Team rides support from compatriots to surprise Germany 2-1 in WWC
\n SYDNEY
\nColombia\u2019s World Cup team are being roared on by thousands of fans in Australia who are playing a major part in spurring their country to new heights in women\u2019s football.
\nA Colombian side led by 18-year-old sensation Linda Caicedo caused one of the upsets of the competition so far when they stunned Germany 2-1 on Sunday in Sydney.
\nManuela Vanegas\u2019s header in the 97th minute against one of the favourites put Colombia on the cusp of the last 16 and dreaming of winning the World Cup for the first time.
\nColombia have appeared at the Women\u2019s World Cup only twice before, in 2011 and in 2015, when they reached the last 16 for the first time. But they failed to qualify for the event four years ago.
\nThey need just a draw on Thursday against Morocco to top their group and could still reach the last 16 even with a defeat.
\nDubbed \u2018The Powerpuff Girls\u2019, Caicedo\u2019s Colombia were driven on against Germany by a large majority of the 40,000 spectators at a pulsating Sydney Football Stadium.
\nThe stadium was a sea of yellow shirts with deafening jeers and whistles greeting every German when they touched the ball.
\nGermany star Lena Oberdorf said it felt like Colombia were at home.
\nShe compared it to when Germany played hosts England at Wembley in the final of the Euros last summer in front of nearly 90,000, a match they also lost 2-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same — but you don\u2019t expect it when you play against Colombia in Australia,\u201d said the midfielder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that there are so many Colombian fans travelling here shows how much women\u2019s football is progressing,\u201d Oberdorf said.<\/p>\n
Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, whose side can still reach the last 16, said she felt a few of her players shrunk a little in the face of the frenzied Colombian support.<\/p>\n
Most Colombians in the crowd seem to be living in Australia rather than having jumped on expensive long-haul flights across the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Team spokesman Carlos Lajud told AFP that some are students while others are people who moved to Australia looking for work.<\/p>\n
Census figures in 2021 said there were 35,000 people born in Colombia in Australia.<\/p>\n
Like other countries, Colombia is enduring high inflation, while unemployment stood at just over 10 percent towards the end of last year.<\/p>\n
According to a 2021 report by the International Organization for Migration, about 80 percent of Colombian migrants are in the United States, Spain, Venezuela, Ecuador and Canada.<\/p>\n
The rest are split between Australia, Mexico and Panama.<\/p>\n
There are nearly five million Colombians living overseas, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Outside the stadium before the Germany match, a corner of Sydney became a mini Bogota for a few hours, albeit 15,000 kilometres (9,000 miles) from the Colombian capital.<\/p>\n
Colombian fans decked in yellow held flares, danced and banged drums as bemused German fans and locals snapped pictures or observed sheepishly from a distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time we start supporting women\u2019s football in Colombia because they don\u2019t support it,\u201d one male fan told television cameras as jubilant Colombians streamed out of the stadium afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you saw, we were playing as locals. It was full of Colombians, and we won.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Team rides support from compatriots to surprise Germany 2-1 in WWC SYDNEY Colombia\u2019s World Cup team are being roared on by thousands of fans in Australia who are playing a major part in spurring their country to new heights in women\u2019s football. A Colombian side led by 18-year-old sensation Linda Caicedo caused one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-346608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n