\n\t\t\t\t\t\tColombia\u2019s plan was nearly perfectly executed. The only thing missing was a goal.It didn\u2019t matter \u2014 Colombia goes into the knockout stage as a group winner.Colombia finished the World Cup\u2019s opening round as the Group K winner after playing Portugal to a scoreless draw Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium, renamed as Miami Stadium, during the soccer match in front of an electric crowd of supporters, the majority of whom were clad in Colombia\u2019s bright yellow jerseys.\u201cWe were the better team and deserved to win,\u201d Colombia coach N\u00e9stor Lorenzo said. \u201cI think we created so many chances. We just lacked finishing. The players were outstanding against a top contender \u2026 not only did we play them on equal terms, we dictated the terms. I think playing against a rival like that, showing this kind of football to all these people, in this heat, was incredible.\u201dHe wasn\u2019t wrong. Colombia had 24 of the game\u2019s 37 attempts on goal, never wilting despite the game-time temperature topping 90 degrees. Both squads had already secured spots in the knockout stage before the match, needing only to learn their opponents for the next round.Also in Group K on Saturday night, the Democratic Republic of the Congo advanced to the knockout stage for the first time by rallying to a 3-1 win against Uzbekistan. Two second-half goals from Yoane Wissa and one from Fiston Mayele sealed the win and saw Congo join Cape Verde as another surprise qualifier for the round of 32.Colombia opens the knockouts on Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, against Ghana, which entered with one of the lowest FIFA rankings but also played England to a scoreless tie during the group stage. Portugal will face Croatia, which beat Ghana 2-1 earlier Saturday, on Thursday in Toronto as the Group K runner-up \u2014 potentially needing to go through Spain to reach the quarterfinals.\u201cWin, losing or having a draw today didn\u2019t make a difference,\u201d Portugal coach Roberto Mart\u00ednez said through an interpreter. \u201cOur goal really is to play eight matches. The path for us really doesn\u2019t make a difference. We tried to win the match. Our opponent did the same.\u201dBoth squads put forth lively efforts. Bruno Fernandez came close to putting Portugal ahead in the first half, but was denied by Camilo Vargas. Portugal\u2019s Diogo Costa had six saves, more than in the team\u2019s first two matches combined. Davinson Sanchez thought he had given Colombia a lead with a back-post header just a minute into stoppage time, but he was ruled offside \u2014 barely, by the tip of a toe, if that much \u2014 and the goal was disallowed as those yellow-clad fans whistled in disbelief.Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Portugal squad, looking for its first World Cup title and a favorite to win the tournament, heads to the knockout stage after an up-and-down group stage.Portugal opened group play with a surprising 1-1 draw against Congo. Ronaldo faced criticism after failing to score in that match, and answered by becoming the first player to score in six World Cups with two goals in Portugal\u2019s 5-0 win over Uzbekistan.\u201cFirst of all, we are satisfied to have made it past the first phase, obviously,\u201d Costa said. \u201cBut clearly, we aren\u2019t fully satisfied because we always want to win. That\u2019s what we work for every day. Our focus is on Croatia. We\u2019ll be paying even closer attention to them now in this World Cup.\u201dColombia, which did not qualify for the 2022 World Cup, opened with a 3-1 win over Uzbekistan then topped Congo 1-0.Congo will face England on Wednesday in Atlanta. The Colombia-Portugal match, played at the home stadium of the NFL\u2019s Miami Dolphins, took place in front of a sellout crowd of 64,478 that included former Colombia soccer star Carlos Valderrama, FIFA President Gianni Infantino \u2014 who sat in a suite with FBI director Kash Patel and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio \u2014 NFL quarterback Jameis Winston, NBA player Jimmy Butler, musical couple Gloria and Emilio Estefan, actor Matt Damon and former NFL receiver Chad Johnson. It had been viewed as one of the most sought-after matches of the tournament, both because of South Florida\u2019s large Colombian community and the draw of seeing Ronaldo in presumably his final World Cup. The lowest get-in prices hovered around $3,500 early Saturday.Multiple watch parties were held across South Florida to accommodate those who couldn\u2019t secure tickets to the high-demand match, including one with thousands in attendance at the home arena of the NHL\u2019s Florida Panthers and another at Fan Fest in downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Colombia\u2019s plan was nearly perfectly executed. The only thing missing was a goal.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter \u2014 Colombia goes into the knockout stage as a group winner.<\/p>\n
Colombia finished the World Cup\u2019s opening round as the Group K winner after playing Portugal to a scoreless draw Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium, renamed as Miami Stadium, during the soccer match in front of an electric crowd of supporters, the majority of whom were clad in Colombia\u2019s bright yellow jerseys.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the better team and deserved to win,\u201d Colombia coach N\u00e9stor Lorenzo said. \u201cI think we created so many chances. We just lacked finishing. The players were outstanding against a top contender \u2026 not only did we play them on equal terms, we dictated the terms. I think playing against a rival like that, showing this kind of football to all these people, in this heat, was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t wrong. Colombia had 24 of the game\u2019s 37 attempts on goal, never wilting despite the game-time temperature topping 90 degrees. <\/p>\n
Both squads had already secured spots in the knockout stage before the match, needing only to learn their opponents for the next round.<\/p>\n
Also in Group K on Saturday night, the Democratic Republic of the Congo advanced to the knockout stage for the first time by rallying to a 3-1 win against Uzbekistan. Two second-half goals from Yoane Wissa and one from Fiston Mayele sealed the win and saw Congo join Cape Verde as another surprise qualifier for the round of 32.<\/p>\n
Colombia opens the knockouts on Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, against Ghana, which entered with one of the lowest FIFA rankings but also played England to a scoreless tie during the group stage. Portugal will face Croatia, which beat Ghana 2-1 earlier Saturday, on Thursday in Toronto as the Group K runner-up \u2014 potentially needing to go through Spain to reach the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWin, losing or having a draw today didn\u2019t make a difference,\u201d Portugal coach Roberto Mart\u00ednez said through an interpreter. \u201cOur goal really is to play eight matches. The path for us really doesn\u2019t make a difference. We tried to win the match. Our opponent did the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both squads put forth lively efforts. Bruno Fernandez came close to putting Portugal ahead in the first half, but was denied by Camilo Vargas. Portugal\u2019s Diogo Costa had six saves, more than in the team\u2019s first two matches combined. Davinson Sanchez thought he had given Colombia a lead with a back-post header just a minute into stoppage time, but he was ruled offside \u2014 barely, by the tip of a toe, if that much \u2014 and the goal was disallowed as those yellow-clad fans whistled in disbelief.<\/p>\n
Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Portugal squad, looking for its first World Cup title and a favorite to win the tournament, heads to the knockout stage after an up-and-down group stage.<\/p>\n
Portugal opened group play with a surprising 1-1 draw against Congo. Ronaldo faced criticism after failing to score in that match, and answered by becoming the first player to score in six World Cups with two goals in Portugal\u2019s 5-0 win over Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, we are satisfied to have made it past the first phase, obviously,\u201d Costa said. \u201cBut clearly, we aren\u2019t fully satisfied because we always want to win. That\u2019s what we work for every day. Our focus is on Croatia. We\u2019ll be paying even closer attention to them now in this World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colombia, which did not qualify for the 2022 World Cup, opened with a 3-1 win over Uzbekistan then topped Congo 1-0.<\/p>\n
Congo will face England on Wednesday in Atlanta. <\/p>\n
The Colombia-Portugal match, played at the home stadium of the NFL\u2019s Miami Dolphins, took place in front of a sellout crowd of 64,478 that included former Colombia soccer star Carlos Valderrama, FIFA President Gianni Infantino \u2014 who sat in a suite with FBI director Kash Patel and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio \u2014 NFL quarterback Jameis Winston, NBA player Jimmy Butler, musical couple Gloria and Emilio Estefan, actor Matt Damon and former NFL receiver Chad Johnson. <\/p>\n
It had been viewed as one of the most sought-after matches of the tournament, both because of South Florida\u2019s large Colombian community and the draw of seeing Ronaldo in presumably his final World Cup. The lowest get-in prices hovered around $3,500 early Saturday.<\/p>\n
Multiple watch parties were held across South Florida to accommodate those who couldn\u2019t secure tickets to the high-demand match, including one with thousands in attendance at the home arena of the NHL\u2019s Florida Panthers and another at Fan Fest in downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colombia\u2019s plan was nearly perfectly executed. The only thing missing was a goal.It didn\u2019t matter \u2014 Colombia goes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4528,133496,11014,8011,133665,133667,25903,123,2431,125,124,60238,60166,133668,133666,50703,8007,9611],"class_list":["post-322522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-colombia","tag-congo","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-draw","tag-group-k","tag-knockout-stage","tag-match","tag-miami","tag-miami-gardens","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-next-round","tag-portugal","tag-scoreless-draw-saturday-night","tag-second-half-goal","tag-uzbekistan","tag-win","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}