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World Cup Daily Podcast: Colombia Eliminates Poland With Incredible Attacking Display
Colombia's performance against Poland was one for the ages as Los Cafeteros ran rampant for 90 minutes, smashing in three goals and eliminating the team that many thought would win Group H. We discuss Colombia's attack—and our love for Juan Cuadrado—how Group H could shake out after the final day and much more.
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Here's a selection of episode 11, which can be listened to in its entirety in the podcast console above:
GRANT WAHL: Looking at other games today, Colombia rolled up the goals in the end, three-nothing against Poland. Eliminating Poland, which was the seeded team in Group H. And I know you didn't have a chance to see too much of this game but I thought it gave flackbacks to some of the great Colombia teams we've seen in the past. In 2014 and in the early 1990s and I thought it was cool they showed Valderrama and René Higuita in the stands, enjoying themselves, because it felt a little bit like some of the performances that team had.
BRIAN STRAUS: Well I guess we can debate whether that handball against Japan really deserved a red card.
GW: Oh, of course it did.
BS: I'm not so sure.
GW: It's the denial of a goal!
BS: Yeah, but it was kind of flailing. Like I told you, he didn't spike it. He didn't (Luis) Suarez it. Anyway, I've always been a big Juan Cuadrado fan.
GW: Yeah!
BS: I think he's really fun to watch and he's got really really impressive technique and control but he does it with like this—he's got a fifth gear that's just awesome. He just moves with strength but does so with really sort of precise control and he has power and precision and I've always been a fan of his. I thought he was just fantastic today. Every time I looked up, it was funny, wolfing down some dinner at my hotel and wound up watching the game with, it may have been a father and son, but the father was English and the son was American but now living in London. And it was funny, we started talking because they were doing the "Where do we stand with Belgium," they were having that exact conversation. Figuring out how many yellow cards they had vs Belgium and kind of seeing where things stood. Is it going to be fair play, is it going be good, do we want to play Mexico or Brazil? So we were watching the Colombia game, the three of us, and Colombia was fabulous and Cuadrado was fabulous and, like I said, it made my heart ache a little bit because I think maybe they deserve better than they're going to get at this tournament because of that handball.
GW: I still think it was a red card, I do think it was clearly a third-minute red card and maybe we should keep that in mind when we look at Colombia's first game performance, that loss to Japan.
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