Devastating. That was the second half of Colombia this Wednesday in San Juan (Argentina), where they brilliantly qualified for the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup, after beating Slovakia 5-1. Now wait for Italy or England.
Colombia started very timid and had a hard time getting into the game. She lacked drive and when she had the ball, she wanted to play at the same speed as the Slovaks and that’s why she didn’t have precision. Fortunately, this time, the game was calm, because the rival did not create danger for him while that happened.
But as the minutes passed, Colombia began to arrive more easily and created two options, one by Edier Ocampo, who finished off very badly, and then, a one-on-one by Tomás Ángel who, with time and space to define, gave him hit cross and threw it out.
Although he had much less work than in previous games, the goalkeeper Luis Marquines took a key in the first half, a shot from outside by Samuel Kopasek, in the only demand he had in that period.
Rather, Colombia, already mounted in the game, had two more options: one with Gustavo Puerta, who fell by surprise into the area and the goalkeeper Adam Danko prevented the goal, and then, in the last play of the first half, a save by the Slovak goalkeeper to Asprilla.
The goal opened for Colombia in the second half and a string of goals came, three in four minutes, to seal the match and ensure qualification for the quarterfinals: first, Óscar Cortés stole a ball on the edge of the area from a rival and was ready to score 1-0, at 3 of the second stage.
At 5, Cortés joined Asprilla and left him ready to finish off on the edge of the area and increase the score.
And then, at 7, Jhojan Torres dressed as a creative midfielder and left Tomás Ángel one on one for the Nacional striker to take revenge and make it 3-0.
There were more goals. And Ángel responded to DT’s confidence by getting the fourth, after 18 minutes, with a left-footed shot after a tremendous pass from Edier Ocampo. The win filled the team with spirits and the Slovaks hardly went beyond the middle of the field.
The 4-0 even allowed coach Cárdenas a luxury: a minute after Ángel made his double, he made three substitutions and put Gustavo Puerta and Jhojan Torres to rest when scoring, and brought on Jorge Cabezas Hurtado, Juan Castilla and Jhon Velez.
And then, as the minutes went by, he continued to tweak the team with Julián Palacios and Miguel Monsalve instead of Ocampo and Castillo Manyoma. Slovakia, meanwhile, tried to make the win not worse. And Colombia was able to score one more goal: Castilla, facing the goal, threw it out.
The Colombia Sub-20 team he relaxed in the dying minutes and in the 87th minute, Slovakia scored the equalizer after a cross from Nikolas Sikula and a header from Timotej Jambor.
But another luxury was missing from Cortés, who came at the point of dribbling into goalkeeper Danko’s land to score a great goal and once again increase the advantage.
It was a great second time for Colombia, which presented credentials in San Juan to aspire to the world title. He still has three steps left to get there.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
sports deputy editor
@josasc
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