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Late goal lifts Colombia 1-0
Preciado goal in 83rd minute beats Tunisia
Posted: Thursday September 17, 1998 08:29 PM
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Colombia goalkeeper Farid Mondragon and teammate Jorge Bermudez celebrate after Leider Preciado scores the winning goal for Colombia Shaun Botterill/Allsport |
MONTPELLIER, France (CNN/SI)
-- Colombia
has lived in agony for over four years after its last appearance at the
World Cup. Finally, it has some ecstacy to rejoice over. Leider
Preciado's strike seven minutes from the end lifted the tension and eased
some of the pain of the South American nation, and it gave Colombia a 1-0
win over Tunisia on
Monday, opening up a possible road to the second round -- something it
failed to reach in the United
States in 1994. "It's fantastic," said Preciado, who took a pass
from veteran Carlos Valderrama, shook off challenges from Sami Trabelsi and
Clayton, and miskicked the ball home from 12 yards. "Finally we did it.
This victory is important and shows we are doing things well." Now
it's down to a showdown with England on
Friday and Colombia could be in round two. Regarded as among the
favorites four years ago, the Colombians were ousted in the opening round
after an own goal by Andres Escobar led to a 2-1 upset loss to the United
States. When he returned home, Escobar was shot dead in a parking lot
outside a bar at Medellin. After four years in the gloom, now there's
something for the Colombians to look forward to. "We're still on
course for the final," said an optimistic coach, Hernan Drio Gomez. "As
far as our next match against England is concerned, we're going to do our
very best. We're a very unified team." The Tunisians, also beaten
2-0 by England, looked almost certain to drop out of the championship and
were certain to go out if Romania and
England tied later Monday. "We didn't deserve to win," said Tunisia's
Polish coach, Henry Kasperczak. "We had a lot of scoring chances but we
didn't take advantage of them and that's our great regret. We need players
who score when the situation presents iself." After a 1-0 loss to
Romania at Lyon, things looked shaky again for the South Americans.
With Faustino Asprilla no longer on the squad having been dropped for
criticizing coach Herman Dario Gomez in a radio interview, the Colombian
attack was missing one of its biggest stars as it maintained its bid to
make the second round. The Colombians were denied the lead by a
wonder save from Chokri el-Oauer in the 22nd minute when Jose Santa floated
over a cross from the left and Wilmer Cabrera moved up to power in a
long-range header. The Tunisian goalkeeper reacted with an acrobatic
one-handed punch over the bar. With the Colombians showing signs of
getting on top, Tunisia broke out to almost take the lead in the 29th
minute when the unmarked Mehdi Ben Slimane was allowed a far post far post
header. Fortunately for the South Americans, goalkeeper Farid Mondragon
was alert and pushed the header onto the post. Valencia maintained
the pressure by firing a 25-yard shot just too high and then heading
against the post from a corner. But Tunisia also hit the bar two
minutes before halftime when Mondragon fisted away a corner, the ball hit
Riadh Bouazizi on the back of the head and rebounded onto the frame.
The Tunisians continued to create the better chances and Bel Slimane
managed to get in a right-wing cross despite being crowded out by three
Colombian defenders in the 66th minute only for the unmarked Zoubeir Baya
to volley wide from agood position in front of goal. The Colombians
hit back with a low shot from substitute Preciado that flashed across the
face of the Tunisian goal. Then Victor Aristizabal arrived unmarked at the
far post to meet a right wing cross from De Avila only for goalkeeper
El-Oauer to scramble back and palm his looping header away. At the
other end, Mondragon made two reflex-action saves, blocking a header from
Souayah and then a follow up effort from Ben Slimane.
Lineups: Tunisia: Chokri el-Oauer; Tarek Thabet (Kaies
Godhbane, 77th), Ferid Chouchane, Clayton, Sami Trabelsi; Riadh Bouazizi,
Serajeddine Chichi, Skander Souayah, Zoubeir Baya (Faycal Ben Ahmed, 74th);
Adel Sellimi (Imed Ben Younes, 69th), Mehdi Ben Slimane.
Colombia: Farid Mondragon; Wilmer Cabrera, Everth Palacios, Jose Santa,
Jorge Bermudez; Harold Lozano, Freddy Rincon (Victor Aristizabal, 57th),
Carlos Valderrama, Mauricio Serna (Jorge Bolano, 62nd); Adolfo Valencia
(Leider Preciado, 57th), Anhony De Avila. Referee: Bernd
Heynemann, Germany.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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