Colombia Last Remaining Outsiders In Women’s World Cup Quarter-Finals

After a narrow 1-0 victory over Jamaica today, Colombia became the first South American nation in 12 years to reach the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup. They are the lowest-ranked side team remaining in the competition.

In a tournament widely-vaunted as the most open in the competition’s 32-year history, seven of the eight quarter-finalists will ultimately be from the game’s established elite, all ranked in the top eleven in the world. Five of the six confederations may have been represented in the Round of 16, but only the exit of the number one-ranked United States to the number three-ranked Sweden was unexpected during the first knockout round.

Colombia are the only outsiders remaining, ranked 25 in the world and the only nation who will be playing in the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals for the first time this weekend. The nation’s women’s team now have the opportunity to go one better than their men’s team who reached the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Round of 16 match-winner, captain Catalina Usme was adamant that Colombia are not satisfied with reaching their first-ever quarter-final declaring “we can go beyond that, we came here to play seven games.”

Following the demise of the Olympic champions Canada and world champions, the United States, Colombia and Jamaica were the last two nations representing their respective continents. Apart from Brazil, no South American nation had ever reached the last eight of the FIFA Women’s World Cup or ever won a knockout game at the tournament.

Now Colombia has become the first team from their continent to reach the quarter-finals since Brazil last achieved the feat in 2011 and are the last representatives from the entire Americas still left in the competition.

It is something that pleases their coach Nelson Abadia. “This is an immense pride, a home pride, a regional pride. We know that we are worthy representatives of Colombia and South America. Now we are representing the Americas, we are the national team representing the whole continent”.

“When we qualified for the World Cup, the first thing I said to my team is we are not here to spend some time. No, we want to make history. It is better to write history than tell history.”

The Lionesses scrapped into the last eight following a penalty shoot-out victory over Nigeria following a scoreless draw in which they were largely outplayed by the Africans. Nigerian coach Randy Waldrum believed his side had created a blueprint for any sides left in the competition on how to defeat the European champions.

Abadia admitted, “England is one of the favorites of course, that goes without saying, they are the European champions. But we faced Germany, they were the second favorites, the second ranked team worldwide and we were wise enough, we had the composure in our play to

On Saturday, England will be missing their young star and top scorer in the tournament so far. Chelsea’s Lauren James was shown a straight red card during their Round of 16 victory over Nigeria on Monday. She will serve a minimum one-match ban during the quarter-final, a suspension which could yet be extended by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee later this week.

For Colombia, all eyes will be on their young superstar, 18-year-old Real Madrid striker Linda Caicedo. Voted the world’s best u20 female player by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) in January, Caicedo was the scorer of a fulminating goal against Germany in the group stage and the winner of two Player of the Match awards.

Abadia was keen to point our that Caicedo could only shine with and due to the players around her. “Linda is a crucial player and will always we a crucial players thanks to everything she does for her ten team-mates.”

“The stroke of genius of every player is what you offer to the other players, so the other players can also be key players in the team. So Linda is what she is today, thanks to her other ten team-mates who are supporting her and that’s the result of a collective trust, a collective confidence, between Linda and the rest of the team. That’s what happens with every player that we have.”