The Colombian National Team has everything ready for the final duel against Peru, this Friday at 4:00 pm, in what will mark the future in the Qatar 2022 Qualifiers
Seeing yourself in fourth place, which gives you a direct quota for the World Cup, is a double-edged reality: if the tournament ended now we would all be happy, but it is not and the next rival knows it and will play with that pressure, since they arrive with the same 17 points and the certainty that, just by adding, he will be able to give a very important blow for the classification.
For this reason and because the team has now gone five games without scoring, the tension that exists around Reinaldo Rueda’s team, although many try to alleviate it with doses of confidence and optimism, as has been perceived in the last press conferences of the players.
The issue is that it is not the first time that Colombia has come to this instance with so much anguish and that is not the worst news: before, when it had to win at the end of the Qualifiers to qualify for the World Cup, it failed.
For example, on the way to Korea and Japan 2002, with Francisco Maturana as coach, he could not beat Ecuador at home (0-0) nor did he hurt Uruguay as a visitor (1-1) and, although he won the last two games, it was the Uruguayans who won the playoff spot for one goal! Colombia added 27 points and +5 and Uruguay the same 27 but +6.
What’s more, with the same coach, Reinaldo Rueda, the national team stopped halfway, defeating Ecuador (3–0) but then failing again against Uruguay (losing 3-2). In the closing they lost against Chile and although they defeated Paraguay, that image of former captain Iván Ramiro Córdoba crying on the bench summed up the sadness of elimination: Colombia left with 24 units (+8), one less than Uruguay (-5).
To go no further, it was almost the same repeated story on the way to South Africa 2010: a 2-0 win against Ecuador, a 3-1 away loss against Uruguay, and in the end, seventh place in the table, with 24 points and – 4, one less than Uruguay, with 24 units and +8. In 2006 and 2010, the results against Chile and Paraguay in the closing did not change the history that had been written in the penultimate doubleheader of the Qualifiers.
That is why we all wanted another story to have been written against Brazil and Paraguay, especially, because when Colombia arrived routed after that day, they ended up qualifying for the World Cup: towards Brazil 2014 they added 7 points in the final stretch and ended up qualifying second to the Cup; and towards Russia 2018, although he only added three points in the final stretch, the savings were enough to qualify directly.
But hey, not even crying is good anymore. What there are are the 6 points against Peru in Barranquilla and against Argentina, without Messi, in Córdoba. You have to go for them, playing well or badly, beautiful or ugly, but winning at any price!
