Los Cafeteros Advance: 4 Takeaways From Colombia’s World Cup Round Of 32 Win vs. Ghana

Colombia became the final team to advance to the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a 1-0 win over Ghana on Friday night at Kansas City Stadium. While it was just a one-goal margin of victory, the result was never in doubt: Colombia scored first, maintained consistent pressure throughout the 90 minutes, and, most importantly, played a clean game with very few mistakes.

The win now sets the stage for Colombia to play Switzerland in Vancouver on July 7 in what should be a very interesting clash of well-coached teams who have been improving throughout the tournament and whose players stick to a disciplined game plan.

One thing is for certain: Colombia is one of the best-supported teams at this World Cup, as every game has been a “home game,” and tonight in Kansas City was a special atmosphere. It was a very loud sea of yellow that clearly had a positive impact on the Colombian team.

Here are my thoughts on the game:

1. Suarez Impresses In Tough Task

(Photo by Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

It is never an easy job for any player to get subbed into a game in the opening minutes to replace an injured teammate. Players asked to do this have little time to prepare to enter the game and have not been training for what has essentially become an unexpected start.

Luis Suárez did a fantastic job when he had to replace Jhon Córdoba in the eighth minute. Just six minutes after coming on, he made an excellent cross from the right side of the box to set up John Arias for the opening goal.

It was the most important play of the game as Ghana’s game plan was designed to be very defensive and try to create occasional chances on counterattacks or set pieces. The last thing Ghana wanted to do was try to make a comeback against a more skilled and possession-oriented team.

Suarez put Colombia into a great position and Ghana into a bad one just minutes after he came on as an early substitute.

In the second half, Diaz continued to put immense pressure on Colombia. He had a goal called back for offside, and minutes later, he forced a big save from Ghanaian goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi.

2. Colombia Did Not Make Many Mistakes

(Photo by Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Colombia knew it was going to have a huge majority of possession in this game, but the important task for Néstor Lorenzo’s team was to be disciplined when it had to defend, and not make many mistakes with that ball that would let Ghana run aggressively in transition.

Overall, Lorenzo should be pleased with his team’s effort. Offensively, Colombia completed 91% of its passes, with only very few of its incomplete passes allowing Ghana a dangerous counter. Defensively, Colombia blocked four of Ghana’s first six shots on goal and forced a wave of turnovers to limit Ghana’s dangerous possessions.

This was an excellent performance from Colombia in how it stuck to its disciplined gameplan despite Ghana trying hard to turn it into a physical grind. The game did get physical at times, but Colombia was able to always play the game on its terms.

3. Ghana Thrown Off Early

(Photo by Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

From the early goings in the game, Ghana was in a bad position. This game was a clash of opposing styles. Colombia wanted to play an open and fluid game while Ghana wanted it to become a slow-paced physical grind.

Ultimately, Ghana was never able to get the game on its terms. The early goal changed that quite a bit because Ghana was then not able to sit as deep as it wanted (as it did against England). After all, it needed a score.

More importantly, while the game became physical, Ghana only had 10 fouls (and many of those were late in the game). Far too often, Ghana could not get close enough to the ball to foul. Colombia actually committed more fouls (a total of 14), which was to its benefit as it slowed Ghana’s run down and that neutralized Ghana’s best hopes of scoring.

Despite that, it was a good tournament for Ghana, considering that its head coach, Carlos Querioz, was hired in April and only began working with the team in the camp leading up to the World Cup. Querioz was tasked with fixing a defense that completely collapsed during the friendlies in the March windows.

Queiroz was able to get this team to punch above its weight. It defeated Panama, drew England, and remained within striking distance of Croatia and Colombia. The team was eliminated tonight, but the tournament went about as well as it could have reasonably hoped.

4. Ati-Zigi Kept Ghana Close

(Photo by Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi was by far the best player for Ghana in the game. Colombia had eight shots on goal while Ghana did not get a single shot on target.

Ati-Zigi made seven saves and many of them were of very high quality. He denied close headers from Johan Mojica in the first half stoppage time and Davinson Sánchez in the 81st minute. In the 58th minute, Ati-Zigi made a big stop on Luis Diaz’s right-footed shot.

This game could have, and should have, been lopsided in favor of Colombia. But the reason why Ghana was always within reach was because of the play of Ati-Zigi.