The (pot holed) Road to the World Cup 2010

---

Whilst we were in San Gil, we were made aware of the fact that Colombia were entertaining Bolivia in a World Cup qualifier in Bogota. We had made friends with a group of English lads and a couple of Irish too, and with us all being in Bogota that particular weekend decided that we should check out the match.

While in San Gil we met the nicest man in the world, a Colombian called Samuel. He very generously offered to get us all tickets to the game which his sister who lived in Bogota could buy on her credit card. Without any queries or issues we all handed over our cash and didn´t think anything more of it. It later transpired while having a beer with Samuel in Bogota, that his Colombian friends had thought we were incredibly stupid to have handed over large sums of money to a man we didn´t know on the promise of tickets to a game hundreds of miles away. In hindsight it may not have been the wisest idea, but as Ian an Irish man we were with said ´he would have been the best and smoothest con man in the world´. In any case everything worked out well in the end and we made our way on a stormy Saturday night to the stadium.

Now, Colombia are a long way from the team of Valderama and Asprilla, and were languishing in 6th place in a group which boasted some pretty decent teams. For them this was a must win game and lets face it Bolivia aren´t world renound for their footballing prowess.

The stadium was absolutely rocking by the time the game began and even though it wan´t a sell out, you could tell how much Colombia needed the win. However with one of their most notable players ( a recent Wigan signing) on the bench it was going to be tough.

We wont bore you with a blow by blow account of the game, it will suffice to say that neither team should make it to 2010, as the standard of football was closer to a Bristol Rovers match than a Latin American classic. However Colombia did win eventually 2-0 even after Bolivia missed the sitter of all sitters when the score was 0-0. Although the quality of football may not have been the heady hights we hoped for, the experience of seeing a World Cup game live and in Bogota was enough to keep us entertained for the full 90 minutes.

Colombia then went on to dash any hopes they may have had of a sneaky 5th place qualification by losing to bitter rivals 2-0 in Caracas, while unbelievably Bolivia went on to thrash tournament favourites Argentina 6-1 in La Paz. This is a result that NO-ONE can understand as the Bolivia team we saw looked more like a pub 11 who wanted the game to end so they could eat some pork scratchings than a team who could be capable of such a result. But that seems to be the mystery and hilarity of South American footie, you can never tell who will win.

---