Advertisement

Mexico, Colombia Meet at Coliseum

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

A week after the El Salvador national team and Club America of Mexico attracted a crowd of 35,000 to the Coliseum, international soccer returns to the same stadium tonight when the Mexican and Colombian national teams meet at 8.

This will be former U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic’s third game in charge of Mexico. He is rebuilding the team in preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Southern California in January and World Cup ’98 qualifying later in 1996.

Mexico needed two late goals to beat Saudi Arabia at the Coliseum last month, 2-1, and lost, 4-1, to Yugoslavia in Monterrey on Nov. 15. That loss prompted Milutinovic to ease off on experimenting and recall some of his veteran players for tonight’s game.

Advertisement

Colombia, meanwhile, is making its first appearance in Los Angeles since its disastrous 1994 World Cup performance, when its 2-1 loss to the United States at the Rose Bowl led to its first-round elimination.

Coach Hernan Dario Gomez is expected to field a full-strength team, using tonight’s game as preparation for a match against world champion Brazil in December. Gomez’s team tied England, 0-0, at Wembley Stadium in London.

Advertisement