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Some very good things have come from Croydon, the often overlooked town in south London. The film director David Lean was born there, as was the singer Amy Winehouse, the actor Peggy Ashcroft and the sexologist Havelock Ellis. Roy Hodgson comes from Croydon. The Bill and Peep Show were filmed there, as was the title sequence of the 1980s sitcom Terry and June. For a long time it was a centre of brewing and leather production. It was on a suburban driveway there that Pickles found the Jules Rimet trophy after it had been stolen in 1966. And on Wednesday Croydon proved the crucible of the remarkable goal that gave Colombia the lead against Uzbekistan.
Daniel Muñoz’s brilliant strike, created by Jefferson Lerma, set Colombia on their way to a victory that should never have been as edgy as it ended up being. It was, in truth, a game desperately in need of something special. In Lean’s greatest film, Lawrence of Arabia undertook an arduous trek across the Nefud Desert to lead an attack on Aqaba, but even he may have baulked at the journey those travelling to the Azteca had to undertake from central Mexico City. Heavy rain led to huge puddles and numerous crashes. The verges alongside the Anillo Periférico were dotted with battered vehicles. For the final two or three miles the roads were lined with a ragged procession of fans who had abandoned their buses and taxis to walk. A trip that should have lasted just over an hour took more than four. Magnificent the Azteca may be, but it is not a modern football ground. Chaos swirls around it; nothing there really works.
For 40 minutes, other than some lusty singing from the stands, there wasn’t much to justify the effort. Reflecting that this was the first game in World Cup finals history to feature a double-landlocked country could only sustain the interest so far, even given the curiosity that they were facing a double-coasted country.
But then came the goal. Uzbekistan’s defensive line seemed deep enough that there was no danger behind it but Lerma measured a precise pass into the space where Muñoz swooped onto it from the right. It was an extremely difficult finish but the full-back, somehow, leaping with right leg fully extended, jabbed a toe at the ball and volleyed it past Utkir Yusupov. A goal made at Crystal Palace? They certainly haven’t been scoring goals like that on a regular basis in the Premier League but perhaps an understanding has grown up over the 89 club games the pair have played together.
The stunning goal aside, there really hadn’t been a huge amount to get excited about before half-time. This was at least as much of a home match for Colombia as the opening game had been for Mexico. The stadium was a bowl of yellow – although the team themselves wore a greenish turquoise – broken only by a white splodge behind one goal of perhaps 100 white-wigged Uzbekistan fans, whose enthusiastic drummer ensured that they could be heard above the Colombian din. There was a smattering of empty seats in the lowest tier, as there had been for the opening game; given how restricted the view must be from there, it perhaps is true, as Fifa has claimed, that fans are choosing to watch from the concourse.
The game soon settled into a pattern of attack against defence. Uzbekistan finished as runners-up behind Iran in their AFC qualifying group, keeping seven clean sheets in 10 games in the third round, and it was easy to see how, their notional 3-4-2-1 often resembling a 5-4-1 with two banks sitting deep and the centre-forward Eldor Shomurodov doing a lot of chasing.
Although Colombia aren’t short of creative talent, this is not the side of 2014. They finished third in Conmebol qualifying behind Argentina and Ecuador but given they had the best goal-difference of four sides who finished level on points that is perhaps not quite the marker of quality it might seem. For a long time they seemed content to pass the ball sideways, offering limited threat. Things did pick up, though, after the hydration break. They played with more purpose and adventure, Jhon Arias slipped Luis Díaz through to hit the post eight minutes before the Muñoz goal.
The second half was rather livelier, as Uzbekistan, forced to come out of their shell, demonstrated their attacking quality and found an equaliser just after the hour as the young Istanbul Başakşehir forward Abbosbek Fayzullaev nodded in from close range after Shomurodov’s volley had been deflected onto the post by the thighs of the Colombia goalkeeper Camilo Vargas. A mood of anxiety settled over the stadium, but it lasted only five minutes before Colombia retook the lead. Shorumudov was dispossessed, Colombia swept forward and Gustavo Puerta laid in Díaz to score with a shot that squirmed through Yusupov’s hands. Jaminton Campaz made the game absolutely safe in injury-time, heading in after tenacious work by Juan Camilo Hernández.
With DR Congo holding Portugal to a draw, victory puts Colombia in charge of the group, although a proper assessment of how good they are ill have to wait until they play a side prepared to do more than simply absorb pressure.
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