Uruguayan Bielsa sees room for improvement after 3-1 Copa America win over Panama

Uruguay opened their Copa America campaign with a 3-1 win over Panama on Sunday, but head coach Marcelo Bielsa was quick to temper expectations and said they must continue to improve .

Bielsa took charge of Uruguay in May last year and guided them through a period of transition in which veterans Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin both retired, the top scorer of all time, with Luis Suarez soon to follow suit.

The 15-time Copa America winners have been in excellent form over the past few months, beating Argentina and Brazil in World Cup qualifiers.

Those results raised hopes of a record 16th continental crown for ‘La Celeste’, but Bielsa said they were taking it game by game.

“As for Uruguay’s aspirations, we will see it and we will build it game by game,” he told reporters.

“I hope that every match will help us improve our level. Uruguay have players of a very good level and we have to see if I can build with these players.”

Uruguay dominated the first 45 minutes by pressing and harassing Panama, but their energy level seemed to drop in the second half.

Panama looked likely to equalize after the break and Uruguay only regained control after Darwin Nunez’s goal in the 85th minute.

“The first half gave us the advantage over our opponent. We should have scored more,” Bielsa said.

“In the second half there were 15 minutes where we played very poorly. They dominated the ball during that time and they created chances where we were only leading by one goal and if they had scored, it would have been complicated for us.

“We missed five goals and scored one in the first half, then we missed five and scored two in the second half.”

Uruguay will face Bolivia on Thursday in New Jersey.