Initial Publication Date: October 30th, 2023; Revised Publication Date: December 2nd, 2024.

Note: I only managed to watch about one hour of the match (the first 35 minutes and the last 25 minutes); I was making dinner.

Key Takeaways…

1. Colombia plays dirty. The fouls, the flops, the obstruction of play, the exaggeration and faking of injuries. I’ve noticed this from previous matches against Colombia, as well.
2. The Ref refused to give out cards, at least until the 35 minute mark (I stopped watching after the first 35 minutes). The number of cards that weren’t handed out, that should have been throughout the entirety of the match, was ridiculous.

In Detail…

Colombia.

1. The insanely aggressive and flagrant fouls. For example, the way Thompson was tackled by the Colombian player towards the end of the second half. Colombia is playing to injure Americans.
2. The flops and fake injuries. The amount of summersaults and combat rolls I saw employed by Colombia was RIDICULOUS. It’s laughable, sad. and infuriating… In the second half, I thought one of the Colombian players had been possessed by demons. She needed an exorcism, not medical assistance.
3. The lack of honor, the cheating, the stealing, the lying; this culture of sport and soccer is taught and reinforced from the top, down. The coaching staff are directly involved in propagating it. Sadly, this isn’t limited to just the Colombian team. In my opinion, Latin Soccer, at large, has the same ‘culture,’ or what I would call ‘corruption,’ of sport. It’s disgusting to watch many Latin teams play, i.e., many of the men’s teams.
4. Look, some American player’s have their moments, but this kind of wide spread cheating, and frankly, B.S., isn’t ‘endemic’ to US soccer. Americans, generally speaking, play with honor and dignity. Additionally, I would expect the American coaching staff to correct any type of dishonorable play that occurs by an American. For example, if I was coach and one of my players was pulling this sort of B.S. behavior, I would bench them. That behavior would not be tolerated and I don’t think it should be tolerated by the current U.S. coaching staff.

Referees.

1. I don’t know why the Refs refused to give out cards for the first half of the game. Are they told not to? Were they cheating? What justification is there for not giving a yellow or red card? Refusal to do so incentivizes dangerous play and subsequently, injury. A card is a card, it doesn’t matter at what point in the match the foul occurs. Stop warning players and hand out the damn card, immediately. The Colombian team is using every leniency they can to injure Americans to better secure their chances of winning these games.
2. Stand up to this kind of behavior. The American players can’t take this lying down. Stand up and push back. Do I mean start cheating like the Colombians? No. I mean don’t let them walk all over you. Don’t cower in fear. Be brave. Confront their bullshit. For example, Lindsey Horan. Thank God for her. She stood up to the Colombians and the B.S. from the Ref. We need more of the girls to follow Lindsey’s example.

Recommendations:

1. Publicly complain and be loud about these injustices. US Soccer, coaching staff, players, commentators/ broadcasters and fans should be very vocal. Do not silently suffer or let this go unattended. For example, use a post match press conference to call out Columbia’s dirty playing, coaching and their culture of soccer. During the same conference, call out FIFA and it’s referee policy which encourages injury through disregard of clear yellow and red card fouls. The USA can not tolerate our team being injured.
2. Refuse to play with teams, like Columbia, that play dirty. Set a standard and if teams violate that standard avoid playing with them until proper and appropriate reconciliatory measures are taken.
3. To file a general complaint towards US Soccer, please consider this page: https://www.ussoccer.com/contact-us To file a general complaint towards FIFA, please consider this page: https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/organisation/contact-fifa/contact-form

Oh, one more point. Alyssa Thompson is a beast. She is quick and has great link up play. I liked the quick passing we saw from this game. I think the US team should focus more on quick passing AND anticipating the 2nd, 3rd and 4th pass. It would really help. I noticed that some link up play fell apart because a player wasn’t expecting or anticipating a pass.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Hope you all are well.