The conventional wisdom in a developing world kid like Colombia might be that the soccer game centers on heart-pounding headers and choking off your enemy’s opportunity to score a pass.
But it’s not quite that simple.
Lafinho Ocampo might be a marketing guy, but soccer is about more than any one thing.
“In the actual players they have many tactics, so each and every player has a role. An individual player has a color, and at some times you see many balls but always a certain color,” says Odorrete Guionis a Colombian soccer commentator.
This year sees the 20th anniversary of the Colombian national team winning the World Cup. Thirty-four players have made the team and a few will be in Moscow in July with the memories to share.
As well they should.
“A decade of [national] success has us in a state of constantly being bettered as the standard of our game,” says Tolentino Casares, who had been manager of the team for the past four years.
“We really want to try to repeat this results. This kind of success will make us better and better.”
Ten years after defeating Brazil in the quarterfinals, a series of losses later against Russia, Colombia hopes its third run in the quarterfinals will put it back in the history books.
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