to keep this up . '' Sabella took over from Sergio Batista after Argentina lost in the Copa America quarterfinals on home soil in July , and his next task is a trip to Venezuela on Tuesday . Venezuela 's campaign began with a 2-0 defeat at Ecuador on Friday , with the Copa semifinalists ' most-capped player Jose Manuel Rey sent off with 12 minutes to play for a second yellow card . Strikers Jaime Ayovi and Christian Benitez gave Ecuador a commanding lead inside the opening 30 minutes . Copa champions Uruguay made a perfect start with a 4-2 victory at home to Bolivia . Strikers Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani helped make it 3-1 at halftime , while defender captain Diego Lugano netted his second goal with 18 minutes to play before Marcelo Martins ' late consolation penalty . Copa runners-up Paraguay crashed to a 2-0 defeat away to Peru , who built on their third-place finish as striker Jose Paolo Guerrero netted both goals in the second half . Paraguay host Uruguay on Tuesday , while Peru visit Chile and Bolivia are at home to Colombia . Brazil , assured of a place as hosts of
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Lionel Messi ended his international goal drought to help Argentina make the perfect start to the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign under new coach Alejandro Sabella on Friday . Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 victory over Chile but of similar importance was Messi 's first strike in 16 games for La Albiceleste . Handed the captain 's armband by Sabella , Messi made it 2-0 in the 26th minute after combining with Higuain to end a run going back two years and seven months . Messi replied in kind to set up Higuain 's hat-trick in the 63rd minute , while Angel Di Maria laid on his clubmate 's other two goals . Chile , missing injured key players Alexis Sanchez and Gary Medel , had pulled it back to 3-1 through Matias Fernandez on the hour . `` It was important to get off on the right foot and we did just that , '' Higuain said in quotes reported by AFP , having also scored a treble in his last match for Real . `` I liked a lot of what we did tonight . Now we have