WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Spotlight : A NATIONAL DISASTER

Bogota’s El Espectador newspaper reported on its front page that Colombia, “in one of its worst presentations ever,” lost to the United States and is practically eliminated from the World Cup.

Correspondent Esperanza Palacio Molina wrote from Los Angeles:

“This is nothing more, nothing less, than a problem of personality. Or a state of confusion. Colombia got its wires crossed. It is as if they knew how to play soccer in Spanish and upon arriving in the United States, they had to translate to English. And that left them fried.

“Colombia showed none of what it showed in the eliminations. Not talent, nor touch, nor happiness, nor soccer. Nothing.”

Under the front-page headline “Colombia’s illusion died in the United States,” El Tiempo’s Victor Rosas reported from Los Angeles: “It is total failure and pain! Everyone--players, coaches, fans and journalists--we all ended up bitterly watching as an illusion unraveled. It is sad to watch a soccer team fall apart, to be impotent witnesses to a debacle, to observe while that hope called the Colombian National Team finished confused about its role, not knowing what it was playing, without a hint of that class that not long ago turned it into a national pride.”