Colombia needed an hour to crack a stubborn World Cup debutant, and then Luis D\u00edaz decided it himself. A goal and an assist gave Los Cafeteros a 3-1 win over Uzbekistan at the Estadio Azteca \u2014 even after Abbosbek Fayzullayev had scored Uzbekistan’s first goal in World Cup history.<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways from Colombia’s opening win:<\/p>\n
(Photo by Alfredo ESTRELLA \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n For an hour, this felt like the kind of game that ends in an upset. Colombia had the ball \u2014 nearly 70% of it \u2014 but little clue what to do against a packed Uzbek block that often looked like a 5-4-1. James Rodr\u00edguez floated around, Jhon Arias stung the side-netting, D\u00edaz smacked the post, and the longer it stayed level the louder the doubts grew.<\/p>\n Then we finally had the quality shine through. Two moments of real class settled it, and a team that shipped more goals than anyone in CONMEBOL qualifying held on after a brief wobble. Three points, a list of things to fix, and little else. Nestor Lorenzo will have some long nights ahead preparing against better opposition in the group.<\/p>\n (Photo by Alfredo ESTRELLA \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Uzbekistan have two genuinely high-level footballers, one on each end of the field. Abdukodir Khusanov \u2014 the fastest center back in last season’s Champions League and a Manchester City player at 22 \u2014 anchors Fabio Cannavaro’s back three and gives this side recovery pace most center backs can only envy.<\/p>\n Up top, captain Eldor Shomurodov is a proven scorer: 44 international goals, plus 22 in Turkey’s S\u00fcper Lig this season. But two players don’t make a tournament team. Khusanov was booked while chasing D\u00edaz and was beaten for the winning goal. Shomurodov spent the night on an island, living off scraps. The block was disciplined, the fight was real, and the historic equalizer was earned. Whether any of it adds up to points is the harder question. At this level, Uzbekistan needs the other nine to play at a higher standard.<\/p>\n This was a good night to be Colombia. They didn’t just win \u2014 Portugal also stumbled, held to a 1-1 draw by a fearless DR Congo team that scored its first World Cup goal through Yoane Wissa while Cristiano Ronaldo misfired. Just like that, it’s Colombia, not Portugal, sitting alone at the top of the group. It’s a group that always looked manageable and now looks like an opening. Winning Group K is suddenly on the table.<\/p>\n For Uzbekistan, zero points hurts, but this isn’t a funeral \u2014 in a 48-team field where eight third-place sides go through, a competitive and fiery debutant is still breathing. Their best shot at points is DR Congo, who proved tonight they’re nobody’s free lunch \u2014 and they’re up next, along with Portugal. The margin for error just vanished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Colombia needed an hour to crack a stubborn World Cup debutant, and then Luis D\u00edaz decided it himself. A goal and an assist gave Los Cafeteros a 3-1 win over Uzbekistan at the Estadio Azteca \u2014 even after Abbosbek Fayzullayev had scored Uzbekistan’s first goal in World Cup history. Here are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}