THIS WEEK MARKS the anniversary of one of the most memorable international football matches of the 1990s.
Colombia travelled to the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires as underdogs. The Argentines went in to the game on the back of a 33-match unbeaten streak, while it had been six years since their last defeat on home soil.
It was also a high-stakes match. Argentina needed a win to qualify for the 1994 World Cup and avoid an awkward trip to Australia in the playoffs. Colombia, by contrast, required a draw to progress.
Diego Maradona, who was unavailable for the game but later returned for the 1994 World Cup following a 15-month ban for drug taking, had stoked the flames ahead of the encounter by claiming the Argentines would always be superior to the Colombians in footballing terms. Yet the visitors ultimately stunned the hosts with a footballing masterclass.
Already renowned as a gifted side, the Colombians confirmed their potential on 5 September 1993, with the class of players such as Freddy Rincón, Carlos Valderrama and Faustino Asprilla shining through.
A talented Argentina side that featured stars such as Gabriel Batistuta, Fernando Redondo and Diego Simeone controlled the opening stages, but after Rincón’s opener on 41 minutes, the floodgates opened after half-time, as two further goals from Asprilla, another from Rincon and one from Adolfo Valencia shattered the confidence of a previously heralded Argentina side, delivering one of the most humiliating results in their history.
As Euclides Montes, recalling the game in The Guardian, put it: “By the time the referee, Ernesto Filippi, took the ball out of Julio Saldaña’s hands in the 90th minute the white tunnel leading to the changing rooms was already being pulled on to the pitch. It looked like a forensic tent, set up in an attempt to preserve the evidence at a crime scene. Appropriate, perhaps, considering the CSI-style examination the game would enjoy from both Colombian and Argentinian fans through the years. The fifth of September 1993 had earned its place in South American football history.”
Interestingly, both sides would go on to underperform at the 1994 World Cup. Maradona would return for Argentina, only to be suspended again following another drugs violation, with his side subsequently bowing out of the tournament, after a last-16 3-2 loss against Romania.
Colombia, meanwhile, never managed to recapture the magic of that night. Perhaps suffering from the burden of expectation epitomised by Pele tipping them to win the competition, they flopped and exited the 1994 World Cup at the group stage.
Tragedy followed, as one of Colombia’s players, Andrés Escobar — who had the misfortune of scoring the decisive own goal against the USA that all but ended their interest in the competition – was assassinated in a parking lot in Medellin. By then, the hope and feel-good factor emanating from that famous night in Buenos Aires less than a year earlier seemed a distant memory.
Argentina: Sergio Goycochea; Julio Saldaña, Jorge Borelli, Oscar Ruggeri, Ricardo Altamirano; Gustavo Zapata, Fernando Redondo (Alberto Acosta), Diego Simeone, Leonardo Rodríguez (Claudio García 54); Ramón Medina Bello, Gabriel Batistuta.
Colombia: Oscar Córdoba; Luis Fernando Herrera, Luis Carlos Perea, Alexis Mendoza,Wilson Pérez; Leonel Álvarez, Gabriel Jaime Gómez, Freddy Rincón, Carlos Valderrama; Faustino Asprilla, Adolfo Valencia.
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