“CO-LOM-BIA! CO-LOM-BIA!”
Miami Gardens or Barranquilla? Honestly, it was hard to tell. There was a yellow wall at Hard Rock Stadium, built brick by brick with Carlos Valderrama, Andres Escobar and James Rodriguez jerseys.
The flight time from Bogota to Miami is more or less the same as that to get here from New York. A short hop. A little under four hours. The proximity to home, not to mention the Colombian diaspora in Florida, helped make the ticket for the Group K decider against Portugal the most wanted of the group stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo was another factor; the main attraction for the Portuguese and his millions of followers. Except when Ronaldo ran out for the warm-ups and his face appeared on the big screen, boos reverberated around the ground.
It was as if Colombia were playing at home.
“CO-LOM-BIA! CO-LOM-BIA!”
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This only added to the challenge for Portugal.
Roberto Martinez based the team in nearby Palm Beach in order to prepare his players for this game. He wanted them to acclimate to the heat and humidity of playing in Florida. Colombia played the Copa America final two years ago at the same venue. It was a measure of their pedigree, as runners-up in that competition, and experience in preparedness for this environment.
Unlike the weather up the East Coast where England played Panama in the cold New Jersey rain earlier in the day, it was a hot one in Miami. This was never going to be an easy game, even for a team as good on paper as Portugal.
Colombia fans made Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium feel like home (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
“CO-LOM-BIA! CO-LOM-BIA!”
Just how much Portugal struggled still came as a surprise though. Colombia were not necessarily at full strength. Nestor Lorenzo made three changes. He left out Luis Suarez, who scored 34 goals in all competitions for Sporting. He benched Daniel Munoz after the full-back scored in back-to-back games against DR Congo and Uzbekistan. He didn’t risk Johan Mojica who was only a booking away from suspension. It just so happened Jhon Lucumi and Jefferson Lerma found themselves in the exact same situation. They played anyway, knowing it was a tight-rope act at the Hard Rock. One false step and they’d disappear from the line-up for the Ghana game in the Round of 32. This should, theoretically, have aided Portugal. It did not.
“CO-LOM-BIA! CO-LOM-BIA!”
Martinez can call upon one of the best midfields in the tournament. When he rested Joao Neves from the start against Colombia, he played his namesake, Ruben, next to Vitinha instead. Vitinha finished the game with a 100% pass completion rate. “Even so,” Martinez acknowledged. “We weren’t able to control the game or to use our individual talent.” Portugal’s best player, the Man of the Match, was goalkeeper Diogo Costa. Colombia attempted 24 shots, their most ever at a World Cup, surpassing the 23 they had against the USA in 1994, the fateful game in which Andres Escobar scored an own-goal. If it wasn’t for Costa and the linesman James Lindsay, who, arguably, made the best call by any match official at this tournament, by spotting Davinson Sanchez’s stoppage time goal was, in fact, offside by a big toe, Portugal would have lost.
“PRI-ME-RO! PRI-ME-RO!”
Colombia topping the group was, in Martinez’s opinion, no biggie even if it meant Portugal have to play Croatia in the Round of 32 instead of Ghana then, hypothetically, Spain, instead of Switzerland in the Round of 16. “Winning or losing or having a draw today did not make a difference,” he argued. “Our goal is to play eight games.” It doesn’t matter who they’re against. Martinez made out he used the group stage as preparation for the knock-outs. He made half-time substitutions in each game. He used 22 members of his squad, rotating everyone apart from one. Cristiano Ronaldo played every minute. Against Colombia he was offside for his best chances. He did not track back, only breaking into a jog when a corner needed defending. His first act after the initial hydration was also to give the ball away.
“RO-NAL-DO! RO-NAL-DO!”
A lookalike in full-kit waited by the tunnel for him before kick-off. At full-time, an influencer in the mixed zone held out their hand for a fist bump. When Ronaldo reached out and reciprocated, the influencer collapsed to the floor and began crying. For some it is hard to distinguish if Martinez is a coach or one of these pair? He continues to stand by Ronaldo, not only because he scored a brace against Uzbekistan in Houston, but because the memories of last summer are still fresh when the 41-year-old scored against Germany and Spain in the finals of the Nations League. Asked if gave thought to resting Ronaldo, as Lionel Scaloni did with Lionel Messi and Stale Solbakken did with Erling Haaland for Argentina and Norway’s last group games, Martinez was unequivocal.
Portugal coach Roberto Martinez talks to his players, including Cristiano Ronaldo (Craig Williamson/Getty Images)
“RO-NAL-DO! RO-NAL-DO!”
“I think obviously we don’t compare players in our team with other players to make decisions,” Martinez said. “I think that would be quite childish and very unprofessional. I can tell you that we monitor all the information that we get live during the games, and obviously what we do in between training. There is always an opportunity. Today we used Joao Neves’ energy for 45 minutes, and used Ruben Neves for 45 minutes. We used Diogo Dalot, and Joao Cancelo. It’s more a question of mentally being strong and always being disciplined in his position, and opening space for our attacking patterns. So there is not an issue physically or mentally for Cristiano in today’s game to play the 90 minutes. Maybe the next game we need to make a change, but that’s like any other player. We follow the information.”
“GON-CA-LO! GON-CA-LO!”
No one was singing this at the Hard Rock. There was no clamour for Goncalo Ramos, the only other striker on the bench for Portugal, to come on and replace Ronaldo. Four years ago in Qatar, Ramos seemed to retire Ronaldo from international duty. It was in Lusail that he memorably started at his expense and scored a hat-trick against Switzerland in a 6-1 win. Ramos seized his moment and looked like the future. He was 22 and left Benfica for PSG the following summer for €65m. This week AC Milan broke their club record to sign him, committing to an even larger fee. A double Champions League winner, Ramos has not exactly been a protagonist in those triumphs even if he did score PSG’s first penalty in the shootout that decided the final against Arsenal in Budapest in May. He scored six goals in Ligue 1 this season. When Martinez brought Ramos on for eight minutes against Uzbekistan it was to play next to Ronaldo rather than instead of him. Little time to make an impact.
Is this the only alternative to Ronaldo at centre-forward? It is unless you consider playing Rafa Leao and other wide players as false nines. At this tournament Ronaldo continues to oscillate from legend and a limitation amid a lack of either competition or serious consideration by Martinez of the other option available to him. The Spanish coach has vowed to review Portugal’s performances in the group stages and make the necessary adjustments as the knock-outs begin. For now, if you were to bet on one of Portugal and Colombia to go furthest in this competition, I’d listen to the crowd at the Hard Rock. .
“CO-LOM-BIA! CO-LOM-BIA!”
