The Colombian women's national team lacked football, not 'mentality'... (Meluk tells, opinion)

The women's national team fell again before the final bell rang, losing the Copa América again. The golden triumphal carriage once again became a pumpkin, and the long coronation dress became a sweaty jumpsuit, soiled with grass and dirt.

The latest defeat in the final against Brazil , the powerhouse of the area, the only opponent the women's team has yet to defeat, is never explained by the crude and facile explanation of the supposed lack of "mentality" and "winning DNA" in Colombian football.

A light opinion. The latest defeat, painful and cruel, as shocking as it may be, can be explained by football and from football.

First, they made a mistake in the first half, leading 1-0, and with Brazil already on the back foot, the players decided to fight, push each other, and challenge the referee. In the last play before halftime, Jorelyn Carabalí headbutted an opponent off the ball and resurrected Brazil with a penalty. And it was a red card.

For most of the second half, Colombia played decidedly poorly, even with a 2-1 lead after Brazil's own goal. They didn't make two consecutive passes, except for Linda Caicedo 's isolated combination for Mayra Ramírez 's 88th-minute goal to make it 3-3. With eight minutes remaining, including six minutes of added time, the team went on a blatant time-squander!

In football hypocrisy, when one's team wastes time, it's called "professionalism," but when the opposing team does, it's called anti-football. Well, what the national team did was a clear excess of "professionalism," and football made up for it with Marta 's stunning goal 20 seconds before the time limit. It was the 3-3 that extended the match. In the final take of a free kick from far away, with the shot a foregone conclusion, how is it possible that neither the player nor the coach, Ángelo Marsiglia , were focused on marking none other than Marta in the rebound, who, in a heartbreaking way, smashed the shot. They let the greatest player in history go free! Unforgivable!

The team, in what was clearly an excess of mentality and courage—there, yes!—tied the game 4-4 in extra time with a stunning free kick. The defeat in the final penalty shootout can also be explained from a football perspective, by the poor executions of Pavi, Santos, and Carabalí...

I repeat: it's crude and simplistic to explain the defeat by blaming a supposed lack of "mentality" and "winning DNA ." What this Colombian national team lacked was football, as it had been lacking for some time, and instead, it was on the verge of winning thanks to an excess of mentality and desire. In this Copa América, it drew four of its six matches (Venezuela, Argentina, and twice against Brazil, and defeated weak Bolivia and Paraguay), and won only two of its previous 13 matches (five draws and six losses).

The women's national team lost, once again, their Copa América before the stroke of midnight...