James Rodriguez’s Colombia hopes to beat historic Uruguay in the Copa America

The sequence is well known in Colombia. Surrounded by sky-blue shirts, James Rodríguez calmly takes the ball to sleep, without taking his eyes off it for a second, turns on his axis and unleashes a dry, powerful and unstoppable volley from the edge of the area. The first of the two goals he scored against Uruguay in that round of 16 match was chosen as the best goal of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, deserving of the Puskas award. He was already wearing the number 10 at the time, which he has never let go of for his national team. Ten years later, with a James in a state of grace that reminds us of the precocious prodigy of that time, Colombia will once again cross paths with the historic Uruguay this Wednesday in the semi-finals of the Copa América. A duel that has already become another South American classic.

With the credo of match by match, ball by ball, Néstor Lorenzo’s team is giving Colombia hope of lifting the continental trophy for only the second time – they lifted it at home in 2001. What does it mean to have a good Copa América? Winning it, the Argentine coach has answered, leading a team that he has kept unbeaten since he took charge two years ago. But on their way to the final they face a formidable obstacle: Uruguay, the team that has won the title the most times along with Argentina, with 15 each. This is also the impetuous and fearsome Uruguay of Marcelo Bielsa, who has started a generational change that has worked effectively. For many observers, the Colombians and the Uruguayans have been the two best teams in the tournament, in which both have won three games and conceded a draw – in both cases against Brazil.

The forces seem very even. Last October they already faced each other in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in North America, when they tied 2-2 in hot Barranquilla with a last-gasp penalty goal by Darwin Núñez. In a match that is expected to be even, the details make the difference. Wear and tear can play a role. While Colombia is coming off a placid 5-0 win over Panama, in which James scored a penalty goal and provided two assists, Uruguay is coming off giving its all to eliminate the most faded version of Brazil on penalties (4-2), after a hard-fought 0-0 draw.

Lorenzo was able to give several of his stars a few minutes of rest in the second half, and he also has Jefferson Lerma back, the rock-solid Crystal Palace midfielder who missed that match due to an accumulation of yellow cards. Bielsa, by contrast, loses Ronald Araujo, the Barcelona centre-back who suffered a muscle injury, and full-back Nahitan Nández, who was sent off for a violent foul on Rodrygo, for the semi-finals. La Celeste will have its two main players: Federico Valverde and Darwin Núñez himself. The right flank that Nández usually covers is of particular concern to the Charrúas, as it is the corridor where the unbalanced Lucho Díaz, the other great Colombian star, usually wreaks havoc with his inexhaustible dribbles. The match also looks like a duel of attackers between Lucho and Darwin, friends and stars at Liverpool in England.

The harmony that James and Lucho display, evident in the goal against Panama in which the playmaker risked taking a foul to launch a run to the winger, contains a good part of the mystique of this Colombia, which still moves to the rhythm of its rejuvenated number 10. Now more than ever. “It’s the same James from the 2014 World Cup,” observes veteran Argentine journalist Jorge Barraza, columnist for several South American newspapers. “He’s in a magical moment. Lorenzo has given him absolute freedom in the square, to get close to the center forward, to the wingers, to the full-backs when they go up, to associate with whoever he considers appropriate. That empowered him, it freed him. And also the confidence and relevance that the coach confers on him has made him almost the owner of the team, but with the endorsement of his teammates.”

James has once again displayed the electrifying smile that became the postcard of that World Cup in Brazil. The hundred games he has already played with his national team have given him a maturity that he has displayed with aplomb on the courts of the United States. The judgement is almost unanimous: he has been the best player so far in a tournament in which he has already provided five assists, a record that he can surpass against Uruguay. Fortune may have turned against him in his last clubs – he only played a handful of games this year with São Paulo – but with the yellow jersey he has always felt supported. There he has been the number 10, the playmaker, the heir to Carlos The kid Valderrama, who Colombians have been waiting for since that golden generation of the nineties. Now, too, the captain of a promising generation that dreams of leaving Celeste behind to meet Messi’s Argentina in the Copa America final. “The Uruguayans have the same dream as us,” Lorenzo said cautiously on Tuesday. “Hopefully, after so long, it will happen.”

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