Colombia at USA 94 and the death of Andres Escobar

Colombia 1994 world cup squad

Colombia arrived at the USA 1994 as a one of the favorite to lift a world cup.With a talented player such as carlos valderama,freddy rincon and faustino asprilla among others,they beat argentina twice in the qualifier including 5-0 thrashing at buenos aires.Even pele himself was quite impressed by this talented team coached by Francisco Maturana.Colombia top the CONMEBOL group without a defeat.

Carlos Valderrama

Faustino Asprilla

Francisco Maturana

5 September 1993

Argentina	0–5	Colombia
		Rincón  41', 74' Asprilla  50', 75' Valencia  85'

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires Attendance: 53,000 Referee: Ernesto Filippi (Uruguay)

Colombia famous win over argentina at the world cup qualifier

Argentina match highlights

Group 1[edit source | editbeta]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Colombia	6	4	2	0	13	2	+11	10
Argentina	6	3	1	2	7	9	−2	7
Paraguay	6	1	4	1	6	7	−1	6
Peru	6	0	1	5	4	12	−8	1

World cup qualifier final standing.

During the world cup 1994,colombia was placed in group A with the host USA,switzerland and romania.Colombia was certainly the favorite to top this group and they expected to thrash this swiss or even a soccer yankee pretty easily.But what happened next was quite shocking indeed.

Colombia: 1-3 :Romania[edit source | editbeta]

June 18, 1994 16:35 PDT

Colombia	1–3	Romania
Valencia 43'	(Report)	Răducioiu 15', 89' Hagi 34'

United States: 2-1 :Colombia[edit source | editbeta]

June 22, 1994 16:35 PDT

United States	2–1	Colombia
Escobar 35' (OG) Stewart 52'	(Report)	Valencia 90'

The loss at the opening game against romania and then losing the second game against the USA ended their world cup campaign and they were going home early.Colombia beat the switzerland in their final game,but it is too late,they were out of the world cup.Coach Maturana resign afterwards and he was going to spain to be a manager of atletico madrid,

Group A - Final Standings

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  Romania 6 3 2 0 1 5 5 0   Switzerland 4 3 1 1 1 5 4 +1  United States 4 3 1 1 1 3 3 0  Colombia 3 3 1 0 2 4 5 -1 THE DEATH OF ANDRES ESCOBAR In the evening of 2nd July 1994,not more than a month after going home from the world cup,a colombia center half at the world cup,Andres escobar,was shot to death outside Medellin night club in colombia.He was shot 6 times in front of his girlfriend.It was reported that the killer shouted GOL !!! when he firing a shot at escobar.He was escorted to the hospital but was pronounced death 45 minute later.The murder was widely believed to be a punishment for escobar own goal against USA in the world cup.Rumours circling around that the murderer was connected with gambling sydicates that bet large amount of money on colombia to qualify for the 2nd round. Andres Escobar Escobar own goal against USA at the world cup     Escobar murder investigation There you have it,the story of colombia golden generation that going down the drain,they did managed to qualify for the 1998 world cup,but still, they were going out in the first round,and that was the last time they were in the world cup,because they have been missing the 2002,2006 and 2010 edition,so you can do the math,it's been a long time we haven't seen them in the world cup.Maybe this man can change it,let's wait and see next year. Falcao

Mexico in the 1998 world cup

Mexico 1998 team

Mexico in the 1998 world cup campaign was quite a memorable one.Coach by Manuel lapuente,this team have an exciting player like cuahtemoc blanco,luis hernandez,pavel pardo and that goalkeeper jorge campos.They have a good run in this tournament.With their free flowing attacking football and combined with a never say die attitude,they managed to come from behind 3 times in their match against south korea,belgium and netherlands.

Manuel lapuente

Luis hernandez

Cuahtemoc blanco

Jorge campos

First game against south korea,they were trailed behind after south korea scored through ha seok ju in the 28th minute,but they came back stronger in the second half,goal from pelaez and a brace by hernandez ensure the mexican win. 3-1 the final score.

Second game against belgium,again they were trailed behind 0-2,but a goal from garcia aspe and blanco ensure them to get a draw 2-2.

Their final match against netherlands was an exciting one.Netherlands lead 2-0 in the first half courtesy of cocu and ronald de boer goals,but again mexico come back in the second half,goal from pelaez in the 75th minute and a sensational goal from hernandez in the 94th minute ensure them to get a draw 2-2. With that,they managed to qualify for the last 16.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Netherlands	3	1	2	0	7	2	+5	5
Mexico	3	1	2	0	7	5	+2	5
Belgium	3	0	3	0	3	3	0	3
South Korea	3	0	1	2	2	9	−7	1

Group E final standing

Mexico vs Netherlands

But the mexican luck finally run out in the last 16.They been knocked out by germany after narrowly losing 1-2.Manuel lapuente continue coaching the team and a year later in the confederations cup,they became a champion after beating brazil in the final.Blanco,pardo and campos was playing a part in that historic win alongside a young rafael marquez.Blanco continue playing for the mexico in the 2002 world cup edition.He missing the 2006 campaign due to a disagreements with the then coach Ricardo la volpe.But he made it to the 2010 edition when javier aguirre took over as a mexican coach.

The rise of japanese posterboy

Junichi inamoto

Japan was co hosting the 2002 world cup edition with south korea,they was in group H alongside belgium,russia and tunisia.First game japan drew with belgium 2-2,junichi inamoto score the second goal,and that when inamoto mania was swept across japan,a couple of days later he did score again.This time against russia.Japan win 1-0.He was voted man of the match twice,in a match against belgium and russia.

Inamoto goal against russia

Team v   t   e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Japan	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
Belgium	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	5
Russia	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
Tunisia	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1

Group H final standing

Japan was top of the group after they beat tunisia in the last game.In the last 16,inamoto and japanese luck finally run out,they lost to turkey,and their competion is over.But one thing is certain,inamoto was making his name in the international stage with his great perfomance,even his team mate hidetoshi nakata couldn't done it better.Nakata was great in the 1998 edition,but in this world cup, junichi inamoto definitely steal the spotlight. 

Inamoto goal against belgium

Lippi gambles paid off

Marcello Lippi

In one of the great match of the world cup 2006,it was germany vs italy in the semis,germany was the host,playing in front of home fans in dortmund,and they never lost an international game in dortmund.Dortmund was more like fortress,but it's about to change.

Italy starts the game playing with their usual 2 strikers with totti playing just behind toni.Full time 0-0.Starts of the extra time,lippi throws in alessandro del piero for simone perrotta.They already have made two substitution earlier in the 74th minute,alberto gilardino replaced luca toni,and in the 91st minute vincenzo iaquinta replaced mauro camoranesi.And now in the extra time they have 4 strikers playing at the same time.It's 4 2 4 system now,Totti,gilardino,del piero and iaquinta.Gilardino have some chances to score also del piero and iaquinta look threatening in front of goal,suddenly italy was looking more dangerous in the extra time.Finally in the 119 minutes fabio grosso managed to score a goal and del piero added another in the 121 minutes.

4 July 2006 21:00

Germany	0–2 (a.e.t.)	Italy
	Report	Grosso  119' Del Piero  120+1'

FIFA WM Stadion Dortmund, Dortmund Attendance: 65,000 Referee: Benito Archundia (Mexico)

Grosso,pirlo and del piero celebrates

Final score, italy won 2-0,thanks to the coach marcello lippi who willing to take a risk with 4 strikers and playing an attacking football in the entire tournament that pretty unusual for italy whose famous for it's catenaccio system.He certainly managed to tactically outsmarted german coach jurgen klinsmann in this game.They went on to win the world cup beating france on penalties in the final.Coach lippi choose to resign after winning the world cup and he will be replaced by roberto donadoni.

Cannavaro lifting a world cup

Maradona argentina team against germany in the world cup 2010

Diego maradona

Team v   t   e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Brazil 18 9 7 2 33 11 +22 34  Chile 18 10 3 5 32 22 +10 33  Paraguay 18 10 3 5 24 16 +8 33  Argentina 18 8 4 6 23 20 +3 28  Uruguay 18 6 6 6 28 20 +8 24  Ecuador 18 6 5 7 22 26 −4 23  Colombia 18 6 5 7 14 18 −4 23  Venezuela 18 6 4 8 23 29 −6 22  Bolivia 18 4 3 11 22 36 −14 15  Peru 18 3 4 11 11 34 −23 13

South america world cup qualifier final standing

After experimenting with over hundred players during world cup qualifying campaign,this is the best that diego maradona could come out with.This so called gala team by maradona himself got beaten badly by the brilliant counter attacking german team.His decision for not bringing javier zanetti and juan roman riquelme to this world cup is fatally proved.With inexperienced nicolas otamendi at the right back badly exposed by the quick german players.Without creativity of juan riquelme,argentina midfield look jaded, lack ideas and creativity.With only javier mascherano as a defensive midfielder protecting the back four,he certainly need support in the defensive area,but with too many attackers in the argentine midfield like maxi rodriguez and di maria,and they already have 3 strikers in messi,tevez and higuain,their midfield was unbalanced,and the germans certainly taking advantage on that.Also, the germans have the solution to shut messi out.During argentina world cup qualifying campaign maradona lose his cool and tell the journalist to KEEP SUCK AND KEEP ON SUCKING IT,also noted that bolivia hammered them 6-1 at la paz which is quite an embarrasment for him.During the 2010 world cup,argentina top the group after beating nigeria 1-0,south korea 4-1,and greece 2-0,at the last 16,they managed to beat mexico 3-1,at the quarters,they been beaten by germany 4-0.After returning home to buenos aires maradona announce his resignation from coaching the team,although most fans and the argentina president cristina fernandez begged him to stay and continue coaching the squad,maradona was already made up his mind and he did resign.

Team v   t   e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Argentina	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9
South Korea	3	1	1	1	5	6	−1	4
Greece	3	1	0	2	2	5	−3	3
Nigeria	3	0	1	2	3	5	−2	1

Group B final standing

Quarter finals stats

3 July 2010 16:00

Argentina	0–4	Germany
	Report	Müller  3' Klose  68', 89' Friedrich  74'

Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town Attendance: 64,100 Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

Cristina Fernandez

Game highlights

Maradona looked dejected during game against germany