NEYMAR showed up at the Rose Bowl for Brazil’s Copa America opener against Ecuador, but was unable to influence his teammates from his luxury suite.

    Playing without its star attacker, Brazil was held to a scoreless draw with Ecuador on Saturday in the Copa America opener at the Rose Bowl.

    “We have to get better but watching the game we were only missing the score,” Brazil coach Dunga said. “The way we played, being our first game and playing against a good team, was well.”

    Neymar skipped the tournament because he didn’t have permission from Barcelona to play in both Copa America as well as the Olympics in Rio.

    Ecuador came the closest to scoring in front of the crowd of 53,158, but an apparent goal was waved off as the ball was ruled to have gone out of bounds before the shot. Ecuador coach Gustavo Quinteros was convinced that the goal should have counted.

    On the play, Ecuador’s Miler Bolanos chased down a ball near the goal line on the right side of the penalty area. Bolanos slipped a ball to the front of the goal, and Brazil’s Alisson mishandled the ball and watched it bounce off his hands and into the goal. However, referee Julio Bascunan ruled that the ball crossed the goal line before Bolanos’ shot and awarded Brazil a goal kick.

    “I saw it 25 times on video replay,” Quinteros said. “The entire ball did not go out.”

    Dunga said: “It was tough to view. The players who were close to the play said the ball went out.” (SD-Agencies)