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On Tuesday, Colombia made history. By deafeating Jamaica 1 - 0, the Colombian team advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals, joining England and France in the cup’s top eight. Colombia also became the first South American country to reach the latter stages of the cup since Brazil’s 2011 run.
The match was tight, with Jamaica implementing the defense that made them such a challenge in the group stage, where they managed to keep clean sheets against teams like France and Brazil. At the beginning of the second half, Colombia scored, with the team captain Catalina Usme scoring a gorgeous goal from a pass by Ana Guzman.
“This is the triumph of a human group that has worked hard to achieve consistency, to have a trade, character, personality … and today we played and won well,” said Nelson Abadia, the coach for the Colombian Women’s team, per CNN.
Usme also spoke about her goal to AP News and the team’s desire to win it all. “After the goal went into the net, I had all sorts of emotions,” she said. “During all the years in women’s football, it’s such a beautiful moment, giving us the possibility to make history for our country. But we can go beyond. We came here to play seven finals. And we need to go step by step.”
Colombia will now face England, a team that’s ranked as fourth in the world. Still, Usme is not daunted by the prospect, and is ready for the match, believing in herself and in her team. “The game against England, we came here to play seven finals,” she said. “We’re certain in our preparations. We’re dreaming big. We know we can pull it off. We can do it.”