History of the Colombia national football team
Colombia played its first international match against Costa Rica in the Julio Torres Stadium, obtaining a 4–0 victory against the Central American team.
After a withdrew in 1938 and getting banned in 1954 (due to the controversial El Dorado era), Colombia participated for the first time in qualifying for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden with Rodolfo Orlandini as manager.
At Italia '90, Colombia defeated United Arab Emirates 2–0, lost to Yugoslavia 1–0, and earned their place in the Round of Sixteen after a dramatic 1–1 draw with West Germany, who would later win the Cup.
Tragically, Escobar died on 2 July 1994 as it is believed that his own goal, vs the United States, caused huge losses for Colombia's drug lords.
Although England needed only a draw to guarantee a place in the round of 16, Darren Anderton drove home a fiercely-struck angled drive in the 20th minute.
Prior to the tournament, three meetings were held by CONMEBOL authorities who were concerned about potential security issues in Colombia, for what Venezuela offered to host the competition.
Even the fact that Argentina, regarded by most observers as the strongest side in the region, elected not to take part and that most countries fielded weakened teams failed to dampen the celebrations in Bogotá.
It was also noted the following year that Brazil was then considered to be the strongest in the region at the time following their 2002 FIFA World Cup victory, thus making the event "legitimate".
Head coach Francisco Maturana led the team through four FIFA qualifiers and was fired after losing to Brazil 2–1 in Barranquilla, getting thrashed 4–0 by a weak Bolivia and suffering a shocking 1–0 defeat at home to Venezuela.
Colombia seemed to have improved and defeated Peru and Uruguay 5–0 during qualifying, managed a 3–0 victory over arch-rivals Ecuador, and tied with Brazil 0–0 in São Paulo.
Colombia (21 pts) traveled to Asunción hoping for three points against Paraguay (28), who sealed their place in Germany while Chile battled against Ecuador and Uruguay against Argentina.
After Copa América 2007, the Colombia national football team boomed with recent success in the South American 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
After embarrassing losses against Paraguay, and Argentina in the Copa América, many Colombians nonetheless anticipated a successful run for 2010 FIFA World Cup classification.
However, Colombia would find their very first win after defeating a weak Venezuela national football team 1–0, with a stupendous free kick courtesy of Rubén Darío Bustos.
Successive defeats to Uruguay and Paraguay at home, and a thrashing away to Chile, however, left Colombia in an extremely dangerous position knocking them out of the top five and forcing them to set their sights on the fifth play-off spot only.
After that, on October 14, 2009, they played their last qualification match against Paraguay, in Asunción, Paraguay, beating 2–0 and finishing in 7th place in the table standings with 23 points, one point behind Uruguay, who went on to compete in the play-offs, and eventually play in the World Cup Colombia failed to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, mainly because their constant change of formations and struggles to score goals in the last games of the qualification.
In Copa América 2011, Colombia showed great skill beating Costa Rica 1–0 goal given by Adrián Ramos thanks to an assist by Fredy Guarín.
Colombia lost 2–0 after a mistake by defence as Mario Yepes had accidentally tripped goalkeeper Neco Martínez – who conceded no goals up to this point –allowing Peruvian player Carlos Lobatón a clear shot.
The Colombian side started very well in their 2014 World Cup qualifiers by beating Bolivia 2–1 in La Paz and a difficult match against Venezuela which ended 1–1 in Barranquilla.
[8] In early 2012, Colombia showed great skill defeating 2011 Golden Cup winners Mexico 2–0 in what was José Pékerman's friendly taking control of the game almost entirely.
Leonel Álvarez became the new coach following the resignation of Hernán Darío Gómez, but was sacked after three games with disappointing results, which led in the hiring of Argentina's José Pékerman.
Colombia, however, bounced back, crushing Copa América winners Uruguay in a 4–0 win, ending their undefeated streak since the 2010 World Cup.
Colombia continued on with the final stages of the world cup qualifiers, beating a tough, defensive ten-man Ecuador with a 1–0 victory, which guaranteed them a play-off spot.
Pékerman was criticized for his lineup choices once more, where he then made two essential subs immediately in the second half, which eventually led into Colombia scoring the three required goals, thus allowing them to tie the game and qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 16 years.
However, a ten-man Colombia managed to make a 1–2 comeback to win the game and gain their highest ever point record in the World Cup qualifying history, both goals being scored by captain and defender Mario Yepes.
[28] Colombia would then receive the FIFA Fair Play Trophy and have James Rodríguez and Juan Cuadrado end as the World Cup's leading goal scorer and assist leader, respectively.
[31] The team was nevertheless considered the group favorites, but began their campaign with an unexpected 2–1 controversial defeat to Japan, with Carlos Sánchez being sent off after just three minutes of play.
[52] Starting off their 2019 Copa América campaign, Colombia defeated favorites Argentina in a shocking 2–0 win, marking their first victory over the La Albiceleste since 2007.
In commemoration to the Copa America Centenario 2016 tournament being held in the United States, Colombia will bring back the iconic white style color home jersey, with small accents of navy blue and red.
Between 29 and 30 December 2002, the Federation traveled to Panama to negotiate with the Italian sportswear company Lotto;[84] they obtained sponsorship in 2003 and it was used on the 2003 Confederations Cup, keeping the same colours that they had been using for both home and away jerseys.
