Today I'm going back 27 years to 1995 and England's goalless midweek International Friendly against Colombia played at the old Wembley Stadium (the version with the twin towers) and attended by just 20,038. The game was the second and most recent occasion where I've had the pleasure of watching a Colombia international and it's great to be able to say that "I was there!".
The programme cover star is, of course, the 28 year-old peroxide blond legend Paul Gazza Gascoigne who was playing in Scotland for Rangers at the time of this match. Gazza now found himself as one of England's senior pro's but I'd imagine that age had done little to dampen his "daft as a brush" persona. Contrasting with the programme cover, by the time of this match, Gazza's hair colour had returned to a more natural dark shade befitting of his senior status.
This was England's 714th international fixture and was manager Terry Venables' 12th match in charge of the national side (his record read 5 wins and 5 draws prior to this one). On the night, Venables handed a place in the starting line-up and a full debut to Liverpool's Jamie Redknapp. Newcastle United centre-back Stephen Howey and Middlesbrough's Nick Barmby were making only their second appearances for England and Robert Lee only his third.
The South Americans had a few star names of their own and in addition to their eccentric goalkeeper Rene Higuita (more about him in a moment), Colombia's selection included Freddy Rincon, Carlos Valderama and Faustino Asprilla. Rincon was playing for Real Madrid at the time of this game but would make only 21 La Liga appearances for the Spanish giants. In all, Rincon gained 84 caps for his country scoring 17 goals. Sadly Rincon died, aged just 55, earlier this year in a car accident back home in Colombia. Accomplished footballer Carlos Valderama is probably best remembered for his amazing blonde/red ringleted afro hairstyle but he was a fine player who, like Rincon, appeared at the World Cups of 1990, 1994 and 1998. Valderama earned 111 International caps and scored 11 goals for his country. Lastly, Faustino Asprilla, who was playing for Parma in Italy at the time of this match, became better known in England following his transfer to Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United a year later. United played in the Champions League during Asprilla's time at the club and he is fondly remembered for scoring a hattrick against Barcelona in Newcastle's first match in the competition. Sadly those goals would prove to be Asprilla's last for the club and he was transferred back to Parma in 1998 having scored 18 goals in 61 appearances for the Toon. Asprilla earned 57 caps for his country and scored 20 goals.
Perhaps in view of the lack of goals, the featured match will forever be remembered for the spectacular "Scorpion Kick" save made by Higuita from a Jamie Redknapp shot from distance. Just to put a dampener on things, what hasn't been so well remembered was that the linesman's flag was already up for offside before Higuita performed his iconic goal saving clearance and surely he wouldn't have attempted it had the flag not been raised? Certainly England seemed to be the better side on the night but were unable to translate their superiority into goals despite hitting the crossbar (Shearer) and the post twice (Gascoigne and Dennis Wise). Irrespective, the game provided rich entertainment for the few fans who bothered to turn up that night and Venables assessed his team's performance as "very good".
The featured match was part of a run of International Friendlies played by England in preparation for the following summer's Euro96 European Championships which England were hosting and therefore did not have to compete in the qualifiers. England would go on to have a fine Euros and finished as losing semi-finalists to old adversaries Germany who went on to win the tournament. As already mentioned, Colombia qualified for three successive World Cups although their performances faded as their side aged and they were especially impacted by the murder of player Andres Escobar immediately following the 1994 USA World Cup. Colombia have only ever won the Copa America (effectively a South American Championships) once as hosts in 2001.
CRB Match No. 984
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