Another Copa America game began with a clear favourite, this time it was Colombia being tipped to breeze past Venezuela in their opening game.
Unfortunately for the majority of punters, the bookies won this on, with Salomón Rondón’s goal the different at Estadio El Teniente.
It was a high tempo start from both sides, but neither were able to create any clear opportunities inside the opening insert minutes. Venezuela were tenacious from the off, with referee Andres Cunha putting the whistle to his mouth a number of times, giving eight free kicks inside 25 minutes.
The first chance of the game fell in the 27th minute as Juan Arango held the ball up well before slotting in Ronald Vargas, who poked the ball straight at Arsenal’s David Ospina.
Moments later Radamel Falcao broke through on goal, only to lift the ball on to the roof of Alain Baroja’s net.
In the final moments before half-time Alejandro Guerra audaciously attempted an outrageous overhead kick just inside the box which Ospina pushed wide of his post.
The sides went in at the break tied at 0-0.
After 10 minutes of the second half Salomón Rondón hit the crossbar, but was penalised for climbing on regardless.
Just minutes later it was a different story. Juan Arango flicked in a clever ball, finding Guerra, who headed the ball across the box picking out Rondón, to power a magnificent header into the far corner of Ospina’s goal.
James Rodríguez slipped through a beautiful ball to Teófilo Gutiérrez, who had only been on the pitch for seconds, but the River Plate forward took too long, allowing the Venezuelan defence to recover and clear for a corner.
With 12 minutes to go, Baroja pulled off a great double save, first turning away a piledriver from James before flicking Edwin Cardona’s effort behind for a corner. From the resulting corner Zapata had a fantastic chance, missing a free chance at goal from 3 yards out.
In the last 10 minutes Colombia continued the dominance they established after Venezuela took the lead, but failed to create any better chances and the game fizzled out from their point of view.
It’s a fantastic start for Venezuela, who hadn’t won an opening Copa America game for 15 years before now, while Colombia, many people’s dark horses, may well fall at the first hurdle.
Colombia: Ospina; Zuñiga, Zapata, Murillo, Armero (Martínez 82); Sánchez (Cardona 63), Valencia, James, Cuadrado; Bacca (Gutiérrez 71), Falcao
Venezuela: Baroja; Rosales, Vizcarrondo, Tuñez, Amorebieta; Rincón, Seijas (Lucena 75); Vargas (González 78), Guerra, Arango (Cíchero 85); Rondón
Booked: Seijas, Amorebieta, Sánchez, Zapata, Lucena, Vizcarrondo, James
Goalscorers: Rondón
Man of the Match: Alejandro Guerra. There were a number of contenders for this, it could’ve gone to Rondón or Vizcarrondo too, but Alejandro Guerra was the key to unlocking the Colombian defence. On a number of occasions the Atlético Nacional man tormented the back-line, a real menace from the first minute to the last.