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Uruguay send reserve team to Copa America
© Reuters Limited 2001 MONTEVIDEO, July 9 (Reuters) - Uruguay dealt the Copa America's fading credibility another blow by deciding to send a reserve team to the competition which starts on Wednesday in Colombia. The Uruguayans left all their European-based players - including defender Paolo Montero, striker Alvaro Recoba and goalkeeper Fabian Carini - out of the squad named late on Sunday night. The exception was Sturm Graz midfielder Andres Fleurquin who is not a regular in the national team. Defender Gonzalo Sorondo was the only member of the squad who played in the World Cup qualifying win at home to Brazil eight days ago. Nearly all the teams in the competition, including hosts Colombia, will be without their top players while Argentina have pulled out altogether. They may reconsider on Tuesday but would also take a reserve team. For the time being, Uruguay's first round opponents in group C will be Bolivia and Costa Rica with two going through to the quarter-finals. Argentina will bring the group up to four teams if they decide to play. South American football was thrown into chaos when directors changed their minds three times in a week over whether to go ahead with the competition in Colombia, riddled with kidnappings, civil war and drug trafficking. First they changed the venue but kept the date, then they changed the date and maintained the venue and finally, last Thursday, they went back to square one by saying the competition would start in Colombia on July 11 as originally planned. Even before then, the competition was struggling as teams gave priority to the World Cup qualifying tournament in which the ten South American teams play each other twice - effectively making the Copa America redundant. Squad: Goalkeepers |
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