The Unites States suffered the consequences of playing without its top players against a team like Argentina. They started well, opening the score with a penalty kick converted by Eddie Johnson in the 9 minute, but the Argentineans answered quickly through Hernan Crespo, who scored in the eleventh minute to tie the game.

As the game went on the Argentineans increasingly outplayed the Americans and the inevitable happened in the 64th minute when the Crespo hit the back of the net again. From there it was all Argentina in the field with Pablo Aimar connecting for the third goal in the 78th minute and Carlos Tevez scoring the fourth in the 85th, just after entering the game.

Crespo scored his 34th goal for Argentina, matching legendary Diego Maradona who was present, but he still has a long way to go if he wants to outclass his nation’s top scorer Gabriel Batistuta, who scored 56 goals for the South American Nation.

"For me it's a great honor to equal the number of goals by Diego," Crespo said.

U.S. coach Bob Bradley acknowledged the powerful Argentineans as the favorites to win the tournament, but remained pragmatic about the loss.

"We put a lot of effort into the first 60 minutes and I think when Argentina raised the level over the last 30 minutes we weren't able to match that," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "We certainly started this tournament against one of the favorites. But we understand that the first round is three games so it’s critical we can pull ourselves together."

U.S managed to produce the upset of the 1995 Copa America against Argentina beating them 3-0, but the overall 6-2 record stands in the South Americans’ favor.