Football World Cup 2014 / Colombia

This article covers the Colombian national football team at the 2014 World Cup . Colombia only took part in the finals for the fifth time and, after 1962, for the second time in a finals in South America . When they last participated in 1998, Colombia was eliminated in the preliminary round. For the first time, the quarter-finals were reached, in which the team was eliminated against hosts and record world champions Brazil.

qualification

Colombia qualified through the qualifiers of the South American Football Association CONMEBOL .

All nine teams, which belong to the South American association CONMEBOL as well as hosts Brazil, played against each other in a single group stage with a return game, with a total of 16 matches for each team and one team free of play on every match day. The four best-placed teams qualified directly for the finals of the 2014 World Cup. Colombia began qualifying under Leonel Álvarez , who had only taken over in September 2011 but was dismissed after two games. His successor was the Argentinian José Pekerman . All home games were played in the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez in Barranquilla , the largest stadium in the country. With a total of nine wins, three draws and four defeats, Colombia qualified as the second best team in the South American qualification on the penultimate matchday. In this game against Chile a 0: 3 break deficit was turned into a 3: 3. Thanks to the results in the qualification, Colombia achieved third place in July 2013, the best place in the FIFA world rankings to date .

table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Argentina	16	9	5	2	035:150	+20	32
2.	Colombia	16	9	3	4th	027:130	+14	30th
3.	Chile	16	9	1	6th	029:250	+4	28
4th	Ecuador	16	7th	4th	5	020:160	+4	25th
5.	Uruguay	16	7th	4th	5	025:250	± 0	25th
6th	Venezuela	16	5	5	6th	014:200	−6	20th
7th	Peru	16	4th	3	9	017:260	−9	15th
8th.	Bolivia	16	2	6th	8th	017:300	−13	12
9.	Paraguay	16	3	3	10	017:310	−14	12

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Colombia
10/11/2011	La Paz ( BOL )	Bolivia	-	Colombia	1: 2 (0: 0)	Pabon (48th), Falcao (90th + 3)
11/11/2011	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Venezuela	1: 1 (1: 0)	Guarín (11.)
11/15/2011	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Argentina	1: 2 (0: 0)	Pabon (44.)
06/03/2012	Lima ( PER )	Peru	-	Colombia	0: 1 (0: 0)	James (51.)
06/10/2012	Quito ( ECU )	Ecuador	-	Colombia	1: 0 (0: 0)
07.09.2012	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Uruguay	4: 0 (1: 0)	Falcao (2nd), Gutiérrez (47th, 51st), Zúñiga (90th)
09/11/2012	Santiago de Chile ( CHL )	Chile	-	Colombia	1: 3 (1: 0)	James (58.), Falcao (73.), Gutierrez (76.)
October 12, 2012	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Paraguay	2: 0 (0: 0)	Falcao (52nd, 89th)
03/22/2013	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Bolivia	5: 0 (1: 0)	Torres (20th), Valdés (49th), Gutiérrez (62nd), Falcao (86th), Armero (90th + 2)
03/26/2013	Puerto Ordaz ( VEN )	Venezuela	-	Colombia	1: 0 (1: 0)
06/07/2013	Buenos Aires ( ARG )	Argentina	-	Colombia	0-0
06/11/2013	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Peru	2: 0 (2: 0)	Falcao (12th / penalty), Gutiérrez (45th)
06.09.2013	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Ecuador	1: 0 (0: 0)	James (30.)
09/10/2013	Montevideo ( URY )	Uruguay	-	Colombia	2: 0 (0: 0)
10/11/2013	Barranquilla	Colombia	-	Chile	3: 3 (0: 3)	Gutiérrez (69th), Falcao (74th / eleven.
October 15, 2013	Asunción ( PRY )	Paraguay	-	Colombia	1: 2 (1: 1)	Yepes (38th, 56th)

A total of 35 players were used in the 16 games. Only goalkeeper David Ospina was used in all games. The top scorer was Falcao with nine goals, three of which were penalties. So he was together with Gonzalo Higuaín third-best goalscorer of the South American teams. Nine other players contributed the other goals. In the last game, Fredy Guarín received the yellow-red card , which meant that he was suspended for the first final game.

preparation

On March 5, a friendly against Tunisia in Barcelona ended 1-1. James Rodríguez scored the goal for Colombia in the 21st minute with a penalty. Falcao , the top scorer in the qualification, tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee on January 22, 2014 and was therefore out of the World Cup. On May 31, 2014 Colombia played 2-2 against Senegal in Buenos Aires , with Gutiérrez (11th) and Bacca (45th) scoring for Colombia . On June 6th, another game against Jordan took place in Buenos Aires, against which Colombia played for the first time and won 3-0. The goals were scored by James Rodríguez (41st), Cuadrado (82nd) ​​and Guarín (88th).

Finals

Squad

In the squad, only goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón had World Cup experience before , who came to three appearances at the last World Cup when most of the other squad members were still playing in junior teams and was the oldest participant in the World Cup. His commitment in the game against Japan made him the oldest World Cup player of all time.

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup 1	International matches 2	Länderspiel- gates 2	birthday	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goalkeeper
22nd	Faryd Mondragón	Deportivo Cali	050	00	June 21, 1971	1	0	0	0	0	1994, 1998	3	0
01	David Ospina	OGC Nice	044	00	August 31, 1988	5	0	0	0	0
12	Camilo Vargas	Santa Fe CD	000	00	March 9, 1989	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
16	Éder Álvarez	River Plate	005	00	February 28, 1993	0	0	0	0	0
04th	Santiago Arias	PSV Eindhoven	006th	00	January 13, 1992	3	0	0	0	0
07th	Pablo Armero	West Ham United	053	01	November 2nd 1986	5	1	1	0	0
23	Carlos Valdés	San Lorenzo	014th	02	May 22, 1985	1	0	0	0	0
03	Mario Yepes	Atalanta Bergamo	098	06th	January 13, 1976	4th	0	0	0	0
02	Cristián Zapata	AC Milan	024	00	September 30, 1986	4th	0	0	0	0
18th	Juan Zúñiga	SSC Naples P	050	01	December 14, 1985	4th	0	0	0	0
midfield player
08th	Abel Aguilar	Toulouse FC	049	05	January 6, 1985	3	0	0	0	0
11	Juan Cuadrado	AC Florence	028	04th	May 26, 1988	5	1	0	0	0
13	Fredy Guarín	Inter Milan	049	04th	June 30, 1986	3	0	1	0	0
15th	Alexander Mejía	Atlético Nacional	008th	00	July 11, 1988	4th	0	0	0	0
20th	Juan Quintero	FC Porto	004th	00	January 18, 1993	3	1	0	0	0
05	Carlos Carbonero	River Plate	002	00	July 25, 1990	1	0	0	0	0
10	James Rodríguez	AS Monaco	022nd	05	July 12, 1991	5	6th	1	0	0
06th	Carlos Sánchez	FC Elche	044	00	February 6, 1986	4th	0	1	0	0
striker
17th	Carlos Bacca	Sevilla FC E.	011	03	September 8, 1986	1	0	0	0	0
09	Teófilo Gutiérrez	River Plate	030th	13	May 17, 1985	4th	1	0	0	0
14th	Víctor Ibarbo	Cagliari Calcio	009	01	May 19, 1990	2	1	0	0	0
21st	Jackson Martínez	FC Porto	027	08th	3rd October 1986	3	2	0	0	0
19th	Adrian Ramos	Hertha BSC	026th	02	January 22, 1986	3	0	0	0	0
Coaching staff
	José Pekerman	Trainer			September 3, 1949	5					2006 3	5
	Néstor Lorenzo Patricio Camps Pablo Garabello	Assistant coaches	13 4 0 2 4	1 4 0 4	February 26, 1966 January 22, 1972 September 3, 1972						1990 4	3 4	0
	Eduardo Niño	Goalkeeping coach	03 5	0	August 8, 1967
	Eduardo Urtasún	Fitness trainer			January 25, 1961

¹ E - The club won the UEFA Europa League in the 2013/14 season, MC - The club was Clausura champions in its country in the 2013 season.

²only those games and goals are given that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup ( source (as of May 16, 2014) , updated after the games against Senegal on May 31, 2014 and against Jordan on June 6, 2014 )

³ With Argentina (quarter-finals)

^4th As a player for Argentina

⁵ As a player

Group stage

Brasília Belo Horizonte Cuiabá Cotia Rio de Janeiro Fortaleza

Preliminary round venues (red), eighth and quarter-final venues (green) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on 6 December 2013, Colombia was placed in Pot 1 for the first time in October 2013 due to its placement in the FIFA world rankings and was drawn as the group head of Group C. Greece, the Ivory Coast and Japan were drawn. Before that, Colombia had played twice against Japan: In the Confederation Cup preliminary round in 2003 they were 1-0, four years later in a friendly game in Saitama they were 0-0. Before the World Cup, there was only one friendly match against Greece on June 5, 1994 in preparation for the 1994 World Cup, which ended 2-0. Colombia had never played against Ivory Coast before the World Cup.

In Belo Horizonte , Colombia lost a friendly match against Brazil 2-1 on April 25, 1985. Colombia had already played several times in Rio de Janeiro. There were no other games in the venues before the World Cup.

The team quarters and training facility was the training center of the FC São Paulo CFA Presidente Laudo Natel in Cotia .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Colombia	9: 2	9
2	Greece	2: 4	4th
3	Ivory Coast	4: 5	3
4th	Japan	2: 6	1

• Sat., June 14, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Belo Horizonte Colombia - Greece 3: 0 (1: 0)
  
• Thursday, June 19, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Brasília Colombia - Ivory Coast 2: 1 (0: 0)
  
• Tue., June 24, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Cuiabá Japan - Colombia 1: 4 (1: 1)
  

Knockout round

• Round of 16: Sat., June 28, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Rio de Janeiro ( Maracanã ) Colombia - Uruguay 2: 0 (1: 0)
  

It was the 38th game between the two teams. The record with 11 wins, 8 draws and 18 defeats could not be significantly improved by the victory. After all, the balance at world championships is now balanced, because in 1962 Colombia lost 2-1 in Uruguay in the preliminary round.

• Quarter-finals: Fri July 4, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Fortaleza Brazil - Colombia 2: 1 (1: 0)
  

Colombia had previously played against the Brazilian national team 24 times, of which 2 games were won, 8 - including the last 4 before the World Cup - ended in a draw and 14 were lost. They have never met before at world championships.

Awards

James Rodríguez became the first Colombian top scorer and was awarded the Golden Shoe . He was also named "Man of the Match" three times and named to the top 11 of the tournament. On July 17th, he was nominated for the European Footballer of the Year election. His goal to 2-0 against Uruguay was awarded the FIFA Puskás Prize .

Sports impact

In the FIFA world rankings , Colombia climbed four positions from eighth to fourth, making it the second best South American team in the rankings behind Argentina.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A difficult moment: Falcao missed the World Cup . kicker.de, June 3, 2014, accessed April 19, 2017.
2. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
3. ↑ uefa.com: "Shortlist to vote for the" Best Player in Europe ""

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All qualifying matches of Colombia