Opening match of the Copa America Centenario at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA. saw Colombia down USA 2-0.
FIFA rankings tells us that these two teams are 28 spots apart, and it showed in the opening match of the Copa America Centenario. Colombia gave the host nation a losing start to their campaign.
Colombia started the match very confident. They looked like a team that was aware of the talents they held. The US on the other hand, started the match as if they were not sure about their opponents abilities. Playing defensive in the early minutes of the match might be the reason to their losing start to the tournament.
A dangerous through pass lead to a corner kick being awarded to Colombia. Edwin Cardona’s corner kick didn’t look like a dangerous kick into the US penalty area, but poor set piece defending allowed for a goal.
Cristian Zapata opened the scoring after 8th minute, and James Rodríguez buried USMNT with his penalty kick in the 42nd minute to end the for the match.
After going down a goal and with nothing left to protect, the US team started to press Colombia by moving the ball in the positive direction.
Between Colombia’s two goals scored, United States won three free kicks in Colombia’s third of the pitch. On those three occasions, they had a different kicker. The first kick was Clint Dempsey, then Michael Bradley and then Fabian Johnson. We are not sure if the team was searching for their spot kick takers during the match. In my humble opinion, if one player had taken those free kicks, they might have gotten a better kick each try.
Clint Dempsey’s second half free kick attempt is a testiment to what could have happened if the United States had stuck with one kicker. That free kick brought the best out of David Ospina
Clint Dempsey came close to equalising for the United States when the score was still 1-0.
In an attempt to get even, Colombia got some great counter attacks on the United States. One of those counter-attacks leads to the handball by DeAndre Yedlin. This allows James Rodriguez to double the score 3 minutes before half time.
The second half was different, as Colombia got back into the match. United States were getting tired, and they looked to have given up on thier chances of getting back into the match.
Costa Rica plays Paraguay next. A win for Costa Rica will put them in the driving seat when they meet the US in their second match. A loss for Costa Rica will mean that both teams will be playing for their first win of the competition.
On the other hand, Paraguay getting a win against Costa Rica will mean that their second match will be a match of ‘first match’ winners as they play Colombia.
The USA will travel to Chicago on Tuesday to play Costa Rica. They will be travelling with the hope of making things right. It is very rare that the host nation bows out early from the tournament.
As it stands, Colombia is on top of Group A with 3 points. The rest of the teams have no points, but the USA sits on the bottom with no points from a match.
A good win for Colombia and a bad start for the United States. But no one is really safe yet until the results of their second match come in.
| Group A | |||||||
| Team | Played | Win | Loss | Draw | GF | GA | Points |
| Colombia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Costa Rica | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paraguay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| USA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
