Latest updates coming from the ongoing Women’s FIFA World Cup, the team from Colombia overcame the odds and defeated a stronger South Korean side by a healthy 2-0 in their Group H encounter at the Sydney Football Stadium on Tuesday. The highlight of the match was Real Madrid forward Linda Caicedo, a cancer survivor, who scored the winning goal on her World Cup debut to seal the victory for her side.
The Colombian team got the early breakthrough in the match when Catalina Usme scored the opening goal from a penalty in the 30th minute due to Shim Seo-yeon handling a goal-bound effort from Manuela Vanegas in the area. Usme stepped in to take the spot and successfully converted from the spot by sending South Korean goalkeeper Young-geul the wrong way.
Just about nine minutes later, as the Korean side was still reeling from the Caltalina blow, forward Caicedo came in with a darting run from midfield, which saw her cut in from the left before curling a shot from the edge of the box and while her effort appeared too central to trouble Yoon, the ‘keeper got her positioning wrong and instead fumbled it into the net, giving Colombia a 2-0 lead at 39 minutes into the game.
While not many people would be aware of it, Caicedo is a cancer survivor, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was just 15 years old. Having already beaten the deadly disease as a teenager, she fired in her country’s second goal of the match, before racing toward Colombia’s fans in celebration.
South Korea did though have a few promising chances for scoring, the closest one coming from Lee Geum-min, who was close to pulling a goal back for South Korea at the end of the first half, but her effort was thwarted courtesy of a flying save by keeper Catalina Perez.
The loss has put South Korea’s hopes of making it to the knockouts in jeopardy and will now have to beat Morocco to stand any chances of reaching the top 16. Colombia on the other hand, is now placed second in the Group H rankings behind Germany. The match between South Korea and Morocco will take place at Adelaide on Sunday, while Colombia will next be taking on two-time champions Germany in Sydney later that day.
