Lionel Messi will be out for revenge! Winners and losers from the Copa America draw as Argentina gets another crack at Chile while USMNT seals favorable draw despite Uruguay clash

You wanted revenge? You'll get your chance early!

Chile has proven to be Messi and Argentina's kryptonite in this tournament. They've beaten them twice in finals, with Chile winning back-to-back titles at Argentina's expense, including the most recent on U.S. soil. Much has changed since then, as Messi and Argentina have added a Copa America and, more importantly, a World Cup to their trophy case.

Still, you have to bet that Messi and co. will be excited to exercise their demons. Those two sides will face off in the second match of the group stage, coincidentally at MetLife Stadium, the venue where Chile triumphed in the second of those finals. In that match, Messi famously missed a penalty and temporarily retired. It was arguably the lowest moment of his professional career.

Because of that, you'd bet on Messi having that one circled as he gets another crack at Chile in this famous tournament. And, should Argentina get through the group, they'll have a friendly road to the semis and finals, too, as they can't meet Brazil or Uruguay until the final. Overall, a pretty good draw for the defending champions.

El Tri, as things stand, aren't in good form. Largely, it's been a rough year for the team, despite a Gold Cup win. They only squeaked into this tournament, after all, and pressure is only getting hotter on this team.

The draw wasn't as mean to them as it could have been, to be fair, but their path out of the group stage will be difficult. As things stand, Venezuela are fourth in CONMBEOL while Ecuador are fifth, as both sit ahead of the almighty Brazil. It's still early there, but it does show that both sides will be tough as they too will expect to get out of this group. Both, too, will be happy to have drawn Mexico, a team they'll see as ripe for the taking compared to the other three top seeds.

Rounding out the group will be Jamaica, a familiar face that won't be too afraid of El Tri. Given the teams involved, this group will be a grind, one where the second place team will almost certainly be "rewarded" with a match against Argentina. It's a tough run, for sure.

For a few seconds there, it looked like this could turn to a nightmare scenario for Gregg Berhalter's side. If there was one team you wanted to avoid from the two seeds, it was Uruguay. Of course, they popped out for the U.S., giving them the toughest team from that pot.

That's the bad news. The good news is that the path out of the group should be manageable, to say the least.

The USMNT will start against Bolivia, the worst team in CONMEBOL. Their second match will then be against Panama, a team that the U.S. has beaten plenty of times in the past. Six points will be the bare minimum from those games. If you can't beat Bolivia and Panama in a tournament, you don't deserve to move on.

After that, the USMNT will face that Uruguay game, which, if all goes to plan, will be for the top spot in the group. That, of course, will matter as the U.S. looks to prove it can beat teams like Uruguay on their road to 2026. If they find themselves advancing out of the group stage, they'll likely be pitted against either Brazil or Colombia in the quarterfinals.

For the U.S., the path to the knockout stage is there, as are the big games Berhalter is so desperate for. It feels like the best of both worlds for a U.S. team that genuinely can go on a run if everything falls the right way.

If Canada are to qualify for this thing, and that remains a big "if", the road forward for them is certainly rough.

Canada must first take down Trinidad & Toabgo in a play-off to book their spot in this tournament, and, if they do, they get something special as a "reward": a group featuring Argentina, Chile and Peru. The optimist will see that group and see a chance to really play against good, World Cup-quality teams. The pessimist will look at that group in fear, knowing how good those teams are.

Like the U.S. and Mexico, these games are huge for Canada, who won't have World Cup qualifiers to contest. The federation also needs money, so making it into this competition will be massive. If they do, though, it'll be tough for stay in it for too long.

Since the World Cup, Canada has really struggled, and escaping those struggeles won't be made easier by this draw.

Normally, any team entering a Copa America draw will have one thing in mind: avoid Brazil at all costs. You never, ever want to play the Selecao... except maybe right now.

Colombia were drawn as Brazil's second-pot team, a tough draw for sure. Colombia, though, will feel pretty good about that clash with Brazil considering they very recently topped the same opponents, 2-1, in a World Cup qualifier.

That match was made all the more magic by Luis Diaz, who returned home to score a brace to lead his side to victory just weeks after his father was kidnapped. The sight of Diaz's father in the stands celebrating was one of this year's feel-good moments, and the win over Brazil was a huge one for a rising Colombia team.

Why shouldn't Colombia feel good about their chances against Brazil, who will of course be without Neymar most likely due to the superstar's injury? Why won't they feel like they should cruise past Paraguay and then Costa Rica or Honduras? And, with Argentina all the way on the other side of the bracket, why wouldn't Colombia see a realistic place to the final, a round they haven't reached in over two decades?

Overall, Colombia will be left feeling okay with their spot, even if their name is next to Brazil to start this thing.

We all know how this goes, but it really does require repeating: something has to be done about these draws.

Understandably, those in charge of these are required to fill TV time and build drama. That's easier said than done - it's tough to squeeze 30 minutes to an hour out of ping pong balls, but that's the task these shows sign themselves up for each and every time.

Some fill that time with music, but this show filled it with speeches, a seemingly endless stream of speeches. Those speeches touched on unity, competition, vaccines, loyalty, money and just about everything in between. FIFA president Gianni Infantino, CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani each took their time up there, and by the time the intros had been done, it had been nearly 50 minutes of sitting and waiting.

Maybe a tournament breakdown would fill time better, with pundits debating something, anything, having to do with the tournament itself. Maybe we're just cursed forever to snore our way through these shows until the fun starts.

To cap things off, once the draw actually was done, it was done wrong. CONMEBOL never really addressed the issues on the broadcast, and it wasn't until after everything signed off that the actual groups were confirmed. Teams were matched incorrectly and, for a few minutes, no one knew exactly what the groups looked like.

It was all a bit of a mess, and that's saying something considering all of those that have come before.

By nature, draws aren't always fair. We've all seen plenty of groups of death in our time, moments where blind luck wasn't particularly kind to certain teams involved. In general, though, this draw spread things out a bit, leaving every group feeling just about fair from top to bottom.

The USMNT got Uruguay, yes, but were given two of the lesser three and four seeds afterwards. Mexico avoided a dangerous second team, but were given three groupmates that could certainly beat them. Argentina and Brazil remain favorites, but both were given matches against teams that have a history of beating them.

In terms of FIFA rankings, each group feels remarkably equal too. Group B, has an average ranking of 38. Group A, has an average ranking of 41.6, although that would drop to 28 should Canada be the team that advances, while Group D's would be 31.25 if favorites Costa Rica make it in. As for Group C, that's a pretty comparable 38.75.

Overall, it all feels pretty even. No team got particularly bad luck, and none got particularly good luck. The tournament feels there for the taking. We'll just have to see what happens next summer.