Four years ago, the Colombian squad, and in particular James Rodriguez took the world by storm in Brazil. They went through the group stages of the 2014 World Cup and then beat fellow South Americans, Uruguay in the last 16. The quarterfinals saw their run come to an end against host nation Brazil but the excellent show earned James Rodriguez a move to Real Madrid. He finished the tournament as top scorer and scored one of the best goals of the tournament with his volley against Uruguay. He scored another great goal against Japan too, weaving through the defence to finish their opponents off in a game that ended 4-1. They will be hoping for more of the same here.
Colombia comes into the 2018 instalment on the back of just one warm-up friendly, a game that ended goalless at the start of June.
Japan, meanwhile, have been in action more than that. They beat Paraguay in their final warm-up game on Tuesday, but prior to that had lost 2-0 against both Switzerland and Ghana. They will be happy to have ended on a positive note, but those performances earlier in the month can prove worrisome. Japan has lost four of their last six games, and they haven’t had much success against the better nations in the world either. They have only won one game against a team who are in the 2018 World Cup since they beat Australia almost a year ago, and since then have lost to Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Belgium, South Korea, and Switzerland.
Colombian fans will be expecting a win. Everyone will look at James Rodriguez for his heroics four years ago and the fact that he was their top scorer in qualifying, is a promising sign too. He scored six goals for Colombia on the road to Russia. With a goal against Japan already to his name, we think he’s a great choice to find the net here.
As far as the overall results go, Colombia will be the most favourite in terms of winning. Japan has lost the previous 4 games of total 6 and has been resulting in a terrible form. Although a change of tactics and a great strategy can prove out to be something else. The fate will be decided today in Mordovia Arena.
