- A special day for Colombia say them through to the competitions Semifinals as well as breaking multiple records
- They will face the winner of Brazil/Uruguay in the next round on July 10 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
When the dust finally settled following Colombia’s 5-0 victory over Panama in the CONMEBOL Copa América™ Quarterfinals, Los Cafeteros had plenty of reasons to celebrate.
Besides the obvious feat of reaching the tournamen’s Semifinals, the Colombians achieved plenty of other feats on Saturday afternoon.
For one, their 5-0 victory against Panama marked their largest margin of victory at the tournament in their history. Their previous record came in 1979 in a 4-0 win against Venezuela. Only four other teams have achieved a victory of five or more goals in the CONMEBOL Copa América™ knockout rounds.
If you’ve been following Colombia through the tournament, you’ve also probably noticed the numbers of headers they’ve scored. With two games left to go, Colombia are actually the first team in the 21st century to score four headers in one addition.
A key reason for the successful headed goals is because of the fantastic service from captain James Rodriguez. Since Opta started tracking assists in 2011, Rodriguez became only the second player to reach five assists in one edition. He reached that mark against Panama where he recorded two assists and a goal.
All three of those goals Rodriguez was involved in happened in the first half, only the second time Colombia has scored three goals in the first 45 minutes of this competition, the first being in 1957.
The win against Panama also ensured that Colombia would equal their longest ever unbeaten streak in country history at 27 matches. In their current streak, Colombia has had 21 wins and 6 draws. In their previous streak, Los Cafeteros had 13 wins and 14 draws.
The entire Colombian team has enjoyed a wonderful tournament so far, but another standout has been winger Luis Diaz. Against Panama he scored his sixth ever CONMEBOL Copa América™ goal, which made him his country’s third highest scorer in the competition, now only behind Víctor Aristizábal (8) and Arnoldo Iguarán (10).
As Colombia’s perfect run to the Semifinals continues, they’ll be proud to know how much they’ve already accomplished, and emboldened with how much more they can achieve.
