Colombia Defeats Uzbekistan 3-1 in Hard-Fought Match

Into the 37th minute and with their team toiling in the face of a wall of white Uzbekistan shirts, the roughly 70,000 Colombian fans inside the Azteca Stadium rose in unison, leapt up and down and burst into deep-throated song.

How, we wondered, would they react if their team scored a goal? We soon had our answer, and it was a strike from Daniel Munoz that deserved the euphoric, guttural explosion of noise that followed.

Defender Rustam Ashurmatov brilliantly thwarted James Rodriguez close to goal, but Colombia came again. Collecting the ball deep from Johan Mohica, Luis Diaz flighted a pass over the top, and with Ashumatov switched off, Munoz stretched out and toed the ball with sufficient force to power it into the roof of Utkir Usupov’s net.

But if they suspected they had cracked the Uzbek resistance, Colombia were wrong. Abbosbek Fayzullaev header levelled things after an hour, only for Diaz to exploit some uncharacteristically slack Uzbekistan football to decisively strike five minutes later. Jaminton Campaz sealed a 3-1 win for Colombia in the ninth minute of added time.

Uzbekistan’s defeat means that the four World Cup debutants in North America have claimed one point between them from the opening round of matches, albeit that came from Cabo Verde’s wonderful stalemate with Spain.

Between them, the Uzbeks, Jordan, Curacao and Cabo Verde have scored three goals and conceded 13. It is a hard school.