Colombia seek to avenge ’94 Cup failure

A victory over Romania not only would put Colombia en route to the second round in a group that includes England and Tunisia, but would also avenge its 3-1 defeat in the inaugural game of USA ’94.

“We have to win,” coach Hernan Dario Gomez said. “We dream of avenging our failure of 1994, and to achieve that, we have to beat Romania.”

England is a strong favourite to win the group, and Colombia hopes a win over Romania would lift it to second place and allow it to advance to the next round, something it failed to achieve four years ago.

Adolfo Valencia, a veteran of the team that lost in the United States, is even more categorical. “There is an unpaid debt,” said the flashy forward of Italy’s Parma.

Ontheir part, the Romanians also see the game as crucial in their efforts to reach the second round. A defeat will make it unlikely they could do that.

“There is just one way for us: Victory. But it will be extremely difficult,” said Adalbert Kassai, general secretary of the Romanian Football Federation.

Complicating the Romanians’ plans is that several of their key players are injured, affecting particularly the backline. Already without Atletico Madrid’s Daniel Prodan, who was left out due to knee surgery, another mainstay of the defense, Tibor Selymes of Anderlecht, has a sprained left ankle and is unlikely to play in the opener.

“I’m still dissatisfied with the weaknesses of our defense,” coach Anghel Iordanescu said.

Replacing Selymes will be 26-year-old Liviu Ciubotariu of National Bucharest of the Romanian first division.

“Colombia is a technical team and the fate of the game is open to both sides,” Iordanescu said.

Sources close to the team said striker Adrian Ilie of Valencia, whomissed two warm-ups last week after bruising a calf in training, was declared fit by the Romanian doctor.

In its two warm-up games against French local teams, Romania left no doubts that the only thing on the players’ mind is offense.

With defender Dan Petrescu of Chelsea making devastating runs down the left wing, mid-fielder Gheorghe Hagi diligently supported both offense and defense.

In addition, 25-year-old Viorel Moldovan of Coventry City played much like a battering ram, trying to split open the sparring partners’ defense with attacks in force and target kicks from outside the box.

While the Romanians cancelled a press conference today and declared their practice closed to the media, the Colombians were less secretive, allowing reporters to watch their last preparations before the tomorrow’s game.

“Our players are very well,” Gomez said. He said he focused on improving defense, “because we have been weak at that. But I also worked on the psychological part.”

Gomez recommended his playersexercise caution.

“We have to make sure we don’t play (the Romanians’) running game. We’ll play our slow game, we’ll try to control the ball, and if we’re able to fine tune our shooting, we’ll be evenly matched.”