WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Spotlight : COLOMBIA’S PLAY: ‘COSMIC DREADFULNESS’

I would draw to your attention the curious incident of the Colombians at the Rose Bowl. The Colombians did nothing at the Rose Bowl. That was the curious incident.

Colombia, favorites to win the World Cup, were beaten, 2-1, by the United States in one of the great upsets of World Cup history. The United States, it was widely predicted, would be the first hosts to fail to reach the second round. Now an advance is assured, but Colombia are surely out of the tournament.

And they went down in a performance of almost spooky gutlessness, of almost eerie incompetence. It was a performance of cosmic dreadfulness; and this from the team that beat Argentina, 5-0, in Buenos Aires last year.

As the game marched on, and the United States were given the freedom of the pitch, the Colombians kept their heads down. There was no player with clenched fists urging them goalward, no furious demands for defiance. There were no players yelling at teammates. There were no players exorcising frustrations in bad tackles. The Colombians accepted it all with a bizarre limpness.

(World Cup USA Chairman Alan) Rothenberg, and everyone else involved in this tournament, has a reason to go down on his knees in gratitude to the Colombians. Something took the heart and soul out of them. Any side can get beaten, any time, that is football’s great beauty; but Colombia went down limply, reeling, writhing and fainting in coils.