If anyone needed more proof of how good James Rodriguez can be, came the fantastic brace in the win over Uruguay to knock them out of the World Cup while Luis Suarez, suspended for his vicious bite, was sitting at home and watching helplessly.
Even without being there, Suarez was the man for Uruguay. All their motivation heading into the match came from the feeling of the world against them. They wanted to win for themselves but also for Suarez, who got destroyed by FIFA while players who try to break (and sometimes succeed) legs of their opponents get away with a few matches, not a few months.
Rodriguez hasn’t really played a World Class team yet, but there’s something special, no matter the rival, when he’s exploding onto the scene in the World Cup. For anyone who has followed Porto or Monaco over the last three years this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but most of the world is very much centered on their own league, the Premier League and the Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly in Spain.
Colombia aren’t the strongest team on paper in this tournament, but they’ve been playing the best football. Often, that’s not enough to win the tournament. For those who want to see Rodriguez and Colombia going all the way, they need to hope they’ve got more than flair and some awesome goals waiting for Brazil and possibly whoever comes next.
