Rodriguez happy with Colombian goal

A solo goal from James Rodriguez was enough for Colombia to capture the victory when playing against Colombia in an international friendly match.

The match was played at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey and the Real Madrid player James Rodriguez scored the only goal of the entire match with a powerful shot at the 75th minute which edged the victory for the Colombian squad.

Colombia pressured their opponents from start of the match until the last few minutes but the Canadian squad managed to hold their ground in the first half and thanks to sublime goalkeeping skills from Milan Borjan, the scoreboard remained goal-less after 45 minutes had passed.

The best opportunities that Canada had on actually scoring in the first half arrived through set-pieces but they just could never pull it off and failed on finding the back of the net.

Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez scored the winning goal after having received a pass from the substitute Juan Quintero and slotting it home.

In the dying minutes of the match Canada worked hard in search for a late equalizer with the substitute player Luca Gasparatto who tried to tie the game at the 90th minute but it just never arrived as Colombia maintained their lead and was the winning team.

“We played mostly defensively today, not the way we would have liked,” he said through a translator following the match. “We wanted to play a little bit more offensive, but we actually played with them, that was good for us.”

“We discussed this with the players and we told them Colombia was very smart, very quick, and a lot of the set-pieces they work on played the ball quick. Our players got distracted and (the goal by Rodriguez) was what happened.” Canada’s coach Benito Floro said.

Even with the defeat of Canada, the coach of the squad was proud of what his players accomplished.

Canada Still looking For Victory Since 2012

Canada are still searching for their first victory in any match since 2012. In search of this elusive first victory, Canada manager Benito Floro has decided to go for an experienced squad for the upcoming friendly match against Jamaica. Canada’s last when came in a World Cup qualifying match against Cuba in 2012. Since then, there have been a string of draws and several defeats along the way. Benito Floro will be in charge of his first match at home since taking over the national team job in 2013. The Spaniard has decided to call up a number of experienced players in the 23 man squad.

It is understood that the team will be preparing for this match from August 31. The training will be taking place north of Toronto, and it will not be before September 6 that the team will be making the trip down south in order to take part in the match. The friendly is set to take place on September 9 at the BMO Field in Toronto. The squad has a number of players playing in the MLS and this is likely to help Canada given that the MLS is in the middle of the campaign. Players are likely to be much fitter and this was a huge advantage during the World Cup 2014 for the US national team.

“As you can imagine for me, this is a very special game because it’s a chance to correspond with the supporters. So I would like a very good game—not only to pick up a win but to also get a good performance. We’ve seen several Jamaican games and we consider them to be a physically good team. This means that technically and tactically it is a very good test for us,” said the former Real Madrid head coach.

Enrique Directed First Training Session

A few days ago Luis Enrique directed his first training session as the manager of Barcelona as the summer transfer window for the Spanish club is believed to be reaching its end after having signed a number of players that will be strengthening the squad from all sectors of the pitch.

Marc- Andre ter Stegen, Ivan Rakitic, Gerard Deulofeu, Rafinha, Luis Suarez, Alen Halilovic and Jeremy Mathieu are all of the players that have arrived to Camp Nou as the new performers for Barcelona.

There still are a few more targets that Luis Enrique wants to sign before the transfer window reaches it end but the main objectives have been signed which was Luis Suarez, the goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and a defensive reinforcement with Jeremy Mathieu.

The new coach Luis Enrique revealed some details concerning what he is planning to do with the squad in the next season as he focused on saying that he wants his players to play ‘’nice football’’.

“We’ll use all the resources we’ve got, one of which is being unpredictable leaders are created, they appear and have appeared. I want a team that scores goals, defends well, is loyal to its style and wins games playing attractive football. I am a born leader myself, and I lead this team. The challenge is making this have the right impact on the team I don’t just want results, I also want to win playing nice football’’ Luis Enrique told reporters during a media conference

Luis Enrique has a tough debut season ahead of himself as he has to prove that he is the right man to lead the team and be able not only to compete with Real Madrid but against some of the best clubs in Europe as they have to play in the Champions League in the next season. He was given a substantially large transfer budget for him to upgrade the squad and now the world will be able to see if it was spent appropriately with the next season scheduled to being on August 24.