Columbia beat Cote D’ Ivoire 2-1 in 2014 Fifa World Cup

The match began balanced at a fast pace. Columbia counter-attacked after winning balls in midfield as Cote D’Ivoire carelessly lost possession. They very easily found spaces in the middle of the park and attacked the right flank with pace. They missed the best chance when Rodriguez fed Gutierrez from the right after the South Americans played a diagonal ball on stealing possession in their own half.

The Africans defence cleared the crosses from either wing efficiently. That was a bad sign of poor defensive behaviour as their wing backs failed to shut out the crosses. The wing defenders pushed too much up field and played in front of the ball. This exposed the spaces behind them and the Columbians exploited these spaces reasonably well by dropping long diagonal passes that stretched the central defence.

The distance between the midfield and the defence also increased the susceptibility to counter-attacks. Yaya Toure played too much in front of the action as much of the game was played behind him, nullifying his trademark runs from deep towards goal. As Cote D’Ivoire found spaces in their slow attacks, they squandered possession easily by atrocious decision-making. Ball retention was not at its best for both teams who appeared to be too cagey in their approach.

The match pace stepped up in the second half as Columbia sought to capitalise on the indecisive defensive shape of the Cote D’Ivoire who had their wing defenders up high and the central defenders playing far apart. In one swift move by Columbia, the two clashed and caused a corner kick. Rodriguez was unmarked and powered his free-header past a static Barry. There was no man-marking, no jumping and no pressure by the defence who were content ball-watching.

Prior to the goal, Bony Wilfred missed a gilt-edged opportunity that was followed by a clearer goal-scoring chance. As The Elephants pressed hard for looking parity, and got caught by a counter assisted by naïve defending. Serie Die was almost the last man in defence but tried a dribble. He lost the ball to Gutierrez who was stalking him. The Columbian raced towards goal creating a three versus one, and then unselfishly passed the ball to his right to Quintero who made no mistake.

Yaya Toure moved to his normal position and began to dictate the game. The impact was instant and visible as he tried to feed Didier Drogba, Gervinho and Salomon Kalou. The only moment The Elephants shifted a little faster on the right after winning the ball. Gervinho received the ball and quickly took off charging goal ward. He swept past four defenders and fired a parried shot into the net. The South American rear guard froze as the nibble-footed striker waltzed past them for a beautiful goal.

Despite the beauty of the show, the lack of discipline of the strategy; the tactical awareness, it was a bitter pill to swallow as Cote D’Ivoire carried the hopes of the continent after the disaster of that Cameroon embarrassment.   

Columbia maul Greece 3-0 in 2014 Fifa World Cup

It was an extremely easy win for Columbia as they strolled past a pedestrian Greece that was without fight or zeal. Armero was on the score sheet early on after the inter-passing on the right hand side of the midfield. A long ball was lobbed between the left back and the central defenders. The right winger skinned his man, played the ball to the D-zone, one attacker selling a dummy to leave Armero with a first time shot to finish. The shot took a touch off a defender and trickled into the net past a desperately diving keeper.

The Greek midfield’s failure to steal the ball off on the centre-line, their failure to pick that run by the winger, the huge distance of supporting between the centre and left back, not shutting the cross, not dealing with that cross and lack of pressure on the ball recipient resulted in the shot at goal. That ball could have been blocked by the nearest defender who only managed to take off the sting off the strike.

Columbia probed through the middle with quick one-twos and wall passes. They utilised the spaces the Greeks left in their midfield and defence. The Europeans’ wingers got into positions early but never received the passes as the Greeks were extremely slow in launching any attack. While the tenacity and the double-marking of the Columbians seemed to mesmerise the Greeks, they had their own chanced they fluffed. They spurned a few free-kicks in the final third without much threatening much.

Columbia were content with the single goal, staying behind in counter attacks as they feared the countering the counter-attack of the Greeks. They only let three players engage the Greek defence while they stayed put in anticipation of the counter that never came. The Greeks squandered possession easily due to their slow tempo. They exposed their defence when they tried a 1-4-1-4-1 as Columbia drove through the centre and threatened more in the second half.

After winning the corner-kick, the ball beat the first man and was touched to Gutierez who stabbed home with a first-time shot. Failure to give the assistor and scorer enough attention proved fatal. There were opportunities for the Greeks even at this point, but they seemed content with a loss though.

In the dying minutes of that dreadful 90 minutes by the Greeks, a free-kick was conceded on the right channel of the midfield. The direct run into the box was all the South Americans needed as they exchanged a pass or two, with an attempted back-heel leaving the ball roll to Rodriguez to fire a low shot to the far post.

As all previous matches, there were basic errors leading to the goals. Many of these were avoidable and fortunately, even more errors were not punished by the opposition. The trends have been similar so far and each match produced excitement and goals. The Mexico vs Cameroon affair was dealt a blow by the relentless downpour but still produced a few exciting moments.