Before the Copa America began, Colombia's situation was actually delicate: since 2014, through the experience of reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup, Colombia officially announced their return to the ranks of South America's powerhouses, but their replacement of old and new is not really good, which also makes their results not stable.
Just looking at these two tournaments, Colombia's strength on paper is actually not bad, but their performance is really a bit of a test of the hearts of their fans. In the 21 Copa America, Colombia went all the way to the semi-finals, only losing to the eventual champion Argentina in a penalty shootout, but in the 22 World Cup qualifying stage, Colombia died mysteriously in the South American zone, only one step away from the play-off stage.
Before the start of this Copa America, Colombia was still the same, their strength on paper made the media expect a lot of from them, so that other strong teams did not dare to take it lightly, but no one will really take them as contenders for the Copa America, after all, the last time they won the Copa America was in 2001.
Fortunately, Colombia brought their good form to the Copa America, they were unbeaten in the World Cup South American qualifiers and finished third, during which they won Brazil and drew with Uruguay, beat Spain in a friendly match and swept the United States by five goals, while in the Copa America, Colombia also played smoothly, beating Paraguay in the first game to get off to a good start, and easily won Costa Rica 3-0 in the second game.
Colombia was able to kill all sides in the Americas, and the core of the team, Ronaldo, contributed a lot. After the dream of the 2022 World Cup was shattered, another Argentine took office, and Lorenzo became the new coach of Colombia, but he did not lead the team to rebuild, but used the original personnel of the team as the team.
Since Everton's departure, Ronaldo's career has not been smooth, as he went to Qatari side Al Rayyan to pan for gold, during which time he was even thrown to Olympiacos due to injury and form problems. He moved to Sao Paulo in '23 and barely became a rotation player for the team, making just eight appearances for Sao Paulo this season before leaving the club at the end of the season.
However, it is such a wanderer who has become the great magician of Colombia, Ronaldo has been in hot form since the start of the game, sending 3 assists in the first two games, facing Paraguay's low defense, Ronaldo's scalpel pass is still fierce, and he can make his teammates come first without stopping the ball - his athleticism is long gone, but he is a No. 10 after all, and his foot feel and vision are at the top level.
This Colombia is indeed a team built around J Ronaldo, on the offensive side J Ronaldo stood on the right side in the opening stage, and then received the middle after that, Dias singled on the left side to open up space, Córdoba or Bray was involved in J Ronaldo, and the amount of one more person ran on the defensive end of the midfield three times behind him, and the offensive end was infinitely forward without possessing the ball, so that J Ronaldo drove the whole team alone.
Of course, considering Colombia's champion Yun'er and their modest rotation, many people are still not optimistic about Colombia's prospects, but after all, they have achieved 25 games unbeaten, which is currently the longest unbeaten run in the men's national team.
(Your original address in this article: Lao Miao, a commentator on the public account)