Colombia's Bid for World Cup Qualification: Analyzing Their Prospects
With the ending of the CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers coming to an end in September of this year, one can ask what the odds of Colombia’s World Cup qualification are. With the conclusion of the Colombia vs Paraguay game ending in a 2-2 draw it maintains Colombia in sixth place of the standings which gives them direct qualification to the World Cup. The closest national team to challenge for that last direct qualifying spot is Venezuela which is five points under Colombia currently.
Now some positives to take out of this fixture and going forward was Luis Díaz’s strong performance this game, scoring a goal and an assist within the first 12 minutes of the game. If Colombia can utilize his speed, creativity, and lethal finishes to their advantage they will continue to be dangerous and catch teams off guard like they did to Paraguay in this match. Colombia also had 61% possession of the ball this game. Knowing that there are only four fixtures remaining I would say that Colombia has decent odds of maintaining a direct qualifying spot. The hardest game within the next four games is versus Argentina which has already qualified in 1st place. The other three games are versus much weaker teams on paper and in the standings.
There were some things I saw today that have been a recurring theme in Colombia’s play as of late. Colombia tends to lose focus and let in pretty random goals. It happened in the fixture versus Brazil right in stoppage time and it happened in the game after being ahead 2-0 for almost all of the first half. Sometimes their defense seems to fall apart and when that happens the rest of the time loses the ability to be as dangerous because they have to track back more to help defend against counterattacks. If Colombia does qualify for the World Cup they have to solve these issues because the competition will be much harder and very high stakes. Players need to step up and not leave Luis Diaz to do all the heavy lifting on offense. With that being said Colombia’s national team has a decent chance of succeeding in securing a direct World Cup qualification spot.
