Manager Emerse Fae said Ivory Coast's 1-0 victory over Ecuador showed his young side's World Cup ambitions are genuine, after substitute Amad Diallo's 90th-minute winner secured a winning start to their campaign on Sunday.
"It hurts because it was an unfair defeat," Ecuador coach Sebastian Beccacece told reporters.
"I think there are very strong arguments to clearly show that the team competed very well, had the clearest chances and could have won the match, but because of one detail at the end, we leave with nothing."
The Ivorians have impressed since booking their place at the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico, following comfortable warm-up wins over South Korea and Scotland in March and a 2-1 victory away to France last week.
Fae's youthful attack, including highly rated 19-year-old winger Yan Diomande, was tested by an experienced Ecuadorean defence featuring Paris St Germain's Willian Pacho and Arsenal's Piero Hincapie, shielded by Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo.
The RB Leipzig wide man and reigning Bundesliga Rookie of the Season was Man of the Match in the Group E encounter, no small feat against an opponent that entered with 19 matches unbeaten, including 11 in the gauntlet of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying.
While Diomande's brilliant service in the first half and dribbling in the second didn't lead to the decisive goal -- even after Amad Diallo's historic 90th-minute winner -- it was hard not to think about what could be ahead for a player valued at about $105 million, according to the website Transfermarkt.
Diomande's best sequence in that role came on 35 minutes, when he picked up a ball at midfield, quickly rounded Hincapie and sent in a cross that Nicolas Pepe couldn't finish after attempting a second touch to get the ball on his favored left boot.
After switching to the left following Diallo's 56th-minute insertion, he tried to solve Ecuador's stubborn rear guard himself.
In the 58th minute, he somehow split John Yeboah, Alan Franco and Moises Caicedo to enter the left side of the penalty area before firing high.
He nearly achieved the feat again in the late stages, before the Ivorians finally took advantage of the attention he commanded, with Wilfried Singo surging up the opposite flank to send in a low cross and Diallo dispatching a clinical finish.
"We came to the US for this, and we came here with ambitions, with high hopes," Fae told reporters.
"We don't want to just have visited the US and have to go back, so everything is going well for now.
"We've beaten France. We are starting this competition well against Ecuador, a very tough team, but we managed to come into our own and won the match. This shows that our team has acquitted itself well."
With four-times champions Germany favourites in the group, this match could prove decisive in the battle for second place.
Germany thrashed debutants Curacao 7-1 in the other group game in Houston and will face Ivory Coast next in Toronto on Saturday.
"It will be a difficult match again," Fae added. "It's Germany. They have lots and lots of experience. World Cup, they won it a few times. They have players playing in the greatest European clubs. They have a very striking power.
"7-1 for the first match in this competition. It's not nothing, but we'll go there to win. With the mind to win and to get to our qualification from the second day on.
"We'll go eyeball to eyeball with them and we'll try to give it our all. We have our own qualities. We'll lean on our own strength and we'll try to bring down the German wall."
Ivory Coast, appearing at the World Cup for the first time since 2014, have never reached the knockout stages.