Duván Zapata has gotten off to a nice start with Atalanta this year, finding the net three times and also assisting teammates on three other goals. In the beginning of a year that has been a struggle for La Dea to accumulate goals, Zapata has done his upmost to try and get the offense clicking. The club’s output may not be what we as fans desire, but it would be foolish to place any blame on Zapata – who has been as lively and amped up as any player on the roster.
While the Colombian’s fine form has been nothing but expected in Europe, curiously Zapata has not been able to carry that form over to South America where he is one of Reinaldo Rueda’s primary call-ups when healthy. To not mince words, Zapata’s form in yellow has not been good. He’s scored only four times in his national career – in 31 appearances – and he has not scored in a year with his last goal coming against Venezuela almost a year to the date. In last’s week’s World Cup qualifiers, Zapata did not help his cause with the Colombian faithful – bottling a clear cut chance against Uruguay that would’ve helped Colombia steal three points in Montevideo.
Granted, Fernando Muslera makes an excellent save on an expected tap-in – but Zapata still had a lot of open real estate to work with, and he somehow puts it right in the Galatasaray’s keeper’s path. It is just another example of Zapata lacking the killer instinct in South America that his made him such a threat in Italy. Is their a root cause to his troubles? Probably not. Thirty matches over four years is hardly enough of a sample size to garner any meaningful information. Heck, even Juan Cuadrado went to Instagram to show his support to Zapata, and there have now been enough subpar performances to at least dig a bit deeper into the overall greater picture of why Zapata may be faltering with Colombia.
A Quick Primer on the Current State of the Colombian Team
If you were to pick one word to describe Colombia’s tactics under current head coach Reinaldo Rueda, blind would be an excellent choice. Rueda, who has only been with the club for half a year – although he’s in his second stint – has been prioritizing not losing as much as winning. The problem is Colombia’s backline is nowhere near reliable enough to have this be a serviceable strategy when neither Yerry Mina nor Davinson Sanchez are locks to be the two anchors of the defense. They’re wildly inconsistent.
In my opinion, midfielder Wilmar Barrios is one of the best players in South America, but he has neither the support in midfield or the amazing ball skills and passing range to become a press beater. Therefore and unfortunately, Colombia’s best offensive strategy has now become to kick it out wide to Juan Cuadrado or Luis Diaz and hope one of them makes an incredible play. And without James Rodriguez, Colombia lacks a playmaker in the middle of the pitch that can cleanly link up with the strikers.
Not the greatest strategy, but it has been good enough to place Colombia in 5th for the World Cup qualifiers, and even led the team to a shoot out in the Copa America semi-finals against Argentina. It does, however, make for a lot of ugly games with very few goals.
Unfortunately the Colombian players who get penalized the most for this strategy are the strikers. It wouldn’t matter who played up front for Colombia, any of them would see very little of the ball and would then force any half chance received out of the anxiety and fear of never receiving another ball in a good position.
Case in point, Zapata touched the ball only eleven times in his thirty two minutes on the pitch last Thursday. Nearly all of his time on the pitch was spent occupying the half way line, and he was rarely in a good position to get on the end of a teammate’s pass (Colombia also had 49% possession in the second half, so it wasn’t like Zapata was just chasing Uruguayans all over the pitch trying to win the ball back). Instead there just didn’t seem to be a plan of attack.
I do find the two striker setup very odd. It feels like Reuda is trying to play with one hand tied behind his back, given that his strikers rarely touch the ball – why play with two strikers when he could put another midfielder on to either try to win the ball back, or provide more attacking flair to one of many very good strikers Colombia has? A 4-2-3-1, with Juanfer Quintero occupying the middle of the pitch would provide a much more dangerous attacking setup with an identical defensive setup. In my opinion, the two striker setup limits Colombia, and is only used as a vessel to get more good players game time. Colombia has a deep roster of strikers including: Zapata, Luis Muriel, the reincarnated Radamel Falcao, Alfredo Morelos, Miguel Borja, and Rafael Santos Borré – and its almost to the club’s detriment because it feels necessary to get as many of them playing time as possible throwing tactics to the wayside.
It’s Not Easy to Score in South America
If you’ve never watched a South American World Cup qualifying match or Copa America match, I highly suggest you do. You’ll quickly find out that football in South America is nothing like what you’re used to in Europe. Drama comes before gamesmanship, and the players milk it for all its worth. From fouls, nursing fake injuries, to arguing incessantly with referees and opposition, matches are so disjointed that its nearly impossible to establish any sort of real flow, and after awhile players just seem to try and rely on a moment of brilliance rather than implement an offensive strategy. Oftentimes its not pretty, but like a train-wreck, you cannot turn away! When the whole continent has been dead-set on beating Brazil and Argentina for over 80 years, it isn’t too surprising to see the rest of South America resort to this level of community theater.
The goal records speak for themselves. Its rare to find a striker in South America with a goal record of greater than 1 goal every 2 matches. For instance:
Edinson Cavani- 53 goals in 124 appearances
Radamel Falcao- 35 goals in 95 appearances
Diego Forlan- 36 goals in 112 appearances
Gonzalo Higuain- 31 goals in 75 appearances
Alexis Sanchez- 46 goals in 140 appearances
Sergio Aguera- 41 goals in 101 appearances
Some of the world’s best ever players have been able to eclipse the 1 goal per 2 matches threshold, like Lionel Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo Nazario, and Luis Suarez – but many of them (especially Neymar) have their tallies supported by penalties and cheap friendly goals. For example, Neymar has 69 career international goals, but 11 of those are penalties and he has another 13 international goals against China, Japan, Australia, and Iraq. In addition Neymar has only scored 18 non-penalty goals against South American competition, and I imagine a major chunk of his matches in international play have come against South American nations.
Tying this back to Zapata, 4 goals in 31 appearances is not a healthy mark, but its not as if he’s trending opposite of the best strikers in South America. It’s hard to score there! Without punching bag teams to beat up on consistently like the Faroe Islands, San Marino, Estonia, Andorra (take your pick!) stat padding is impossible. There’s no way Robert Lewandowski, Ronaldo, and Harry Kane would be able to keep their ratios up in South America. It’d be great to see Duván do better, he’s just not alone in piling up goals.
This is by no means a defense for Zapata’s poor form, but rather a call to investigate a bit further some of the intricacies of why his sterling form does not necessarily carry over to his home continent. Manager Reinaldo Rueda does his team no favors, and don’t forget thirty matches with inconsistent playing time makes it hard to get into the flow of an already disjointed South American affair.
International breaks are especially tough for South Americans playing in Europe too. Having to beat jet lag and eight hour oceanic flights are tough enough, but combine that with the potential of having to fly cross continent to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, or La Paz. A one way flight from Barranquilla, Colombia to Montevideo, Uruguay is over 11 hours! The continental spread in South America is not seen in Europe, and has to have a huge toll on the players that become globe hoppers rather than footballers each international break.
I’m hoping Zapata can come into some good form soon for his country – there’s still no greater honor for most players than donning the national jersey, but I am willing to give him a pass if he is isn’t as effective abroad, as long as it doesn’t affect his performance with La Dea. Here’s to Duván finding the net soon for Colombia, and as always Forza La Dea and, why not, Vamos Colombia!
