90 min +5 Chance for Colombia! Shot blocked. Ball played back in and dummied, but Costa beats the onrushing attacker to the ball.
90 min +3 Chance for Portugal! Leão, a teammate of one Christian Pulisic, beats a defender and shoots wide.
Matheus Nunes replaces Nuno Mendes in the last Portuguese sub.
DR Congo up 3-1. Enjoy the round of 32.
VAR check
Colombia take the corner out to the corner of the penalty area. There’s a cross, and Sánchez heads it down and in!
Flag goes up for offside. Replay … I don’t think so.
VAR disagrees with me. Not sure how at first glance.
Updated
88 min Chance for Colombia! And another! And another! Ruben Dias gets a head to the ball a foot or two from his own goal line on a dangerous cross. The ball comes back out, played back in, and Costa intervenes. Follow-up shot is wide.
86 min Some clever work from Portugal, but it’s finally knocked out of play. For Colombia, Puerta ends up with a yellow card for a foul in the build up.
Muñoz replaces Santiago Arias, which means the number Ariases in this game has dropped from two to zero.
85 min Colombia keep passing to an immobile Suárez, and the ball is intercepted each time.
84 min Credit to both teams – they have not wilted in this heat and humidity. This is still an above-average World Cup game.
South Korea would be eliminated if the DR Congo result holds.
83 min Portugal free kick, and several Colombian players end up clattered to the ground.
82 min Foul on Quintero, who blasts the ball away. That’s supposed to be a yellow card, but no one seems to be calling it.
So if Portugal give up two goals and DR Congo score three more … Portugal end up third.
81 min Colombia handle the corner kick well and break, but Portugal recover.
DR Congo score again! They’re on their way to the knockout round if they can hang on.
80 min Ronaldo has the ball in some space but not a great angle. He earns a corner kick.
79 min Machado threads a beautiful pass, but then a cross to Luis Díaz doesn’t quite get there.
77 min Just noticed that an assistant coach looks just like Tommy Shaw of Styx.
Corner kick for Portugal, played out to Dalot, who curls a shot from outside the box that doesn’t miss by much.
76 min Huge ovation for James as he and Jhon Arias depart. Castaño and Quintero are in for Colombia.
Updated
75 min I’ve live-blogged 165 minutes of soccer in the past two nights, and I have not seen a goal.
74 min Oh, we have a penalty shout. Suarez was eyeing a shot and swung his leg, but Mendes’ body was in the way. Mendes didn’t initiate contact, though, so play on.
73 min Luis Suárez turns brilliantly! And scuffs his shot.
Colombia maintain possession, and James takes a long-range shot that deflects.
71 min DR Congo have apparently scored. Now 1-1. If you care about a team on the third-place bubble, that really matters.
Subs for Portugal: Rafael Leão replaces João Félix, and Samú Costa replaces Vitinha.
Nuno Mendes was the player down in the box, and he gets some treatment before walking off … just as we begin hydration.
66 min Colombia in the attack, the ball is cut back to Jhon Arias, and Costa has to react well after a slight deflection.
Corner kick, Portuguese player down in the box, and Puerta runs onto a ball and just misses the post.
65 min Suárez runs past the defense onto a through ball. Not a great angle, but his shot yields a corner kick. Not much comes of it, though.
63 min Another error from Ríos – a wholly unnecessary late tackle, giving Portugal a free kick from a little more than 30 yards.
Portugal chip it in for Ronaldo, but it goes out.
The xG on that shot was 0.44. Ríos should’ve done better.
62 min Good overlapping run from Santiago Arias, played into the box, and Ríos puts his shot wide.
60 min Colombia decide not to mark Félix any more, and he’s wide open. He passes to Ronaldo, but the 41-year-old is overeager and drifts offside. He missed anyway.
For Colombia, Luis “Not That One” Suárez and Richard Ríos is in, while Córdoba and Lerma are out. Surprised James is still in. He has hit the wall.
Updated
58 min Portugal taking the air out of the ball at the moment. Colombia press for an instant but back off again. Energy conservation appears paramount here. But this could still be a dangerous possession.
Félix tries a cross for Ronaldo but puts it over his head.
56 min The fans have come back to life (or maybe come back from buying water), and the tension level has gone up a bit as Portugal pass and pass. Félix turns and shoots into a wall of yellow.
54 min Whoa! That was a scorcher from Lerma from 22 yards, but it goes straight to Costa, who just has to raise his fists to punch clear from Portugal’s goal. A follow-up shot presents an easier save.
53 min Other way quickly, and Félix is off to the races but doesn’t pass sharply.
53 min The temperature has cooled to a wintry 85 degrees.
Colombia go direct but can’t really control.
Updated
51 min As scintillating as this game was in the first 45 min +3, I have a sense it might peter out here.
I type that in the hopes of coaxing legitimate attacking play, and I’m rewarded as Portugal play a good cross to Félix, but he doesn’t get a clean header on it.
49 min We have soccer bowling! Three players fall like pins. I think Félix exaggerated. Fernandes did not, even if he took a Colombia player with him. Free kick to Portugal.
48 min Also an uninspired sequence for Portugal Colombia moving forward. (Oops – teams change sides at the half, don’t they …)
Updated
46 min Sloppy touch from Neto, and Colombia have a goal kick.
Updated
Subs for Portugal:
João Neves replaces Ruben Neves.
Diogo Dalot replaces Cancelo.
James and Ronaldo chat as they walk through the tunnel. James covers his mouth, but the context means he will not be punished. Seemed to be very friendly, in any case. Probably something like, “So, did you get your AARP membership card?”
Mary Waltz asks: “is Xg a sign of fine play or does it just mean a sign of a lack of clinical finishing?”
Yes.
OK, more seriously – it only measures the likelihood of shots going in the net based on where the ball is, what defenders are around, whether it’s with the foot or head, etc. So it’s not a bad measure of finishing. It’s also a very loose way of measuring who created the better chances, but it’s not a comment on the balance of play. Turkey wound up with a better xG than the USA, I was told, but a lot of it is based on the fact that the last goal was a tap-in. The likelihood of the series of passes leading to the goal would’ve been much lower.
Kári Tulinius, with the subject heading “dragging an old guy around”:
I love watching James Rodriguez play football, he’s as pure a number ten as has graced a pitch in the last decade. However, in a side otherwise fleet of foot and passing, he does slow things down. Portugal aren’t the only team dragging an old guy around, though there isn’t an obvious replacement on the Colombian bench like Ramos is on the Portuguese.
I was on the treadmill for a solid 20 minutes yesterday. That’s my answer to that.
The tale of the long throw-ins has attracted quite a bit of mail:
George Meikle:
I was lucky enough to play rec soccer in a FIFA men’s league (you pay, you get to play but FIFA admin which included player id cards which was good) in Indianapolis in the early 1980s. Everybody used long throws - this league had some well set up clubs organized around diasporas: the German club, the English, Mexico, we were Yanks, and a couple more. The well established clubs - Germany, England, Mexico – had tiers of developing players they used, while we were just middle class professionals, mostly engineers, who like football. Round kind. But those clubs with a history showed us real tactics up close, like pressing, long throws etc.
Joshua Reynolds:
Rory Delap: still the undisputed GOAT of the long throw? I say, yes.
David Dyte:
That’s patently insane, even aside from the fact that the coach seems to think long throw ins don’t exist at the pro level. At the D1 level, you aren’t coaching to win? At what point can players think about winning the game? I get this with five year olds, but come on. I’d love to see the reaction if Nick Saban said he’d only ever been worried about development and that winning was secondary.
“Development over winning” went to such extremes in the USA (in rhetoric, anyway, but not in practice) that a U-19 rec league commissioner talked about the importance of developing players. For what? Intramural soccer in college?
(Apologies if none of this makes sense to an international audience. College soccer? What?)
Halftime: Colombia 0-0 Portugal
Second straight game I’ve covered in which the referee has blown the whistle while one team is on the attack. Is there another game scheduled after this one?
In any case – great half, especially given the conditions. One outstanding save for Colombia’s Vargas; a couple of good ones by Costa at the other end.
Someone probably says the xG is something like 3.48 to minus-1.32, but whatever.
45 min +3 James unleashes a 20-yard left-footer, and Costa has to dive to punch away.
45 min +2 Ronaldo tries a low-percentage shot of his own, and it’s blocked. Foul on Portugal as Colombia break, but the referee makes a good advantage call. (Love when that happens.)
45 min +1 Not sure why Luis Díaz would take that shot from outside the box at an angle. Misses the near post by some distance. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, but you also miss 100% of those.
Colombia bring it back, but the final pass is lacking.
Three minutes of stoppage time. Thanks, hydration break.
45 min Free kick for Portugal at midfield, and they’ll tap it short. Possession is brief, but Cancelo wins it back. Then he loses it. Jhon Arias has it and drops it back to Puerta, who shoots from 20 but straight at the keeper.
44 min Veiga blocks a 20-yard right-footed shot from James as Colombia combine well.
42 min Another big chance for Portugal! Hey, it’s a long throw-in! João Felix chests it down, but the touch is a bit too far, and his effort to stretch for the shot sends the ball over the bar.
39 min POINT-BLANK SAVE BY VARGAS as a Colombian defender slips and Fernandes has the ball 8 yards out. He blasts it on goal, but Vargas gets his arms up to stop it. Ronaldo tries a bicycle kick on the rebound but can’t connect. Neves ends up taking a long-range shot that deflects, but the deflection went unseen by the men in black.
Updated
38 min End to end now, as Portugal cause some discomfort in the Colombian defense. Shot from outside the box is dragged wide of the far post.
38 min Two Colombia players in position for a cross, but they’re right next to each and not where the cross went.
36 min The international feed shows us bouncing Colombian fans while the ball is in play. They’re back in time to see Córdoba knocked down to get a free kick for Colombia. Two balls end up on the field, and they pick one to kick.
Jhon Arias breaks through and has just a split-second to shoot, and it’s easily caught.
35 min VAR apparently checked to see if Colombia should have a penalty kick. They should not.
34 min Arias crosses, though I think he was offside.
33 min This is interesting. Back and forth passes between two Portuguese players until the one without the ball ends up sprawled on the grass. Not sure if a foul was there.
32 min Portugal play forward to Ronaldo, who is so far offside that the AR eventually concedes that he simply has to raise the flag.
Updated
31 min Corner to Colombia, and Portugal are furious. James lines up to take it. This could be a dangerous …
… never mind, VAR hath intervened.
29 min We’re back, and Colombia are possessing. Portugal’s defense seem to have adjusted a bit, though, and the passing lanes just aren’t there.
Ah, right – long throw-ins.
I attended a session at the national soccer coaches convention, a massive to-do in the USA, and a pedantic college coach from a school I won’t name (because I’m not 100% sure I remember it) showed videos from his team’s games as part of a “We Really Have To Stress Development Over Winning And We’re Not Kidding This Time” session. He sniffed that the other team was using long throw-ins. He said he would never do that because he was preparing his players for the next level.
A couple of days later, I saw a Premier League score off a long throw-in.
I guess he was preparing ACC players for a higher level than Arsenal?
We’ve seen a lot of long throw-ins at this Cup, even though the stadiums used here are nice and wide, in contrast to some of the fields in the 1994 edition.
Hydrate! OK, what was the story I was going to tell?
24 min Free kick to Portugal, 28 yards out dead center, and Ronaldo bangs it past the wall but not past Vargas.
Fotmob gives that Arias shot an 0.05 xG. Yeah, OK. The keeper might disagree. Neves, who also plays in Saudi Arabia, was on the line to clear. It might have been post-bound.
22 min CLEARED OFF THE LINE – my goodness, Colombia have gone close a few times now.
Updated
20 min Gotta love nifty backheels. I believe that was João Félix of Saudi club Al-Nassr, contributing to the Portuguese buildup.
That buildup continues until Camilo Vargas, the Colombian keeper who plays for Atlas, rushes out to collect.
19 min: Our referee has come over to Colombia’s bench to address some sort of issue. Now play resumes, and Colombia won’t be happy to see Jhon Arias hit the turf without a call.
Breaking news: With Scotland out of the World Cup, manager Steve Clarke has resigned.
17 min CHANCES FOR COLOMBIA. A good run down the middle, a pass over to Córdoba, who pulls away from a defender and shoots from 15 yards. The rebound goes to Díaz, and his shot is blocked out for a corner.
16 min Neto finally launches a diagonal cross, and Santiago Arias has to be alert to play it partially clear.
16 min But Portugal also have plenty of time to knock the ball around, undeterred by the incessant whistles from the crowd like a 1970s Bundesliga match. (Shoutout to the great show Soccer Made in Germany.)
14 min Portuguese supporters would surely say Colombia are far too comfortable on the ball around the periphery of the Portuguese penalty area. Roberto Martinez on the Portuguese bench would probably agree.
13 min Portugal possess and shoot, but we’re interrupted by chimes that indicate Uzbekistan have scored. Please do follow that one with Bryan Armen Graham.
I’m adding a photo of Colombian legend Carlos Valderrama. I’d say he’s one of my favorite players, but if he’s not one of yours as well, you’re too young to have seen him play. The guy could shuffle his feet and send a 40-yard pass that lands on a pinpoint.
10 min Sublime control from Nuno Mendes on a long pass, but Colombia defender Santiago Arias stands his ground and forces the ball out.
9 min Portugal passing around on the right oops they’ve knocked it out. Goal kick.
The world feed has given us our obligatory Infantino sighting.
8 min Long pass is too high for Neto. Colombia will bang the ball the other way. Rodríguez shoots low and wide of the far post.
7 min Colombia waited too long to take a throw-in. Throw-in for Portugal. This is not a rule I will be enforcing with 9-year-old rec players this fall.
6 min Long throw for Colombia – goes all the way into the goalmouth. I have a story to tell about that, maybe during the 180 Seconds of Hydration.
Updated
5 min The free kick was not a thing of beauty.
George Meikle writes: “What a great match! One side likes to stuff the box and kick you, vs. another team that likes to pull your kit and kick you. The Unvwilling vs. the Undead.”
4 min Portugal build patiently while fans whistle.
Silly foul from Jhon Arias, and Portugal have a free kick near the sideline. Everyone lines up at the top of the box, like the fifth group at the airport departure gate when they’ve just called Group 2.
3 min Current conditions in Miami: 87 degrees, 70% humidity, about 80% yellow shirts in the stands.
1 min Colombia chance! Direct play to Díaz, the Portuguese defense don’t cope well, Díaz’s shot bounces off a leg, and Córdoba has a header that goes just high.
Updated
Peep! We’re off. Colombia in their typical yellow; Portugal in red. Nice change of pace from all the third jerseys we’ve been seeing here.
The teams observe a moment of silence for the 1,400 dead in the earthquake in Venezuela. Fans do not. Come on, folks. We don’t even do a full minute in the USA. You can be quiet for about 15 seconds.
Officials
Ref is Alireza Faghani of Australia, and he has two Australians with him.
Faghani, born in Iran, had a controversial call in the France-Senegal game – at least as some in England tell it.
VAR is Jerome Brisard of France.
Kudos to whoever at Wikipedia took the time to list all 495 possible permutations of third-place qualifiers at the World Cup and has kept track as that list has been narrowed to four.
Here’s what at stake in this group:
Current standings
6 Colombia
4 Portugal
1 DR Congo
0 Uzbekistan
First place in the group will face Ghana. Winner faces Switzerland or, if I’ve done it right, one out of Iran, Algeria and Austria.
Second place in the group will face Croatia. Winner gets Spain and either … let’s just say Spain.
If Portugal were to finish third (an unlikely swing in goal difference with a big loss to Colombia and a big DR Congo win over Uzbekistan), they would get England. Yikes.
Here’s a list of Colombia and Portugal’s previous head-to-head matchups …
…
…
Never? Seriously? OK then.
The previous group’s games have now finished. We have 30 minutes until the scheduled kickoff here, and the most important matter of business at this point is simple: With Scotland out, can any other team borrow their supporters?
Did you hear two other games are in progress? Take a look.
Starters and players to watch
Starters
Colombia: Vargas; Machado, Lucumí, Sánchez, S. Arias; J. Arias, Lerma, Puerta; Díaz, Córdoba, Rodríguez
Portugal: Costa; Mendes, Veiga, Dias, Cancelo; Vitinha, R. Neves; Félix, Fernandes, Neto; Ronaldo
Colombia make three changes from the lineup that started the first two games. Cordoba joins the front line in place of Suarez. Both fullbacks have changed – Machado for Mojica, S. Arias for Muñoz. Mojica and Munoz had started both games, but Mojica is on a yellow card.
For Portugal, Ruben Neves replaces João Neves, who started against Uzbekistan. They are not related.
Players to watch
Colombia
Crystal Palace defender Daniel Muñoz is the only player on the team with two goals. He and fellow Palace player Jefferson Lerma have played all 180 minutes so far, but Muñoz will be on the bench at the outset here.
James Rodríguez may no longer be at the same level as he was in 2014, when he won the Golden Boot and moved on to Real Madrid, but the Minnesota United player is more than holding his own at age 34.
Bayern Munich’s Luis Díaz scored a vital goal in the win over Uzbekistan.
Portugal
We’ve covered that Ronaldo guy.
Goalkeeper Diogo Costa stopped three straight penalties in a shootout in Euro 2024.
Rúben Dias has been a steady force at the back, but fellow Manchester City defender Matheus Nunes has been dealing with lingering injury concerns.
Midfielder Bruno Fernandes is the team’s creative engine and has been fiercely loyal to Ronaldo and to Manchester United.
Preamble
Let’s begin with the tangible stakes ...
If Portugal win this game, they win Group K, and Colombia will be second, resulting in these matchups:
-
Portugal: July 3 in Kansas City vs. the third-place team in Group L, if that team qualifies. Should the Group L team fall short, they’ll face the third-place team in Group I, which is Senegal.
-
Colombia: July 2 in Toronto vs. the runner-up in Group L (England, Ghana or Croatia).
If these teams draw, Colombia will win Group K, and Portugal will be second, so reverse the previous options.
If Colombia win, they win Group K, and Portugal will be second unless DR Congo make up a six-goal gap in goal difference. If that happens, Portugal would be third and would face the Group L winner (England, Ghana or Croatia).
Now let’s talk about the intangible stakes ...
Cristiano Ronaldo has had a pretty good career. He’s good enough that kids in the schools where I work, upon finding that I follow this sport, ask me, “Messi or Ronaldo?” The case for Ronaldo has dwindled, but the mere fact that the question is asked is proof that his marketing team have successfully reached fifth-graders. (Or that he is, indeed, a halfway decent player.) He has won eight domestic championships (three in a row with Manchester United, two with Real Madrid, two with Juventus, one with Al-Nassr) and five UEFA Champions League trophies (one with Manchester United, the rest with Real Madrid).
With the national team, he has been the bridge from one Golden Generation to another. The first such generation lost to the Flying McBrides (USA) and lost composure against South Korea in 2002. Ronaldo emerged onto the team after that and help the team reach the Euro 2004 final and the 2006 World Cup semifinals. Portugal went on to more success in the Euros, winning in 2016, and the UEFA Nations League, winning in 2019 and 2025, but further World Cup success has been elusive.
So when Portugal opened this tournament with a draw against DR Congo, Portuguese nerves were certainly frayed. But Ronaldo scored twice in a rout over Uzbekistan, and all seems well ... for now?
But this Colombian side will not be an easy out. No team with James Rodríguez and Luis Díaz could be. And it’s worth noting that they beat Uzbekistan.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how Ronaldo is getting on (pretty well):
Cristiano Ronaldo savoured the end of a “difficult, dark week” after scoring twice in Portugal’s 5-0 rout of Uzbekistan and becoming the first player to find the net in six World Cups.
Ronaldo and Portugal had come under heavy criticism after a flat draw against Democratic Republic of the Congo. There had been a particular spotlight on the 41-year-old Ronaldo, who had not scored in 10 major tournament games before Tuesday’s fixture. There have long been question marks over his continued ability to lead Portugal on this stage, but after the final whistle he shouted into a television camera: “I’m back, I’m back.”
“God helps those who work hard,” Ronaldo said later. “It was a difficult, dark week; it felt like I’d already retired from football. But I held on as I always do because I believe more in hard work than in football. It was difficult, I have to admit, but we’re back.
“It’s fine because when you think about it, it’s already 23 years I’ve been a professional and whenever things don’t go well it’s: ‘Cristiano, he’s finished, he’s old.’ But well, it was a good response from me and my teammates, which is what we wanted.”
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