Nelson Abadía, DT of Colombia in the Women’s World Cup: “We are the team that represents America”

With their victory over Jamaica on Tuesday, Colombia became the last representative of the American continent in the Women’s World Cup, something that fills their coach, Nelson Abadía, with pride.

“It is a patriotic pride, a regional pride, it is knowing that we are worthy representatives of Colombia, of South America, we remain as the team that represents America and that is pleasant for us as a coaching staff,” said Abadía.

Colombia defeated Jamaica 1-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will face England.

“It’s not to be presumptuous, but we are the coaching staff that is representing all of America,” he added, visibly proud of his team’s qualification to the quarterfinals.

Jamaica was precisely the last representative of an American country, apart from Colombia, in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, after the surprise elimination of favorites like the United States, Brazil and Canada.

“We knew what Jamaica had, we knew where to counteract, we knew the spaces they could give us and their strengths in terms of attack,” Abadía said of his rival on Tuesday.

His Jamaican colleague, Lorne Donaldson, conceded that the coffee pots were superior to his “Reggae Girlz.”

“Colombia played better, they deserved to win,” admitted Donaldson. “We played hard, we had a good campaign (at the World Cup). Nobody likes to lose but they managed to leave us out, it’s over.”

Colombia will face England next Saturday in the quarterfinals, designated as one of the favorites to lift the cup in the World Cup.

“England is one of the favourites, it is the European champion. But we still face Germany wisely, with the integrity of our game and our footballers”, recalled Abadía about the 2-1 victory in the group stage against the Germans. “This is how we are going to face England,” he added.

In the same vein, the striker Catalina Usme, scorer of the winning goal against Jamaica, announced that against England “we are going from you to you.”

“This team is not going to speculate on what it can or cannot do. We are absolutely certain of the work we have done. We are dreaming very big, but we know what we can do”, expressed Usme.