By Miguel Rapetti
Jun 19, 2024, 8:10 PM EDT
23 years ago, one of the most unexpected feats of the Copa América occurred when the Colombian team was proclaimed champion of the competition at home in its 2001 edition and marked an unprecedented feat: it lifted the trophy undefeated and without conceding goals.
Although that Copa América that began on July 11, 2001 brought a Colombian team that moved between a process of mistrust and inexperience, promoted by the generational change of the great team that the Cafeteros had in the 90s, in the end They knew how to recover from adversity to win the first and only title to date in their history.
That tournament had the particularity that it did not include the teams of Argentina and Canada, with 12 teams in total in which Mexico and Costa Rica attended as guests and which was joined 48 hours before by Honduras after the decline of Argentina’s invitation. , who alleged that the insecurity in the nation was enough to reject their assistance.
In total, a total of 26 games ended up being played in seven different cities: Armenia, Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cali, Manizales, Medellín and Pereira.
Colombia, which shared a group with Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile, began its path to the title with a solid 2-0 victory against La Vinotinto in Barranquilla thanks to the goals of midfielder Freddy Grisales and the attacker and scorer of the competition with six goals, Víctor Hugo Aristizábal.
The path of the future champion then continued with a tough and close match against Ecuador, in which they won 1-0 with a new scoring participation from Aristizábal and closed with a 2-0 victory against Chile.
The great moment with which they went to the quarterfinals, where they went without goals against and with a solid and vertical game proposed by the strategist Francisco Maturana, continued in the next phase where they faced Peru and which they beat 3-0 in Armenia thanks to a double from Aristizábal, until then the figure of the tournament.
For the semifinals of the tournament, Colombia ended up beating the surprise of the tournament, Honduras, 2-0, which had just dispatched Brazil 2-0 in the quarterfinals and ultimately finished as third in the tournament.
The final of the event, which was held at the El Campín stadium in Bogotá, brought together Colombia on July 29 against a team from Mexico that was looking to win its first Copa América but found themselves facing the eleven composed of Oscar Córdoba ; Iván López, Mario Yepes, Iván Córdoba, Gerardo Bedoya; Juan Carlos Ramírez, Fabián Vargas, Fredy Grisales, Giovanni Hernández; Elkin Murillo and Víctor Aristizábal.
Although Mexico tried by all means to win the victory through figures such as Jared Borgetti, Jesús Arellano or Gerardo Torrado, in the end they ended up seeing how in the 68th minute the center back Iván Ramiro Córdoba rose into the air and violated the goalkeeper’s fence Mexican Óscar Pérez to end his aspirations of obtaining his first Copa América.
After the final whistle, not only the 60,000 stadium attendees celebrated in unison with the “Colombia champion”, but also millions of fans who witnessed the first team that manages to win the oldest national team tournament without losing a single game and also without allowing goals against, leaving a history that in more than 100 years of competition has not yet been able to be repeated.
Keep reading:
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- Copa América trophy: how much it weighs, what it is made of and what is its value
- Richard Ríos, the Colombian jewel that emerged from futsal, played in the Liga MX and can shine in the Copa América