Colombia are hoping to make a deep run in this Copa America, wanting to build on a strong World Cup performance to take a place among the elite of South America. They stand a good chance of being able to dance their way to at least a semifinal berth, but they’ve got to start things off on the right foot with a win over Venezuela.
Colombia vs. Venezuela, Copa America 2015: Time, TV schedule and live stream
It’s time for Colombia to dance as they get their Copa America campaign underway against Venezuela.
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Normally such a proposition would be totally straightforward, since Colombia have a huge talent and experience edge over Venezuela. That’s not to say that their opponents are a poor team -- Venezuela are a well-organized, tenacious side and have a few very good players, but pound for pound, they just don’t match up well with the sheer speed, athleticism and skill of Colombia.
But Jose Pekerman’s side aren’t without flaws of their own. They’ve got questions up top with Falcao’s injury and form problems from the past 18 months. They’ve got questions in the back with several key players struggling with similar problems this past season, especially Cristián Zapata and Juan Zuniga. If they can’t overcome those issues, Colombia might not be doing nearly as much dancing as they want to.
Key player -- Falcao (Colombia)
How healthy and ready to go Falcao is will go a long ways toward determining how far Colombia go in this tournament. Colombia’s most gifted attacker in terms of talent but cursed in terms of luck, Falcao had a miserable season with Manchester United over the last year, spending a lot of time either on the bench from poor performances or in the training room nursing various injuries in the wake of his major knee injury suffered a year and a half ago. If he can’t get going against Venezuela, Colombia are going to have to lean on his strike partner, Jackson Martinez, and hope that Carlos Bacca can replace Falcao and pick up some of the slack.
Key Matchup -- Cristián Zapata (Colombia) vs. Salomón Rondón (Venezuela)
Venezuela aren’t a national side blessed with a ton of top-shelf talent, with baseball tending to claim the nation’s best athletes and whisking them away from football fields. What they do have, though, is Rondón, who has been a prolific scorer in Russia the past few years and the anchor of his slowly improving national side. Colombia will have to focus on shutting him down -- do that, and winning this match will be much easier. That job falls to Zapata, the leader of Colombia’s line, who is coming off a shaky-at-best season with AC Milan. That won’t exactly inspire confidence from Colombia fans, though they’ll take comfort from the memory that he’s generally been much better at the national level than at club level.
Match Date/Time: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. local
Venue: Estadio El Teniente, Rancagua, Chile
TV: BeIN Sports (U.S. & Canada -- English), beIN Sports en Español (U.S. -- Spanish), Caracol TV (Colombia), TVes (Venezuela), Premier Sports (U.K.)
Online: beIN Sports Connect (U.S. & Canada), Caracol Play (Colombia)
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