Los Cafeteros - A Colombian National Team Story

With only three more World cup qualification matches to be played, Colombian national team boss, José Pékerman has stepped down due to family issues. It is understood that the 64 year old had growing concerns about his mother, who recently was believed to have a medical problem and Pékerman wanted to be with his mother every step of the way.

Pékerman told Colombian News, "It's a decision I needed to make and I had to think about my family, my family is important to me and I had to leave my duty as Colombian national team head coach to complete my objective in helping my family and most importantly, my mother. It has been a great pleasure helping this nation grow and I believe the next manager will carry on the work I did for this wonderful nation and team"

The favourite to take over from Pékerman is former Colombian legend, Carlos Valderrama, who has the most caps for Columbia being 111 call ups. Other Colombian legends have been linked to, such as Faustino Asprilla, who is Columbia's second top goal scorer, with 20 goals in 57 call ups.

Colombia currently lie 3rd in the 'FIFA World Rankings' and 4th in South American Qualifying with Argentina, Uruguay and Chile ahead of them, Peru are just 4 points behind Colombia, with a game in hand.

I love South American stories, so will follow... but it's Colombia with an O not U. Yes, the country is named after the explorer but they do not know him as Christopher Columbus but as Cristobal Colon, hence the use of 'o'. Class over.

Walter - Oh, thank you, I'll change it now

2014-03-03 21:12#163803 Walter : I love South American stories, so will follow... but it's Colombia with an O not U. Yes, the country is named after the explorer but they do not know him as Christopher Columbus but as Cristobal Colon, hence the use of 'o'. Class over.

Good, good, good. When does the next class take place?

Former Colombian international and Newcastle player, Faustino Asprilla, has been appointed as the new Colombian National team head coach. Asprilla has taken over from José Pékerman, who recently resigned due to family issues, concerning his mother. Asprilla is believed to have signed a deal lasting until the end of the 'FIFA 2014 World Cup' and is believed to be expected to reach the competition, which is being held in Brazil.

Asprilla is Colombia's second top goal scorer of all time, with 20 goals in 57 call ups for Colombia and he quoted on Colombian News, "It's an amazing feeling to be at this national camp again, but this time as the head coach, I never thought I'd be here again, not even as a assistant manager, nor a U18's manager, or for that matter, anything at all! This is a new experience I look forward to very much, I have many plans for this great footballing nation and we look to push onto the '2014 FIFA World Cup' in Brazil. We have a abundance of talent in this national side and we believe we're strong favourites to be in the 'World Cup' and I believe we will be there."

Colombia are set to face Denmark in 3 weeks time in a friendly and then Uruguay next month, in the '2014 FIFA World Cup South American Qualifying stages' the squad for the game against Denmark will be announced next week by the new head coach.

Interesting choice! Good luck mate!

Good luck! Will be following!

Good luck!

Goalkeepers: Luis Martinez (Atletico Nactional) David Ospina (OGC Nice) Camilo Vargas (Santa Ba)

Defenders: Eder Alvarez Balanta (River) Juan Camilo Angulo (Bahia) Pablo Armero (West Ham) Aquivaldo Mosquera (America MEX) Carlos Valdes (San Lorenzo) Juan David Valencia (Atletico Paranaense) Cristian Zapata (AC Milan) Camilo Zuniga (Napoli)


Midfielders: Abel Aguilar (Toulouse) Juan Cuadrado (Fiorentina) David Ferreira (Santa Fe) Freddy Guarin (Inter) Juan Fernando Quintero (FC Porto) James Rodriguez (Monaco)

Strikers: Falcao (Monaco) Victor Ibarbo (Cagliari) Jackson Martinez (Porto) Luis Muriel (Udinese) Dorian Pabon (Sao Paulo) Hugo Rodallega (Fulham)

"The squad has been chosen and each player chosen, should be proud of what they have achieved at the start of the season and how they have merited their places here. Each player is unique in many different ways and despite this we all know what we all are capable of doing, what are strengths and weaknesses are and how to avoid the weak points and exploit the strong points, this is why I believe this squad is a good squad, the form has been brilliant too, especially Hugo's form for Fulham and hopefully the lads keep the performances up!" - Asprilla

Interesting choice to drop Mario Yepes in favour of more well known players like Alvarez Balanta. I'd focus on working him into the national setup and groom him for the WC under Yepes' wings.

Also, maybe want to think about dropping one striker from the squad, because you got plenty

Colombia struggled in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, as they were held to a 2-2 with Denmark in a friendly last night. Colombia came into the match with a new manager, in recently appointed, Faustino Asprilla, who was quick to get to know the players it seemed, as they smiled at him while they did a warm-up before the match.

Little after the match started, Denmark were pressurising the Colombia goal and Aston Villa striker, Nicklas Helenius scored after just 18 minutes, to send the home nation in raptures. Colombia failed to mount any sort of pressure at all and couldn’t find the right link up, especially Falcao and Martinez, who started up front today in a 4-1-1-2-2 formation. Denmark continued to dominate and not allow Colombia to cause any danger to their goal. As the half time whistle blew, Denmark looked passionate and seemed to be looking forward to the second half, the complete opposite expression was shown from their opposition.

However, Colombia started brightly in the second half and looked full of life, creating problems for the Denmark defence and ‘keeper ,and it only took until the 57th minute for Falcao to pop up and find that little room, to finish a piece of great creativity, equalising the score line at one a piece. Soon after Denmark reacted and to Colombia’s surprise a great through ball reached Helenius as he netted home a second and put Denmark back in front.

Colombia did continue to plod on, as much needed pace was added up front, as Hugo Rodallega came on for Porto forward, Jackson Martinez, who’d failed to create much or provide shots for the travelling nation. Rodallega’s impact was greatly needed, he supported Falcao brilliantly and just 6 minutes after coming on and just 8 minutes from time, he played a fantastic ball over the top of the defender, for Falcao to calmly slot into the bottom right corner.

The game finished 2-2 and we got some comments from the Colombia boss, Faustino Asprilla, who said: 'Yes, I was very proud of the way we battled until the end, it takes a great nation to do that and we will be incredibly proud of the way we did so. Denmark of cause deserve some praise as well, they took us to the very limit and Nicklas (Helenius) was a handful for our defence, we found him especially difficult to deal with today.'

tight game; good result nevertheless should be a game you can build on as you work your team out