USA catches break in winning group
The big question coming out of the USA’s stunning reversal of Copa America fortunes was not how the team moved from the brink of elimination to first place in Group A — but why?
Saturday’s 1-0 victory against Paraguay was enough to book a place in the quarterfinals and avoid the embarrassment of an early exit, yet even that once looked to come with the accompanying poisoned chalice of a final eight showdown with Brazil.
However, within a couple of hours, former Group A leader Colombia decided to rest 10 of its regular starters and failed to gain the point it needed to solidify the top spot, losing 3-2 to Costa Rica in a major upset.
So what was it that possessed the Colombians, ranked No. 3 in the world, to risk an apparently more obstacle-laden route through the knockout stages, instead of playing its regular team and maximizing the chances of staying in first place?
Only Colombia’s team hierarchy knows, and those people are not saying. But here is the best guess and a scenario that suggests the plan might not have been so foolhardy after all.
For a start, Colombia did not come here to just fight hard. It came to win it all. That means not only surviving the group stage but also winning three more games to lift the trophy.
Flying all the way across the country to Seattle, which is where the USA will play its quarterfinal as group leader, would have held little appeal. Colombia enjoys strong and passionate support among its expat community in North America, but the bulk of them are based on the East Coast.
When the Colombians play against Peru at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Friday, it will be buoyed by tens of thousands of compatriots.
And by resting its players, Colombia’s main unit will have had nearly a full week of rest by the time it next takes the field, invaluable in this type of tournament.
Colombia also might have been looking further down the road. The potential prospect of challenging a Brazil team that is without its superstar, Neymar, followed by a possible semifinal with Mexico, might seem like a smarter route than a long flight to Seattle to face an unknown opponent (most likely Ecuador), then possibly inspired, Lionel Messiled Argentina in the last four.
(The fear of Brazil was rendered moot, however, on Sunday when it lost to Peru and failed to reach the quarterfinals.)
There was no fix Saturday, no collusion or deliberate capitulation. You only had to watch the ferocity of Colombia’s attempted rally against Costa Rica and the halftime introduction of its best player, James Rodriguez, to see that it was trying to win the game.
But the above reasons are why it was prepared to take the risk by leaving out its main men, with the USA the primary beneficiary. On the flip side, the Americans will be more than content to go to Seattle, a happy hunting ground where they will enjoy more home support than at any other venue in the tournament.
Now they have to capitalize on it against Ecuador.