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End of an era?
Coach and many players will not be back next time
Posted: Thursday September 17, 1998 09:24 PM
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Valderrama (above) is stepping aside from the team's internal turmoil Clive Brunskill/Allsport |
LILLE, France (CNN/SI)
-- Colombia
played with passion in its three matches in France '98, but the country has
nothing to show for it -- exiting the World Cup after the first round with
multiple changes likely to occur to the team between now and the next World
Cup. Head coach Hernan Dario Gomez and several players who for years
were mainstays on one of Latin America's top teams have announced they're
leaving the national team. After several years of top-flight socer
under Francisco Maturana and Gomez, his pupil, Colombia is in for a major
revamping. Gomez, a veteran of two World Cups assisting Maturana
before becoming head coach, says the team needs "a new course and fresh
ideas." Veteran midfielders Carlos Valderrama and Freddy Rincon are
stepping aside, and striker Faustino Asprilla's future is uncertain
following his dismissal for criticizing his coach and teammates.
Colombia came to France hoping to improve on a disastrous first-round
elimination in the United
States in 1994. But a weak attack, internal turmoil and age wiped out
those dreams. Four years ago, the team suffered a 3-1 loss to Romania in its
first match and was eliminated with a shattering 2-1 defeat by the United
States. A few days after the team arrived home in Colombia, defender Andres
Escobar was dead, shot for having scored an own goal in the U.S. game.
In France, Colombia's collapse again began with a loss to Romania, this
time by 1-0 in both teams' first match. But even before the team
arrived in France there were rumblings that grew to a roar by the time
Colombia was eliminated Friday night with a 2-0 loss to England.
Furious at being benched five minutes from the finish against Romania,
striker Asprilla criticized Gomez and some of his teammates. The Parma
forward blasted the coach for "favoring untouchable" players, such as the
slow-footed Valderrama, 37. Gomez responded by kicking Asprilla off
of the team the following day. But Colombia was unable to recover from the
turmoil or the lack of firepower, gaining only a difficult 1-0 win against
lowly Tunisia in its
second match, before losing to England. "We lost against two strong
teams. We beat Tunisia and we finished where we deserved," Gomez said.
"That's the reality of Colombian soccer." Now, Colombia must start
anew. "I'll step aside so that someone else may reap what has been
sowed in the past ten years, may fix what's wrong and reach for better
things. I did all I could," Gomez said after Friday's match against
England. "It's up to others to lay out a fresh course with new ideas."
"Now I'm tired and sad, even sick," he added. "Being in a World Cup is
supposed to be a beautiful experience, but it was terribly hard because of
all the tension and passion that whirl around a national squad."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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