Colombia started with the veterans and then had a dose of freshness with the rookies, to build a 4-1 rout against Guatemala, in Néstor Lorenzo’s debut as national coach, this Saturday in New Jersey.
Néstor Lorenzo started the game with what he already knows: seven players who were with him at the 2018 World Cup in Russia (Ospina, Mojica, Lerma, Mateus Uribe, James, Cuadrado and Falcao); another three already with a career in the National Team (Luis Díaz, Daniel Muñoz and Jhon Lucumí), and a single debutant as a starter, Andrés Llinás.
Thus, Lorenzo did not start to invent: almost the same drawing of the last years in the National Team, except in the Queiroz era, although James did fulfill that task of throwing himself a little further back to try to help in the mark and get the team from behind, something he did at Real Madrid at some point and that the Portuguese also asked him to do.
Guatemala had order, but little else. The match does not give to make a great evaluation of the defense, which did not have greater demands throughout the 90 minutes.
But it was a test of patience from the middle forward, where Colombia had to work to decipher a defensive scheme that left few spaces, that practically annulled Luis Díaz, who fell to two and even three men, and that isolated Radamel Falcao García, who reached 100 games with the Colombian National Team.
The team took 27 minutes to generate a goal option, which Díaz was unable to solve, but waited another 12 to, now, take the advantage with a goal from James Rodríguez, who received a cross from Juan Guillermo Cuadrado in the small area and He finished off to score a 1-0 that, if there was VAR, was not worth it: there was a previous hand from the ’10’.
Colombia gained freshness with the changes
Already with the advantage, now Lorenzo, gradually, was giving space to the new ones: the first to leave were Cuadrado and Falcao, for the entry of Luis Sinisterra and John Durán. And the Leeds player was the author of the second goal, at 57, with a strong shot from the right.
The team gained dynamics and speed and took advantage of the fact that Guatemala was already feeling the wear and tear. And the two sets of changes came with the third goal from the bench: at 63, James and Luis Díaz left, and Jorge Carrascal and Rafael Santos Borré entered. And at 71, Daniel Muñoz and Mateus Uribe left and Yaser Asprilla and Stefan Medina entered.
The impetus of youth and the desire to show off turned a close duel into a landslide, thanks to a great performance by Asprilla, who put one, Rafael Santos Borré, at 76, and then scored another, at 89, entering diagonally to the area and hanging it from an angle, after a clearance by Yaser Asprilla.
An oversight by Jefferson Lerma allowed Óscar Santís to get Guatemala’s discount, at minute 90, in a goal that was more an anecdote than anything else, because the game was over almost immediately.
Colombia did what it had to: take a big advantage against a weak rival, to begin to pan what Lorenzo will find for the next four years. Another thing will be Mexico, yes, a team qualified for the World Cup.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Sub-Editor
@josasc
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