By Samindra Kunti in Melbourne
August 8 – Colombia eliminated Jamaica 1-0 with a second-half goal from Catalina Usme to bring the Reggae Girlz’s World Cup party to a close. A quarter-final clash with England awaits for the last team standing from the Americas.
It took 321 minutes and a superb Colombian attack to at long last expose Jamaica’s resolute defense.
The Jamaicans had defended and then some more, keeping three clean sheets in the group stage. They had resisted Eugenie Le Sommer and Marta, they had kept teenage sensation Linda Caceido at bay, but Deneisha Blackwood misread a Colombian cross and in that moment Jamaica’s resistance was broken. Usme received the ball and blasted it past Rebecca Spencer, 1-0.
At last, the match came alive, with Jamaica fired up. It was the first time they had fallen behind the tournament and Jody Brown’s header rattled the woodwork.
With Lorne Donaldson’s team hunting for an equaliser, Colombia were satisfied to lurk on the counter. The tempo and intensity of the match had dramatically changed after a first half of tense and cagey play.
A second time in the knockout phase following the 2015 Women’s World Cup, Colombia had been slight favourites but Jamaica enjoyed the more energetic start, based on individual actions before the South Americans had a first good spell of possession around the 20th-minute mark and delivered crosses from the right to test Jamaica’s backline. Unsurprisingly, the Jamaicans held their shape, their challenges often hard but not excessive, imposing some of the physicality that served the Reggae Girlz so well during the group stage.
Colombia needed to regroup and found a 51st-minute winner in style.
The Jamaicans flooded the opponents’ half, but with just one goal from three matches, they could not find the net, despite a dangerous header from Drew Spence in the last ten minutes.
Colombia meet England in the quarter-finals on Saturday in Sydney.
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