With a 0-1 victory over Paraguay, Colombia closed its best qualifying year in history – La Nación 2023

2023-11-23 16:02:21

Although there are 12 dates left to know which teams will win the 6 and a half places offered by the current 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, the Colombian National Team marked its best start to a Qualifier since it was played all against all.

With the 0-1 victory over Paraguay, the national team closed the official matches this year, remaining undefeated in Asunción, where they have not lost since the 1998 World Cup qualifying phase, but they are also excited about their game and their position in the standings (she is third).

With many merits, the Tricolor is the only South American team that does not know defeat in the first 6 dates of this long road back to a World Cup.

In the match against the Guaraníes, they confirmed themselves as a mature team, which had many opportunities to win by a larger score, but the penalty taken by Rafael Santos Borré at 10 minutes, after a handball by the Paraguayan center back Omar Alderete, was enough. , to celebrate a new victory.

Although Colombia looked in trouble with some skirmishes and isolated options from Paraguay, which generated them more out of desire and desperation than because of football, the national team was the owner of the game.

For the rest, Colombia defended itself with possession of the ball, with associative plays that culminated in Luis Díaz, James Rodríguez, Rafael Santos Borré himself and even Jhon Arias, who returned after paying his penalty against Brazil.

But that colorful game by Colombia was based on a solid base at the back, led by the full-backs Daniel Muñoz and Cristian Borja and the sobriety of Jhon Lucumí, who even took a ball out of bounds. The only one who at times was out of tune was Yerry Mina, but his teammates supported him, understanding that soccer is a team sport in which the team solves individualities.

Not to mention Kevin Castaño and Jéfferson Lerma, who became everyone’s partners and were always ready to assist their teammates. The tricolor dominance was such that he had moments in which he could make up to 30 passes in a row without the Paraguayans recovering the ball.

What Lorenzo’s team will have to work on is translating that dominance into larger scores that give them greater peace of mind, because at 1-0 the match was open until the final whistle and any carelessness could have equalized a game in which the coffee growers were immensely superior.

This process is exciting, because in addition to the good numbers in the Qualifiers, the team led by Néstor Lorenzo has already played 14 games without defeats, 6 of them official and the rest friendly. Since the arrival of the Argentine coach he has 9 wins and 5 draws, 22 goals for and 9 against for a performance of 76.1%, an impressive performance.

Fuente:  www.elcolombiano.com