Colombia Still Unbeaten, Argentina Not So Much

Well so much for Argentina’s unbeaten record. They traveled to the Colombia’s Estadio Nemesio Camacho last night, and went home with a 2-1 defeat. Carlos Tevez only lasted 25 minutes, being shown red for tripping Colombia’s Rubén Darío Bustos off the ball. Not cool Carlitos, but it didn’t look particularly nasty either. Despite being only ten men, Argentina took the lead through Leo Messi, who scored after Juan Roman Riquelme slipped him a quick free kick. But the second half was all Colombia. Tevez must have wished he’d either either kicked Bustos a bit harder or not at all when the Colombian stepped up to knock in an equalizing free kick in the 63rd minute. Great fan recorded video of Bustos’ strike below:

And video of Tevez’ indiscretion, Messi’s goal, Bustos’ free kick (again, but why not?) and Dayro Mauricio Moreno’s 83rd minute winner here:

The initial shot from the wide angle is by Wason Renteria, but Moreno was on hand to either steal Renteria’s glory or make sure it went in, depending on how you look at it.

The game was played at 2,600 metres above sea level, so the air was nice and thin, which could explain ten man Argentina’s second half collapse. Though high altitude games are to some extent unfair, they do make COMNEBOL World Cup Qualifying that much more interesting. Argentina had looked set to run away at the top of the table until this game. They’re still top on nine points, with Colombia second on eight points. Brazil host Uruguay later today, looking to get their qualification back on track after a 1-1 draw in Peru last weekend. We’ll take a good hard look at how things stand in the big bad COMNEBOL World Cup qualifying table tomorrow morning.