Colombia a Strong Favorite to Win Soccer Games

Colombia under-21 soccer team strong favorite in C. American Games

Colombia's under-21 soccer team is a strong favorite to win the title at the Central American and Caribbean Games, local press said on Tuesday.

Colombia will play Honduras on Wednesday for a place in the final, at 6.00 p.m. local time (2300 GMT) in Cartagena's Pedro de Heredia Stadium. Venezuela face Costa Rica in the other semifinal at 8.00 p.m. in Barranquilla's Metropolitano Stadium.

The local press is touting Colombia, although so far the national team has not faced strong competition.

The "coffee boys" managed by Eduardo Lara is the same team that took part in the Hope Contest in the French town of Toulon. So far it has battered the Dutch Antilles 7-0, squashed Jamaica 6-0 and beaten Panama 2-1.

Colombia has a long footballing tradition, but has only won gold in the Games once in 1946.

Lara told Tuesday's media that Colombia's 2006 team will be attacking from the first minute of the game against Honduras.

The Central Americans beat Barbados, El Salvador and Mexico by 3-2, 5-2 and 3-1 respectively, thanks to great work from Ramon Castillo, who Lara praised to the media.

The play-off and the final will both take place on Saturday, the penultimate day of the Games.

Source: Xinhua

By platano on Jul 25, 2006, 21:09 in Friendly Talkzone.

Juanes says on Aug 8, 2006, 08:46:

la copa del mundo (THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP) yes you are right in your inclinations diego or can i can you diego armando maradona y el mano de dios ! The colombians are thinking of bidding for the world cup in 2014 after south africa. i was at the last one in germany seeing the english team failing again on penalties for the fourth tournament out of the last five. I think there will be two bids one from colombia and the other from brasil. However, i would love it to be in latin america because it hasnt been for ages because the people there are mad about the sport. Colombia did bid for the world cup in 1986 but was more unstable then and had to pull out at the last minute which is wau mexico hosted it that year. The country is a lot more stable now and i think they have a good chance. Finally, please refer to our sport as football because it is not soccer, even in all the spanish/ potugese countries it is called el futbol, futebol. Loads of americans unfortunately call it this but please remember the TV audience for the world cup final ITALY v FRANCE was watched by 164 times the audience for the american superbowl. truly the global sport which unites all people in all continents.

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Juanes/