Colombia has built a great present in women’s football and now it is also beginning to plan for the future: six of the 23 summoned are under 23 years of age and two of them, Linda Caicedo and Ana María Guzmán, have just issued their citizenship card, after shining last year in the team led by Carlos Paniagua and who played the first final in history in a Fifa tournament for the country.
HoweverThe base of experience has been key for Colombia to have overcome the frustration of being left out of the last World Cup. Five of the members of the team now led by Nelson Abadía are ready to play their third World Cup.
One of them, Diana Carolina Ospina, has a perfect presence: she played the seven games that Colombia has in the history of this tournament, three in Germany 2011, when the team did not get past the first phase, and four in Canada 2015, in the historic second phase qualification. Today he continues to contribute his experience, although in the Copa América, in which the National Team won the place for Australia and New Zealand, he only started two of the six games.
The two captains, for their third World Cup
The ones that are regular starters are the two captains of the team, Daniela Montoya and Catalina Usme; both, protagonists of the World Cup eight years ago. The first one remained in history as the author of the first Colombian goal in the senior world championships, against Mexico. And the second, in addition to being the National Team’s all-time goalscorer, sealed, with a goal of her own, the first victory, against France.
The other two players who will be in their third World Cup are working to earn a place. The first, Sandra Sepúlveda, the goalkeeper who was the starter in the two previous appearances and who today is a substitute for Catalina Pérez, but has always been on Abadía’s radar.
And the other, Lady Andrade, who, in fact, did not play in the Copa América, but was on the list of 23 thanks to her talent, now deployed at Real Brasilia, in Brazil.
Sandra Sepúlveda, goalkeeper of the Colombian National Team.
Most of these players have been in the World Cup, Olympic cycles, pre-youth teams, they have a mark, an important baggage, international travel and they give us a spectrum. The current moment, that is definitive”, said DT Nelson Abadía before the trip to the World Cup. Experience will be key.
SPORT