | 46 | 44 |
- Notes
- ^ The rankings of December 2015 were used for seeding for the final draw, except for certain cases.
Standings
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States (H)
|
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Colombia
|
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 | |
| 3 | Costa Rica
|
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | −3 | 4 | |
| 4 | Paraguay
|
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 |
In the quarter-finals:
- The winner of Group A, United States, advanced to play the runner-up of Group B, Ecuador.
- The runner-up of Group A, Colombia, advanced to play the winner of Group B, Peru.
Matches
United States vs Colombia
The two teams had met in seventeen previous encounters, the last being a friendly held in 2014 at Craven Cottage in London, a match won by Colombia 2–1.[1] Both teams had also met in two Copa América editions: the 1995 third-place match, won by Colombia 4–1, and in a group stage match in 2007, also won by Colombia, with a lone goal by Jaime Castrillón.[2]
Colombia won the match 0–2 with first-half goals scored by Cristián Zapata and James Rodríguez.[3] United States' manager Jürgen Klinsmann stated that he was "pleased" with the performance of his team, he also saw the penalty as the "major point of the game",[4] a remark to which American player Clint Dempsey agreed.[5] Colombia's manager José Pekerman recognized the competitiveness of their rivals, but commented that "we could have scored a couple more."[4]
         United States
|
     Colombia
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Man of the Match:[7]
Assistant referees:[8]
|
Costa Rica vs Paraguay
The two teams had met in eight previous occasions, the last being a friendly in the Costa Rican national stadium in March 2015, resulting in a scoreless draw.[9] In Copa América, both teams faced once, in a 2004 group stage match, won by Paraguay with a late penalty kick goal scored by Julio dos Santos.[10]
Just as their previous friendly meeting, the game ended in a scoreless draw.[10] Costa Rican manager Óscar Ramírez commented that it was "a two-faced match" and that "I would say we have lost two points".[11] Paraguay's manager Ramón Díaz also though that his team lost two points; he was also critical of the hour chosen for the game, commenting that "I would like to take the actual protagonists, the players, in consideration".[12]
Costa Rican player Kendall Waston was shown the red card in the stoppage time after a tackle against Nelson Valdez, becoming the first player to be sent-off in the tournament.[13] Regarding the incident, Waston commented, "when I saw the red card I felt the world coming over me, because this tournament is very short and we all want to play".[14]
   Costa Rica
|
     Paraguay
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
