Icons Press Release: July 2, 2012

UK Football Fans Fall In Love With Leo Messi

Signed Leo Messi products from Icons.com outselling the rest by 4 to 1

FORMER Manchester United Merchandising Director, Edward Freedman, says sales figures for Icons.com’s Leo Messi signed memorabilia prove the Argentinian maestro is now the UK’s best-loved player.

Freedman chairs Icons.com - the most trusted football memorabilia supplier in the game, providing sought-after signed shirts, photos and other products to fans and gift buyers throughout the world.

The former Managing Director of Tottenham Hotspur, hailed by The Economist as “football’s merchandising guru”, says Messi memorabilia now outsells Ronaldo, the next best selling player, by a factor of 4 to 1 and leaves Rooney and Gerrard trailing in his wake.

The Icons Chairman said:

“UK football fans love Spanish football and Messi in particular. He’s the neutral’s favourite with most football lovers now agreeing he is the best in the world, if not the best ever. The UK public has fallen in love with him.”

“Everyone wants to be close to greatness and by owning a signed Messi shirt then you’ve got the world’s very best. When Icons.com says ‘signed by the world’s best’, we mean it.”

Icons also sell its memorabilia in Harrods where the Argentinian legend outsells otherplayers by 5 to 1. Icons.com now sell his shirts to 78 countries around the world.

The company stocks ten Messi products including a signed and framed Barcelona 2011/12 home shirt; a dual signed Barcelona 2011/12 home shirt with Andrés Iniesta; a signed Adidas boot and a selection of signed iconic photographs of the great man in action.

Messi’s range of signed memorabilia outsold Icons range of other products - signed by the likes of Kaka, Robin Van Persie, Luis Saurez, Andres Iniesta and even Diego Maradona - by the bucket load between April 2011 and April 2012.

Freedman added:

“Does this mean UK football fans are getting less tribal and more sophisticated? That remains to be seen. But it does show how strong the Barcelona and Messi brands have become. They are setting new standards for the game and, in turn, reinventing the football memorabilia market.”

You can view and buy Icons’ range of signed products at www.icons.com.

For more information on this product, or Icons.com, or for interviews with Edward Freedman, please contact Ben Lee on blee@hardhat.co.uk or 07961 820 579.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. Sales figures through Icons.com from April 2011 and April 2012:

Player - Team / Nation = Units sold

Leo Messi - Barcelona, Argentina = 2021

Cristiano Ronald - Real Madrid, Portugal = 496

Robin Van Persie - Arsenal, Holland = 481

Kaka - AC Milan, Brazil = 477

Luis Suarez - Liverpool, Uruguay = 409

Andrés Iniesta - Barcelona, Spain = 386

Steven Gerrard - Liverpool, England = 365

Wayne Rooney - Man Utd, England = 274

Diego Maradona - Argentina = 261

Fernando Torres - Chelsea, Spain = 254

2. Icons has been in business since 1999. Icons is one of the oldest memorabilia operators in the country, if not the world.
3. Edward Freedman has over 40 years experience in the retail industry and in the late 80s was Managing Director of Tottenham Hotspur. He then moved to Manchester United and became Managing Director ofManchester United Merchandising from 1992 onwards. Over the next six years he transformed the commercial side of the club's operation and built Manchester United into the biggest brand in world football. He was also a key player in the formation of the Premier League and was hailed by The Economist as "football's merchandising guru".
4. Icons.com are an international brand and supply to well over 70 countries each year and haverepresentatives in North America and regularly supply customers in Japan, Australia and the Middle East.
5. Icons.com employs the highest standards in the signed football merchandise industry to assure customers of the authenticity of its products. At each event, photographs document each signature and Icons creates a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for each item including the date and venue and a picture of the product and the signing image. Each product carries a uniquely coded Icons hologram whose identical twin is added to the COA which is signed by the Icons Managing Director.
6. Icons were awarded the world's first ever signed football memorabilia license by FIFA in 2010. This summer Icons has been awarded the first ever official license for the UEFA Champions League.
7. Icons have partnered with Sky Sports’ Revista De La Liga programme for years now. They are also now the official partner of the Abu Dhabi Media Company who own the rights to the Premier League throughout the Middle East.
8. Icons also run regular promotions with the likes of Sky Sports, The Blizzard, 442 and GuillemBalague.com.
9. A Spanish version of the Icons website is available for Spanish fans.
ENDS

For Barcelona and Argentina's Leo Messi, life at the pinnacle of his profession is becoming routine. Winner of the Ballon d'Or for the third year in a row, there is no questioning his status as the world's best player. The 24-year-old has signed exclusively for Icons since 2006, and our relationship has gone from strength to strength ever since. The world's best player and the home of signed football memorabilia. It makes for a dream partnership.

We first met with Leo Messi as an 18-year-old on May 5^th, 2006. The little Argentinian made his debut for both Barcelona and his country the previous season, but had made fewer than 30 first-team appearances in total. It was still more than enough to convince us he had a huge future. Below is a photo of Leo at that first ever signing in Barcelona. Since that day we have conducted six more exclusive signing sessions together. (We have also improved our photography skills considerably!)

Messi's footballing brilliance is not easy to put into words, suffice to say he is beyond hyperbole. A devastating combination of breathtaking speed and power, close control, and extraordinary technical ability lands him in a league of his own. For all his talent, even the outstanding Cristiano Ronaldo cannot get close. So inevitable was Messi's Ballon d'Or triumph that the Portuguese didn't even bother to attend at the ceremony in Zurich.

Messi's hat-trick of Ballon d'Or awards coincides with three consecutive La Liga wins for Barcelona. It's no coincidence. Since the beginning of the 2008/09 season, Messi has fired a remarkable 169 goals in 187 Barcelona appearances, with dozens of assists to boot. Never before has a player dominated world football quite like this at the tender age of 24. He has become only the fourth player to win the Ballon d'Or three times, alongside legends Marco van Basten, Michel Platini and Johan Cruyff. Messi will eclipse them all.

Along with dozens of individual accolades, Messi has accumulated five La Liga titles, three Champions League wins and a Copa del Rey. Indeed, the only piece of silverware missing from his sparkling CV is a World Cup with Argentina. At 24, however, he has time on his side. He will get further chances to emulate the feats of Pele and Diego Maradona at international level. In terms of pure ability though, he is more than a match for the pair of them already.

"Off the pitch I am just normal," said Messi in Zurich. And he's right. Humble, unassuming and polite, he is a pleasure to work with. On the pitch, however, he is unlike any footballer the world has ever seen.

Our most recent meeting with Leo came on December 5th of last year, just over a month ago (pictured below). You can view our fantastic range of personally signed Messi products - including home and away shirts, boots and photos - here.

Follow Icons on Twitter and Facebook for news on our signings, and a chance to win amazing signed football memorabilia!

Sergio Aguero has taken to Premier League football without so much as a break in his stride. Arriving at a cost of £38m, a lot was expected of the 23-year-old Argentinian, but even the most optimistic of Manchester City fans could not have predicted quite such an emphatic impact.

The former Atletico Madrid forward has made an incredible start to life at City, scoring eight goals in five games, from which City - genuine title contenders at last - have taken an impressive 13 points. Aguero - nicknamed 'Kun' since childhood - is the brightest of City's glut of gifted forwards, and possesses the kind of superstar quality that the club's billionaire owners have been looking for. His intricate link-up play with David Silva, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko has been glorious to watch, and his finishing has been lethal.

Aguero is characterised by acceleration and strength. He is stocky and resilient and is a predatory finisher and an intelligent and creative presence in and around the box. The Diego Maradona comparisons that have been attached to numerous talented Argentinian forwards are especially pertinent in Aguero's case. He is, after all, Diego's son-in-law, having married his daughter Giannina. Man City boss Roberto Mancini, however, reckons he's more similar to Brazil legend Romario. On current form he is more than a match for both.

When he made his professional bow at the age of 15 and 35 days for Independiente, Aguero became the youngest player to debut in the Argentinian first division. Fittingly, it was Maradona who previously held the record. Four years later in May 2006, Atletico Madrid broke their transfer record for the young prodigy, paying in excess of £18m to take him to the Spanish capital.

Aguero was Atletico's talisman and one of La Liga's star performers. During five seasons in Spain he was ever-present for Atletico, scoring 102 goals in 234 games, and winning the Europa League in 2010. He featured at three FIFA World Youth Championships for Argentina as a teenager, but his move to Spain allowed him to make the step up to the full international side. He made his debut in September 2006 in a friendly against Brazil played at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, and he has gone on to score 13 times in 32 games, including goals at the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 Copa America.

He signed a new contract with Atletico in January of this year, but he was outgrowing the club, and announced his desire to leave the Vicente Calderon just four months later. By July Aguero was a Manchester City player, brought in as a replacement for disillusioned countryman Carlos Tevez. Rather than a replacement, however, Aguero looks like an upgrade.

With two goals and an assist in just over 30 minutes, his City debut was a sign of things to come. The Sky Blues were only 1-0 up when Aguero emerged from the bench in the 59^th minute of their season-opener against newly-promoted Swansea City at the Etihad Stadium. Although widely tipped to require a period of adaptation to the Premier League, Aguero scored their second nine minutes after coming on, before teeing up David Silva for their third and adding their fourth in stoppage time. Purring with confidence and completely undaunted by his unfamiliar surroundings, the Argentinian has not let up.

The Premier League has a new superstar.

Author of the most celebrated moment in English football history, Sir Geoff Hurst is a national icon.

As all English football fans will be aware, Hurst's defining moment came in extra-time of the 1966 World Cup final against West Germany. Leading 3-2 thanks to Hurst's famous 'ghost goal', England were on the cusp of making history, and when he broke free of the German defence to blast home his third and England's fourth with the last kick of the game, victory was sealed. The moment was immortalized by Kenneth Wolstenholme's legendary BBC television commentary:

"And here comes Hurst. He's got… Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over! It is now, it's four!"

With that goal, Hurst secured the only hat-trick ever scored in a World Cup final. This from a man who was originally named in Alf Ramsey's squad as back-up to Jimmy Greaves and Roger Hunt. Indeed, Hurst's international debut only came five months before England hosted the World Cup, and while he was already an established favourite at West Ham United, he was a relative unknown at international level.

The Lancashire-born striker began his club career at West Ham in 1959. He started out as a midfielder but was soon converted by manager Ron Greenwood. In the four seasons that preceded the 1966 World Cup, Hurst scored 67 goals in 145 First Division appearances for the Hammers. He also picked up an FA Cup winners medal in 1964 and won the European Cup Winners' Cup against 1860 Munich the following year.

Hurst's club form guaranteed him a place in Alf Ramsey's World Cup squad of 22 but, as expected, it was Greaves and Hunt who started in the group games against Mexico, Uruguay and France. Hurst's lucky break came when, during the England's 2-0 victory over France, Greaves required stitches on a badly gashed leg. Hurst was called up in his place for the quarter-final against Argentina, and he made himself a hero when his near post header in the 78^th minute secured a 1-0 victory for the hosts.

Together with Bobby Moore and Martin Peters, Hurst completed a trio of West Ham players in the England line-up, and with Greaves still sidelined, the team maintained its East London spine for the semi-final against Eusebio's Portugal. Again, Hurst played a crucial role, providing the assist for the second of West Ham teammate Moore's brace as England triumphed 2-1.

As the final approached, news of Greaves' return to fitness broke to the media, who started calling for the prolific Spurs frontman to be reinstated at Hurst's expense. Ramsey's decision to stand by Hurst in the face of growing pressure was a bold one, but one that would be emphatically vindicated.

It was West Germany who started brightest in the final, with Helmut Haller giving them the lead after 12 minutes. Hurst equalised six minutes later after heading home a smartly-taken free-kick from Bobby Moore, and after Mark Peters gave England the lead with less than 15 minutes to play, only a last minute leveler from Wolfgang Weber prevented an England victory in normal time.

Hurst's second strike is another unforgettable moment in World Cup history, as his shot in the first half of extra-time crashed off the underside of the bar and was controversially adjudged to have crossed the line. Goal-line technology has since been applied to conclude that the ball had, in fact, not fully crossed the line, but that is a minor detail to England fans. Ramsey's side were on course for victory, and as the final second's ticked away and the elated home crowd began to trickle onto the pitch in celebration, Hurst broke away for his legendary hat-trick goal.

In an international career that continued until 1972, Hurst scored 24 goals in 49 appearances. For West Ham he scored 252 goals in 499 before seeing out his playing days at Stoke City, West Brom and Seattle Sounders in the US. He was knighted and awarded an MBE for his services to football. But he will forever be associated with that magical day in 1966.  

Having just completed our sixth signing session with Leo Messi, the Argentinean was an obvious choice for this week's Forward Friday. Messi signs exclusively with Icons, and you can check out his amazing new range here.

"I've run out of adjectives to describe him," confessed Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola back in March 2010. Indeed, the brilliance of Leo Messi is not easy to put into words. With every season that passes, the best player of his generation strengthens claims that he is the best of all-time, and the eulogies that cascade his way are wholly justified.

Messi is beyond hyperbole. Combining sensational speed and close control with phenomenal balance and power, he is an utterly devastating force. His technical prowess is almost superhuman. The ball can appear glued to his feet as he glides effortlessly past defenders, and when he's not smashing the ball into the net, he's expertly carving out chances for his teammates to do it for him.

FIFA Ballon d'Or winner in 2010, Messi, 24, has already helped Barcelona to five La Liga titles and three Champions League wins, including a double last season. Since he was handed the departing Ronaldinho's iconic number 10 shirt at the start of the 2008/09 season, Messi has scored an incredible 141 goals in 161 games. During that time Barcelona have claimed a hat-trick of La Liga titles.

Messi was born in the Argentinian city of Rosario on 24^th June 1987 to a factory steel worker and a part-time cleaner. His life-changing move to Barcelona came in 2000 at the age of 13. Astonished by the level of ability he demonstrated on trial in Catalonia, Barcelona's sporting director Carles Rexach hurriedly scribbled out a contract on a napkin and - several signatures later - Messi was enrolled at Barcelona's renowned La Masia youth academy.

His first-team breakthrough came under Frank Rijkaard. Having already featured in friendlies as a 16-year-old, Messi made his league debut on 16 October 2004 against RCD Espanyol. At 17 years and 114 days he became the youngest player ever to appear in a La Liga match.

It didn't take him long to break into the Argentina set up either. At the 2005 under-20 World Cup the explosive Messi fired six goals and was named the winner of the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe as Argentina emerged triumphant. That August, Argentina manager José Pékerman handed the young prodigy his senior debut in a friendly against Hungary, but within a minute of coming on as a substitute in the 63^rd minute, Messi swung an arm at a defender tugging his shirt and was sent off. It was an acrimonious start to an international career that has yet to scale the great heights he is accustomed to at club level, but at 24, Messi has time on his side.

Picking out highlights from a career bursting with glorious moments is not easy, but amid comparisons to the great Diego Maradona, April 2007 seems a good time to start. Up against Getafe in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey, Messi picked up the ball just inside his own half, and with his mop of long hair streaming behind him, he produced a carbon copy of Maradona's legendary solo goal against England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. A few weeks later he even reproduced Maradona's infamous 'hand of God' moment when his blatant handball past Espanyol goalkeeper Carlos Kameni was allowed to stand.

"He is my Maradona", says Diego of his heir apparent. But the 'new Maradona' looks destined to overtake his idol.

Some wonderful foreign talents have graced English football over the years, but few can claim to have had more influence than Osvaldo 'Ossie' Ardiles, our Icons Legend of the Week #7.

Ardiles arrived at Tottenham Hotspur just weeks after playing a starring role in Argentina's 1978 World Cup triumph. His signing represented a significant coup for Spurs, who had just won promotion back to Division One under Keith Burkinshaw. The arrival of Ardiles, together with fellow World Cup-winner Ricky Villa, ushered in a glorious era for the North London club.

Ardiles' skill and determination made him a cult hero at White Hart Lane. No-nonsense and all-action, Ardiles was not one for the histrionics stereotypically associated with many foreign imports. Despite his slight build, Ardiles possessed great strength and determination. He became the driving force in the Spurs midfield, forming a formidable partnership in the middle of the park with Glenn Hoddle.

Between 1978 and 1988, Ardiles made well over 200 appearances for Spurs in Division One, scoring 16 goals. His first piece of silverware came in his third season, when Spurs beat Manchester City 3-2 in the 1981 FA Cup final replay having previously drawn 1-1. His countryman Villa stole the show with a phenomenal solo goal, but Ardiles had already established himself as a lynchpin in Burkinshaw's side. Off the pitch, Ardiles status as a cult hero was further enhanced when Spurs released "Ossie's Dream" in collaboration with Chas & Dave during that year's FA Cup campaign. 

Spurs retained the FA Cup in 1982, although Ardiles missed the final against QPR. On 3^rd April, the day after the outbreak of the Falkland's War, Ardiles helped his side to a 2-0 semi-final victory over Leicester City at Villa Park. Three days later, however, he left for Argentina, having already agreed to return early for their World Cup preparations. As the conflict raged in the Falkland's, his career in England was thrown into jeopardy. He was eventually able to return in December, but in the wake of the trouble, Ardiles was immediately loaned to Paris Saint-Germain in France.

Ardiles returned to England at the end of 1982/83 season, and featured as Spurs won the UEFA Cup in 1984 with victory of Belgian side Anderlecht. He eventually left Spurs in 1987 and in 1989 he began a career as a manager that would take him all over the world, including a season back at Spurs in 1993/94.

Ardiles won 63 caps for Argentina, scoring eight goals. At White Hart Lane he remains a legend, and he has been inducted into the Spurs Hall of Fame. One of the first foreign players to make a successful impact in England, Ossie set high standards for those who would follow. 

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We have a great range of Ossie Ardiles products for sale at excellent prices, including a singed 1984 UEFA Cup Final shirt and signed photos with Ricky Villa. View the full range here.

Congratulations to the winners of our Daniel Passarella signed photo competition! The competition was run by the excellent Argentina Football World, and our winners were Jon Allison, Anthony Wright, Bianca Zekl, Brian Murray and Michal Jagielka. 

Icons.com is proud to be a universal website, and our winners come from Argentina, UK, Germany, Australia and Poland.

Congratulations to all of them! Their signed photos of the two-time World Cup winning Argentina legend Passarella have been dispatched!

We are planning more competitions in the near future, so keep following us on Twitter and Facebook and you'll get a chance to win some cool stuff!

 

In the second in a series of guest blogs for Icons, Daniel Colasimone, editor of the excellent Argentina Football World, gets to the root of Argentina's Copa America failure. 

There was little improvement to be noted in Argentina’s second game against Colombia. I had bussed it up to the city of Santa Fe the previous day with my ‘Hand of Pod’ colleague Dan Edwards, not knowing whether we would be allowed into the game or not.

Even accredited journalists are required by tournament organisers to apply for tickets to each game, and we often do not find out whether we’re in or not until the day before – which has caused quite a lot of inconvenience for those of us travelling around for games. Being (relatively) young and (allegedly) reckless, we decided to risk it, and in on every occasion we have ended up with match tickets.    

The Selección once again lacked cohesion against a promising young Colombian team in the atmospheric stadium known as ‘The Elephant’s Graveyard’. Again, Messi probed, the strikers missed chances and Batista switched between his two stock formations. In the end, Argentina were lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw, with Colombia looking more likely to score in the second half.

Notably, the Santa Fe crowd, who had been so supportive to begin with, began to turn on their own team. Messi’s head dropped noticeably as he was well marshalled by the excellent Colombians, especially defensive midfielder Carlos Sanchez.

The roadshow of mediocrity moved on to Cordoba, the blondest city in Argentina due to a high proportion of families with German blood. ‘Che’ Guevara spent most of his childhood there, and perhaps Batista was overwhelmed by a similar revolutionary zeal when he decided to drop Tevez, Lavezzi, Cambiasso and Banega for Agüero, Di Maria, Gago and Higuain and fully embrace the least worst of his two plans, the 4-2-1-3 attacking formation, for the must-win match against Costa Rica.

The renamed and revamped Mario Alberto Kempes stadium proved to be a booming stronghold, with the boisterous locals expressing their support for Argentina, and Messi especially. ‘Messi, we believe in you’ and ‘Messi: They talk a lot, but they know little’ were two of the banners displayed by fans, after the Barcelona man had once again unfairly been allotted much of the blame for Argentina’s shoddy performances so far by certain clueless factions of the local media.

And the little genius repaid the people of Cordoba in kind. He turned in an astounding performance, setting up a dozen gilt-edged goalscoring opportunities for his strikers. If they had not been so wasteful, the game could have finished 8-0. As it was, Argentina won by three clear goals, and qualified for the quarter finals.

Their inability to finish first in Group A meant that instead of staying in Cordoba for the quarter finals, Edwards and I had to roadtrip it back to Santa Fe where Argentina would take on fellow Copa America heavy hitters Uruguay. 

Tomorrow, the final part of Daniel's analysis will offer 5 simple reasons why Argentina failed. You can read Part One here.

 

In the first of a series of guest blogs for Icons, Daniel Colasimone, editor of the excellent Argentina Football World, gets to the root of Argentina's Copa America failure. 

Having travelled around to watch Argentina’s four games in this Copa America the recurring theme surrounding their insipid campaign seems to have been not so much the lack of a game plan but the lack of tactical flexibility required to discover an effective game plan.

Coach Sergio Batista, after a honeymoon period lasting several months, was on the receiving end of heavy criticism from the local press leading into the tournament. Some of it was justified.

Batista failed badly on the man-management side of things, especially regarding the Carlos Tevez affair. After insisting for months that Tevez was surplus to requirements, on the eve of the tournament, Batista did a complete about face and named the Manchester City forward in his squad. He even went so far as to select him in his starting line-up for the opening two games.

Hollow press conferences where he spoke without conveying any actual information and a penchant for posting kitschy pictures on Twitter further estranged Batista from the Argentine media. Going into the tournament, Batista's ideas for the national team did not seem too outrageous at all, at least in my mind. He spoke of exploiting Argentina's greatest asset, Lionel Messi, to his full potential.

He spoke of a Barcelona-style formation, designed to allow Messi to feel most comfortable and to take advantage of Argentina’s abundance of adept passing midfielders and skilful forwards. Batista’s ‘Plan B’, should the Barcelona-cloned 4-3-3 fail to function, would be to switch to a 4-2-1-3, with Messi as enganche (playmaker) behind three forwards. Well and good.

The Selección’s first match was against supposed whipping boys Bolivia in the shiny, roofed La Plata stadium. It’s a newly improved stadium, unique in Argentina that it is not rundown and exposed to the elements, but also in that it lacks much of the atmosphere of most grounds here.

Batista made his first tactical mistake before the match started by, as I’ve already mentioned, shoehorning the people’s choice, Carlos Tevez into the starting XI in place of Angel Di Maria, who had started on the left side of attack in recent friendlies. His midfield three was Javier Mascherano, Ever Banega and Esteban Cambiasso; all ‘number fives’ ostensibly – defensive midfielders with passing ability – with Messi in the ‘false 9’ role in the centre of the front three.

Cambiasso was curiously the midfielder usually found furthest forward, however, rather than the player expected to combine most with Messi, Banega. It didn’t work, and Argentina looked just as lacking in team fluidity as during last year’s World Cup.

Messi left defenders for dead but found nobody to link up with. Tevez went on solo runs that were easily halted by well-positioned defenders. There was no overriding thought pattern linking everything together.

At half time Batista switched to Plan B, bringing on Di Maria for Cambiasso, but Bolivia had scored within minutes of the restart. Argentina at least looked more dangerous, and eventually levelled through substitute Kun Agüero who volleyed in superbly. Bolivia, however, held on for the draw.

Perhaps Bolivia had come to this Copa America with a newfound resolve? Perhaps they would be the surprise packets of the tournament? We would find out in later group games that it was in fact a very limited Bolivian outfit, further damning Argentina’s performance in retrospect.

A post-match interview with one of the Argentine players may have taken the edge of the freezing polar winds that could be felt in all corners of the Estadio Único, but the mixed zone turned out to be an unregulated zoo. Short of crowd surfing my way to the front, there was no way of getting a word with Mascherano, Agüero and co. 

Stay tuned next week for Parts Two and Three of Daniel's assessment of Argentina's Copa America shambles...

 

Well, we did ask for it. After spending last week previewing the Copa America, eulogising the South American game and salivating over the array of talent that was going on display, it was inevitable that the first round of fixtures would turn up with a touch of the damp squibs. But whilst none of the 'Big 3' showed up, there's still plenty to talk, moan and speculate about, which is what we'll be doing in our round up. Don't forget, we're running a Copa America competition on the blog and also have a whole range of Copa goodies in our online store. 

Group A

In a tournament that has traditionally been very kind to the hosts, we were expecting Argentina to cruise through a group that looks straightforward on paper. Since their 1-1 draw with minnows Bolivia, though, there have been calls for the head of coach Sergio Batista. Argentina have often been slow starters (Cameroon 1990, anyone?) and fans could do well to remember that Bolivia trounced them 6-1 in the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup and although Batista doesn't curry favour like Diego, they should still bounce back. Icons' own Sergio Aguero looked brilliant after coming off the bench, scoring a fantastic equalising volley. With the first choice triumvirate of Messi, Lavezzi and Tevez coming in for particular criticism back home (Messi unluckily so), he could force his way into the starting line-up. Bolivia, on the other hand, were fantastic. They had a gameplan to stifle the hosts and stuck to it, seeking out Marcelo Martins on the break and eventually getting lucky when Edvaldo Rojas' flick was deflected into his own net by Ever Banega. They should take heart from an encouraging opening performance.

In the other game, Colombia defeated a severely depleted Costa Rica side by a single goal. Again, though, the headlines were all about the poor show put on by the supposed star players. Coming off the back of an extraordinary season with Porto, Rademal Falcao was expected to take the tournament by storm, but looked subdued throughout before being withdrawn in the second half. Indeed, Costa Rica looked the more likely to score until Randall Brenes was sent off on the half hour mark. Adrian Ramos scored soon after to seal the points and provisional top spot in the group for the Colombians, but they'll have to improve if they're to see make a real impact on the tournament.

Group B

If Argentina being held to a 1-1 draw was a surprise, then the sight of Brazil failing to score against Venezuela, traditionally the continent's weakest side, was stupifying. The defending champions certainly had chances. Alexandre Pato hit the bar and Mano Menezes' side could have had a penalty for handball close to half time. Despite some good link up play between Neymar and Pato, the Brazilians were frustrating and as Venezuela grew in confidence, they stretched their illustrious opponents in the second half and had several half chances to secure the victory themselves. As it was, neither side could break the deadlock and Menezes has since faced similar criticism to Batista from his homeland. The Brazilian press are insistent that despite wholesale changes to the lineup, the side has not progressed since the Dunga era. Anything but a victory in their next game against Paraguay is unthinkable.

Paraguay, too, are desperate for the points after their 0-0 draw with Ecuador left Group B still seeking its first goal. The game was arguably the worst of the six played, with little in the way of quality shown by either side. 

Group C

Uruguay were fancied by many before the tournament's kick off, but they too struggled to get out of the blocks, drawing 1-1 with a spirited Peru side. The goals came from Luis Suarez (Uruguay) and Jose Paolo Guerrero (Peru), both of whom we tipped to shine last week. In what was perhaps the liveliest of all the drawn games, Peru struck first when Hamburg's Guerrero slotted home a through ball in the 23rd minute. Suarez stepped up to convert a fantastic pass from Nicolás Lodeiro (our One to Watch) to even things up, but neither side were able to step on and seize the three points. 

It was down to Chile, then, to provide the best entertainment of the opening exchanges. Shorn of the gung ho managerial stylings of Marcelo Bielsa, we were unsure what to expect from the 2011 edition, but their neat passing and tidy movement was at times a joy to behold. It was the Mexicans, though, who took the lead. Having triumphed in the Gold Cup earlier this summer, they let most of their star players go on holiday and fielded an experimental, inexperienced lineup. Nestor Araujo gave them the advantage against the run of play in the first half after Chile (most notably star striker Humberto Suazo) had missed a host of chances. It was left for substitute Esteban Paredes and Arturo Vidal to score the two second half goals Chile deserved, but they will need to improve their finishing if they have real designs on causing an upset. 

As for our predictions...well, Icons' own Dan Jamieson is leading the chase. Our MD tipped Chile to win and Luis Suarez to top score and whilst it's still early days, they are looking like sage choices indeed. Here's hoping for an exponential increase in quality when we get to round two.