MIAMI GARDENS — There’s a solid explanation for why the Colombia-Portugal match triggered an onslaught of more than five million ticket requests, more than any other match of the World Cup.
These are two of the top 11 teams in the world, perennial powers with star power and rabid fan support.
They have one other thing in common: They’ve never met on the soccer pitch.
That all changes at 7:30 Saturday night (June 27) before a packed house at Hard Rock Stadium.
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Colombia in its famous yellow jerseys.
Portugal in its iconic red.
James Rodriguez leading Colombia.
Cristiano Ronaldo — CR7 — leading Portugal.
With Group K supremacy on the line.
How big is this long-awaited matchup? Portugal coach Roberto Martinez knows.
“Well, it means I had to buy tickets for my family in November,” Martinez said. “That’s what it means. Because I knew it was going to be difficult to get tickets.”
Hopefully Martinez used his connections to purchase them at face value, because they were listed at $3,542 to $7,957 on the secondary market Friday afternoon.
The challenge for this game will be matching the entertainment value of Martinez’s pre-match news conference. Smack in the middle, the infectious sounds of Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” began echoing throughout the stadium, including the interview room. While there was a mad scramble behind the scenes to kill it (the music, not the artist), Martinez began bopping to the rhythm, grinning along with reporters.
“Dua Lipa’s supporting Portugal, I believe,” Martinez said.
Perhaps she’s a Ronaldo fan, too. Ronaldo is back to being Ronaldo in this, his sixth World Cup. After a quiet performance in the opener, he scored twice against Uzbekistan in a 5-0 rout to let the world know that even at age 41, he can still produce.
Ronaldo, five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or (compared to Lionel Messi’s nine), became the first player to score in six World Cups and now has 10 total World Cup goals.
Portugal, which chose Palm Beach Gardens as its training base, is ranked eighth by FIFA and can win the group with a victory. Colombia leads the group with six points to Portugal’s four, so it can win the group with just a draw.
Colombia, ranked 11th and making its seventh World Cup appearance, is looking to surpass its best World Cup finish: reaching the quarterfinals in 2014 as James scored six times to win the Golden Boot.
Portugal is making its ninth appearance, including a third-place finish in 1966.
Daniel Munoz scored for Colombia in the 1-0 win over DR Congo as well as a 3-1 triumph over Uzbekistan. It marked only the second time Colombia has opened a World Cup 2-0, matching the performance at the start of the 2014 tournament. But coach Nestor Lorenzo knows the toughest test awaits: stopping Portugal’s attack.
“I think our squad is well-oiled and we need a special tactic tomorrow,” Lorenzo said. “We have to be specifically careful with them in the area.”
The group winner will face a third-place team from any of five groups on July 3 in Kansas City. The runner-up faces the runner-up in Group L, probably Ghana or Croatia, on July 2 in Toronto.
Lorenzo was frank about his preference that his team didn’t have to go through Portugal this early in the tournament.
“You’d like to face Portugal much later on,” he said.
Of the two coaches, Martinez certainly seemed more at ease as his news conference wrapped up.
“Balance and Dua Lipa,” he said. “Those were the two main topics.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Colombia vs Portugal: World Cup’s hottest ticket comes to Miami
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
