KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The plan for Colombia against Ghana on Friday night probably did not involve making a substitution just minutes into the match.
That plan also went by the wayside when Jhon Córdoba appeared to hurt his groin.
Forced into making a rare early move, Colombia coach Néstor Lorenzo sent Luis Suárez onto the field, and he promptly delivered a sharp cross that Jhon Arias flicked into the net, resulting in the only goal on a sweltering night at Arrowhead Stadium and sending Los Cafeteros into the Round of 16 at the World Cup with a 1-0 victory over the Black Stars.
“I think football is a team sport,” Lorenzo said. “Ultimately you do have little groups in certain areas, but you have to have a unit — a whole — and I think our squad has been working on that from the very onset. That was the goal from the very beginning.”
The early goal was a good omen: Colombia has won 11 consecutive World Cup matches when scoring first. Now, it will play Switzerland on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a spot in the quarterfinals.
“We have won absolutely nothing,” Colombia star Luis Díaz said. “These games are very difficult. Every game we’ve seen has been tight. The good thing and the positive thing is that we’re playing very well, we feel comfortable, we are being a family, we are working as a team, and that will work for what is coming.”
Los Cafeteros thought they had doubled their lead in the 56th minute, when Díaz found the back of the net only to see the offside flag raised, and the fleet-footed Colombia forward had a point-blank shot saved by Lawrence Ati Zigi a few minutes later.
Zigi wound up making seven saves to keep Ghana in the game.
“Sometimes it happens in football,” Ghana defender Jerome Opoku said, “that it doesn’t go your way.”
It was 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31.1 Celsius) with a heat index of 96 when the game kicked off at 8:30 p.m. local time, the late start intentional due to the expected heat of Midwestern summers.
The hydration breaks that have been controversial in so many matches suddenly became a blessing as players from both sides fought through dehydration and cramps.
Ghana was one of a record nine teams from Africa to escape the group stage of the World Cup. And while many gave fits to some of the tournament favorites — hello, Cape Verde against Argentina — only Morocco and Egypt were able to reach the Round of 16.
“It’s always great to get out of your group,” Opoku said. “Obviously we wanted to go further.”
Colombia had breezed through the group stage, conceding only a single goal in wins over Uzbekistan and Congo and a draw with Portugal. In fact, Los Cafeteros had been so impressive that Spain coach Luis de la Fuente — whose own team is considered among the tournament favorites — tapped them as “a candidate to win the World Cup.”
Their fans certainly believe in them.
The home of the NFL’s Chiefs has three levels of seats with a band of yellow ones sandwiched between red. Yet the entire bowl of the stadium just east of downtown Kansas City was awash in the vibrant yellow of Colombia some 2 hours before kickoff.
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Ghana knew it would be an underdog. Yet the team that failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations last year for the first time in nearly two decades had already answered plenty of critics by surviving a difficult group topped by England and Croatia.
The question as it faced Colombia: Could Ghana mount enough offense?
As expected, Los Cafeteros dominated the ball — the Black Stars had possessed it just 36.1% of the time in the group stage, second-least of any team that advanced, and those offensive issues continued against Colombia. Even when Ghana managed to put together an attack, Colombia was there to quickly counter with the speed of Suárez, Díaz and its midfielders.
Ghana wound up taking eight shots against Colombia. None of them were on goal.
“Intense game. Tough game for both teams, I guess, as I expected,” Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz said. “Colombia started the game as we expected, full speed, a lot of intensity, passing. We tried to answer and stop them, but unfortunately the goal came too early for us.”
