ANTOFAGASTA, Chile — Uruguay’s Technical Director Oscar Tabarez believes his team has dodged a bullet after a fortunate 1-0 victory over underrated Jamaica inside the Estadio Regional Calvo y Bascunan on Saturday evening.

The defending champions have surprisingly shot to the top of the four-team points standing in Group B with maximum three points, after Argentina, the other tournament favourites, were pegged back to a 2-2 result with Paraguay in the group’s other game at Estadio La Portada in La Serena to be on one point each. Jamaica are at the bottom without a point.

“Uruguay lacked speed, but this was our first game of importance and we will begin to evaluate why the team did not function well,” said Tabarez, who has been in charge of the South American champions for the past nine years.

“We have the benefit of a positive result to begin with, with more difficult games to come,” he said at the post-game press conference.

Tabarez said he was not surprised by Jamaica’s performance, as it always happens to his teams in their first games in tournaments.

Regarding the Reggae Boyz’s performance, he said: “The Jamaican team had speed, they applied pressure while they had possession, and they appeared a well-trained team. If we played for a week against Jamaica, we would play better, as they played well in transition.”

— Ian Burnett