Pre-match: 2026 WCQ R-8: Colombia vs Argentina (9/10/24, Tuesday - 4:30 PM EST)

I agree that asprilla should have came on to replace arias maybe but I see Lorenzo was trying to keep it 2-1.

 

na man dude doesn’t want us to beat his country

no other reason for him forgetting he can make subs

glad James didn’t get hurt. Almost had a panic attack when he touched his calf

 

I am impressed that James even played for 93 minutes straight. I hope this moviates him.

 

Yeah 2 assists and 1 goal

Wanted Duran to have a better game though, still feels like he's not ready. He was great in Peru but not here. I wonder if they are going to let cucho play next pair of games. If Chile sucks as much as they have last games that should be an easy game. He surely could get a couple of minutes there.

 

I want Cucho and other young hungry guys to play against Bolivia as a B team.

feel Cucho could be that James/Teo 2014 WC type player.

Chile and every home game need to
Start our best 11.

have 10 points more than 7th place….. good spot to be in. Pretty. Much need to have 4 atrocious games for them to catch up to us

 

I'm a bit worried about the Bolivia game though. The ball travels really fast at high altitude, which shows at Bolivias first goal. And venezuela almost scores too from a long range.
That game should be for Rios and Lerma who have scored many goals like that.

 

Question: I saw the highlights from a video showing the match in an Argentine channel and extra time showcased 8 minutes whereas ours was 7 on Colombian and other Hispanic channels. Did anyone see the actual sign lifting it?

 

Argentinian here: the graph on our tv showed 7 minutes at first because that's what the ref added initially but then he added one more minute after the James sub so they changed the graph to 8.

 

Okay because I saw the Argentina form talking about that and our end never showed the change so I don't know if the ref themselves knew or there was a miscommunication to one end. Colombia had the ball so I don't see why the ref would end it nearly a minute prior if we were still in control of the ball unless he never intended for that added minute and/or there was a misinformation going on.

 

I think he ended it at 7:24.

It's cool anyway we weren't going to score with crosses.

 

We finally beat Argentina under Pekerman/Lorenzo. Wasn't always pretty but a good gritty win against the World Cup and two- time American Champs.

We have depth and we are still learning what combos in the lineup can work. We should be deadly come '26 for any opponent. Hopefully we continue to work hard and not take anything for granted. On to Bolivia.

 

Nice to have that win, and to know that the winning mentality is catching on. There were some terrible terrible mistakes (Vargas losing the ball to Alvarez, James assist to Gonzalez and a bunch of short rebounds in the area) so I consider ourselves lucky (plus the penalty call that could have gone either way). Nonetheless, the team looked poised, had some very good moments and had a few more clear chances that they failed (Duran, Cordoba, Muñoz?).

One issue to correct, and here is where Borré earns his money (ducks), is defensive help on the right side. Neither Duran nor Cordoba are fast enough to track back to help Muñoz and both are terrible defenders, so Argentina found a lot of space in that sector and they created danger attacking that flank.

Not sure why when Castaño went in, Rios wasn't moved to that side to cover, but Lorenzo still made Cordoba track back with similar results as with JJD; only when Portilla got in he went to that position and thanks to that, Colombia recovered the ball and created the clearest chance we had in the second half.

 

The penalty was pretty soft but Argentina of all teams cannot complain about that. Seems like their fans forget how some of their players get calls like that all the time.

Fact of the matter is the defender did not get any of the ball and did touch Muñoz after he faked him out. Even though Muñoz may have embellished a bit by the letter of the law it is a penalty.

 

These are the type of games we needed to win. World cup champs like Argentina just need 1 mistakes to capitalize (Vargas almost had the other gimme). Very even match overall as it should be. Makes me wonder back to Copa America with Lucumi and Munoz (responsible for the PK win yesterday) and Duran on the field, Colombia same days rest as Argentina, would we have had a better result?

I do.

 

I liked the win but would've been nicer with a less dubious penalty that lead to it.
Still I don't think it would affect either one of these teams qualification even if it had ended in a draw. I just want them to seal the 6th direct spot to the WC as fast as possible so we can check new players that never gets a chance. Hopefully we will have qualified when there are 6 games left or something.

Then we can play some games with Mier in goal to see how he good he is. I was surprised by the poor display of Vargas and also Duran at times. Vargas made some world class saves against Peru but yesterday he looked awful and a nervous wreck. I felt he could've done better on the goal he received too, it was a pretty poor finish by gonzalez that still went in.

Also we have quality enough to beat any team playing at home without doing it in extreme heat. I actually agree with Scaloni here, it's bad for the players and the spectacle as a whole, and I don't think it would have changed the scoreline at all playing in more humane conditions.

 

Yeah I don't disagree on the right side, both on and off the ball we are putting guys there who are not comfortable defending on the wing or attacking on the wing and I'm not sure why we're sticking to it. Duran and Cordoba both almost exclusively operated down the right, and we were weaker defensively and offensively putting square pegs in a round hole, we didn't even really use them for hold up play since James is highest and central when we don't have the ball, we aren't even really getting crosses into the box consistently in a game like vs Argentina. It's true at least defensively Borre does the job because the guys a work horse, and really the only advantage Duran and Corboba has is runs off the wing since they're a bit faster and have more power to finish chances.

Just drop the 9's and play Sini or someone, Sini is much better operating central when needed then playing Duran or Cordoba 90% of the game out of position, Duran was walking and lazy to track back, Corboba is better but imo I don't think Duran will be able to start in the current system in tough games playing like that, its a weakness going forward and defensively and we'll get punished.

 

So basically play in Medellín every game.

 

I think we should do as most big NT's do, well except England who I think always plays at Wembley. To play in different cities. It would be nicer for the country as a whole I think and also a packed stadium guaranteed everywhere they go. A game in Barranquilla, Medellin, Cali, Bogota etc

I actually remember we did that under the horrible pinto era for WCQ 2010. We played most games in Bogota and some in Medellin. I guess that was the only good thing about those qualifiers.

 

Very technical and good in tight spaces. Not the fastest guy in the world but positioning and timing compensate for that.
Great at Talleres every time I see him play. Good vision for a DFM too. Should have been on the roster instead of Uribe long ago but apparently Lorenzo wanted to give Mateus one more chance as one of our few captains and leaders in the locker room. Hope to see more of him as the cycle advances and we are qualified.

 

Next game is at El Alto, 4,000 mts. Talk about inhuman conditions.

If it was up to me, I'd do a @crzdcolombian, and call a bunch of players from teams from Mexico, Bogota, Tunja, and Pasto and take that team to Bolivia, and rest the starters in Barranquilla to demolish Chile. Whatever happens in Bolivia will not be relevant to the goal at hand which is to qualify for the World Cup directly.