World Cup: Colombia exits with bitterness and introspection

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While media waited, and waited, and waited some more for Colombian players to appear after Tuesday night’s penalty shootout loss to Switzerland in the round of 16 matchup at B.C. Place, shouts in Spanish were heard from behind the barriers, but players were never seen.

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Head coach Néstor Lorenzo, meanwhile, after an equally long delay, made a very abbreviated appearance in the post-game press conference. He took three questions before departing with a “good evening, good afternoon, whatever.”

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‘What was missing?’ he was asked after the game, which was scoreless after a cagey and tactical (re: boring) 120 minutes.

‘A goal,’ was the reply.

“We should have scored a goal,” he said through a translator. “It’s of my interest that the team makes attempts, at least, but you pay for those mistakes. You pay when you don’t.

“In the last (World Cup qualifying) elimination round against Bolivia, Venezuela, we shot nine goals. These guys play at the major leagues, they’re amazing players. There’s nothing to reproach. The fact is that sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t.”

The Colombians had 15 shots to Switzerland’s 3, and an xG of 1.09 to 0.39. Darwin Quintero, unmolested, sent an effort from six yards out over the bar and into the stands in extra time. They hit a post. They hit a crossbar.

And now, they hit the road. This time, for home.

The team with the most road travelled during the tournament — 12,225 kilometres — leaves for home with heavy hearts and heavy legs.

Los Cafeteros midfielder Jhon Arias was the only player FIFA recorded speaking with media in the mixed zone on Tuesday night, stepping up to the microphone to speak for his team. He refused to make excuses, including the travel, but said that change needed to happen.

“It’s something that leaves us feeling very, very bitter,” he said through a translation. “But I also hope it can be the beginning of an internal change. Because I believe we had everything we needed to go further, but something was missing. We’re not going to make excuses, we’re not going to blame the pitch or the hotels or anything like that. I think the only thing left is to openly tell people that we take our share of the blame.”

Colombia has qualified for the World Cup six times in its history, with three of those coming in the last four tournaments. They’ve reached the round of 16 three times, with a 2014 quarterfinals appearance the nation’s high-water mark.

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“I think the nation had great hopes, the whole country. … Whatever comes next, I hope this serves as a lesson. I think we’re leaving with the feeling of not having been able to reach the goal we had set. And that leaves us with a bit of frustration, even though we did some good things. But change is necessary.

“When your head is hot, when things like what happened today happen, the tendency is to be fatalistic, to believe that everything is bad. Personally, I don’t think everything is bad. I think the World Cup gave us a good base, a solid foundation. We also have a solid core that we can build on. We have great players, players who know how to compete. I think we’re on the right path. Clearly something is missing, obviously something is missing, and that is what we have to figure out, what we have to look for inside ourselves.”

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