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Team Colombia, is gone but statitics make the hurt worse

OK, everyone. No more speculation. If Colombia wants to go to another World Cup, it will have to wait until at least 2010 to make the trip as Colombia has been eliminated. Uruguay's upset over mighty Argentina made Colombia's victory virtually meaningless.

Looking at statistics alone, Colombia has got to be hurting and hurting big. As Carter pointed out, Paraguay's fielding a weaker team gave Colombia hope today. Colombia said thank you for the break and won. But still, that victory was a hollow one. Argentina, clearly one of the best teams in the world, went to Uruguay and all but handed Uruguay a victory. Could it have been intentional....just to get the last laugh at its long time rival, Colombia? Nobody expected that to happen. Uruguay's victory today ended Colombia's World Cup trek by 1 point. Or to put it another way, Uruguay had one less loss, and one more dead lock which allowed them to slide by Colombia. And therein lies the difference.

But statistics can really hurt sometimes. Consider this. Throughout the entire elimination round, Colombia gave up fewer goals than any other team in the South American conference (Conmebol). Colombia only allowed 16 goals. Even Brazil and Argentina allowed more with 17. Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay allowed 19, 23, and 28 goals respectively. Colombia also scored more goals than any other team but Brazil and Argentina. Colombia scored 24. Again, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay only scored 23. Those stats look impressive. One has to ask, how is that the team that gave up the fewest goals isn't guaranteed a spot? You know Team Colombia is asking that question.

Well, 1 point is 1 point. Colombia, gave us a thrill for the last couple of months, but the biggest thrill, the chance to go and win a World Cup is now history.

By Gomezman5 on Oct 12, 2005, 21:24 in Friendly Talkzone.

Monpirri says on Oct 13, 2005, 21:12:

History repeat itself In November 2001, Argentina did not try to beat Uruguay for the World Cup 2002, history repeated itself...
In October 12, 2005, mighty Argentina lost against Uruguay.

"Argentina no se esmeró para vencer a Uruguay en la eliminatoria del Mundial de fútbol del 2002 y ahora está bajo sospecha de colombianos y chilenos en la víspera de la última jornada en al que Uruguay –que recibirá a Argentina–, Colombia y Chile aspiran a ocupar el quinto puesto del área para jugar una serie extra con Australia que le permita estar en Alemania-2006.

El ex DT uruguayo Juan Ramón Carrasco, antecesor de Jorge Fossati –hoy en el cargo–, afirmó el año pasado que “si no se arreglaba ese empate (1-1) con Argentina, que ya estaba clasificada, para Uruguay era la tercera falta consecutiva a un Mundial”.

Según Carrasco, “todo el mundo” sabía de ese acuerdo, que parte de la prensa argentina se encargó de señalar como “evidente” tras el encuentro de la última jornada de las eliminatorias del Mundial de Corea y Japón disputado en noviembre de 2001.

Hoy, si Argentina vence a los uruguayos en Montevideo, estos quedarían directamente fuera de la repesca, pero si pierde Uruguay enfrentará a Australia.

Incluso jugadores de Argentina, como el actual capitán Juan Pablo Sorín, reconocieron en su momento que aflojaron el el final de ese partido.

Más aún: en medios de prensa argentinos se asegura que el talentoso Juan Sebastián Verón tendría un veto por parte de la Asociación de Fútbol Argentino (AFA) rectora de la actividad en ese país, por haber declarado que si Colombia “hacía un gol más” a Paraguay, los jugadores argentinos habrían permitido una anotación uruguaya.

En el 2001, Colombia derrotó 4-0 a Paraguay en Asunción, pero con el empate en Montevideo quedó eliminada por un tanto de diferencia a pesar de su goleada."
http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/hist_imp/HISTORICO_IMPRESO/DEPORTES_HISTORICO/2005-10-11/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_HIST-2564651.html

Annette Taddeo for US Congress 2008

0 funny, 0 helpful.

kernow62 says on Oct 13, 2005, 21:15:

That will teach Colombia to beat the Argies in Argentina. Those buggers have good memories.

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Gomezman5 says on Oct 14, 2005, 14:57:

Argentina...... I'm not saying that Argentina let this one go. It just looks somewhat suspicious. Colombia just defeated Uruguay and Argentina is a much better tean then Colombia. That said, how does Argentina lose a game that they clearly should have won? On the other hand, maybe Argentina did not want to risk injury in a contest that that had no significance. One can only speculate.

In the end, nobody defeated Colombia. They defeated themselves. Their late 2004 and early 2005 was quite simply.....sub par. When you have a two year playoff cycle, every game counts. One can't just simply dismiss a loss and say, "there is still plenty of time." There isn't.

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