The meeting of the players of the Colombian National Team began to complete the friendly tour in Asia during the Fifa date of this month, in which they will be facing South Korea this Friday, at 6:00 am Colombian time, and on Tuesday 28, from 5:20 am, to Japan.
This Monday the concentration began in the South Korean capital of Seoul, and the coach Néstor Lorenzo decided to carry out the first practice session with 13 players, including “El Tigre” Radamel Falcao García.
In addition to the Colombian striker, the first to arrive were Daniel Muñoz, Carlos Cuesta, Alexis Pérez, Juan David Mosquera, Dylan Borrero, Jhon Jader Durán, Devis Vásquez, Juan Fernando Quintero, Dávinson Sánchez, Camilo Vargas, Déiver Machado and Nelson Palacio.
Under the mandate of Néstor Lorenzo, the Colombian National Team will begin to face its first category challenges with the aim of outlining the team that will face the start of the Conmebol Qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup. Although this classification will begin in September 2023, the team The national team begins to measure the different footballers with whom it will be able to count for the generational replacement.
With the 13 players who joined the concentration in South Korea first, the coach did a job with the ball and in this the Nacional midfielder Nelson Palacio stood out, who meets his first call-up and was able to share with an idol his as Radamel Falcao García, who together with James and other experienced players, have the responsibility of accompanying these youngsters so that they fit into the National Team in the best way.
It is expected that in the course of this Tuesday the call will be completed so that Néstor Lorenzo can count on all the footballers he called to participate in this tour of Asia. James Rodríguez and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado should join the group.
Before they began to arrive in Asian territory, Colombia confirmed some casualties from the squad and the Federation reported that neither Johan Carbonero, who will undergo surgery due to a cruciate ligament injury, nor Jéfferson Lerma, who came out with a problem in his last game of the Premier League, they would be.
That was how they announced that the player Yílmar Velásquez from Deportivo Pereira was summoned to replace Lerma.
The coach Néstor Lorenzo, who began his process after the game that Amaranto Perea accompanied Héctor Cárdenas against Saudi Arabia, on June 5, 2022 (0-1 victory), has directed four games for the Colombia team. The first two were on the FIFA date of September last year.
The venue for these matches was the United States, the first meeting at the RedBull Arena in New Jersey against Guatemala. The result was wide for the Tricolor, 4-1 with goals from James Rodríguez, Luis Sinisterra, Rafael Santos Borré and Yaser Asprilla.
The last match was against the United States with a squad made up of Colombian soccer players, soccer players from Mexico and the United States, and a few from Europe. This has been the most opaque to date since the selected team took over and ended in a goalless draw.
The Qualifiers start in September
This year the Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup will begin and 6 dates will be played. Colombia will begin its participation by receiving Venezuela in September and that same month it will visit Chile. Then, in October, they will play Uruguay at home and must go to face Ecuador. While in November they will have to face Brazil, at home and will close the year with a visit to Paraguay. After those 6 days there will be a recess until September 2024 when the elimination process will be resumed. For this reason, from now on, rivals like South Korea and Japan, who have just made a good participation in Qatar, must face each other with the aim of starting to put together a solid team.
