The Colombians managed to steal 3 points from the Ivory Coast today with a match that was boring in the first half but electrifyingly good in the second. The first half saw one clear chance from the Colombian side which was terribly taken by Teo. Other than that, the match was average with both sides under-performing. It must have been the coach’s talks at the half that inspired the teams since the second half of the match was superb.
The game finally began to explode in the second half. Colombia began pressuring the Ivory Coast in the African side’s own defensive half early in the second half. The first booking of the match was shown by the main official only ten minutes into the second half to Didier Zokora for a foul from behind. After pressing and pressing in Ivory Coast territory on the pitch, the Colombians were finally able to break the deadlock in the 64th when central midfielder James Rodriguez met a corner kick and put a powerful header behind the African goalkeeper Boubacar Barry who managed to get a hand on it but not enough to keep it from going in.
The Ivory Coast instantly responded and began a series of attacking plays that put Colombia on their toes but 6 minutes after the first Columbia goal African center defensive midfielder Serey Die gave a ball away in Ivory Coast’s own defensive half which the Colombians recovered and took full advantage of. James Rodriguez once again showed up and pushed forward for Columbia after stealing the ball from Die and handing the ball off to Teo who then gave Quintero a through ball and a one on one chance against Barry. Quintero finished perfectly with a left footed shot to the bottom left side of the goal and put the Colombians up by 2 goals.
Three minutes later, in the 73rd, the final goal of the match came from a marvelous individual play by Gervinho who cut in from the left wing and made his way past 3 Columbia defenders, then took a knee high shot to the left side of the goal and beat Colombian goalkeeper Ospina.
The match ended in a 2 – 1 victory for the Colombians who went down in the record books today by winning two consecutive world cup matches for the first time in world cup history. Colombia certainly has been playing well and if they keep up the good work, they more than likely be able to sweep the group stages and obtain a great World Cup result.
Photo Credit: Warren Little/Getty Images