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MOSCÚ editorial

EFE

The tears of James Rodriguez, only in the Colombian bench after his country fell into the penalty shoot-out against England, were the crying of a whole country.

The Colombian dream, extended for half an hour by a Yerry Mina's head that forced the extension when the game's regulatory time had expired, disappeared in the shootout and James cried on the bench, the same one in which not even he sat, penalized by a right soleus injury.

Severe helplessness in the player of Bayern Munich, leader of this generation, who could not lead them on the field to victory, although he pushed them out of the stands, present in all time, as a banner that should guide them.

"We were missing a key player in the selection.He is the player who played the biggest role in the creation and definition of the team," said Colombian coach Jose Pekerman after the game. James became, despite himself, the unintentional protagonist of the elimination of Colombia in the World Cup against Russia.

Without the Bayern Munich player on the turf, Pekerman's team was less orderly in creation. offensive and that was noted in the final balance.

Colombia struggled with a heart, until the last breath, to put England on the ropes, against shootouts that were so often elusive. But without the necessary order, without the creativity that brings the number "10" in the game. Bet the Argentine coach by Wilmar Barrios in the post of James, but the team failed to twist the game, triggered the alarm of an England that since 2006 has not. did not overcome a tie in a final phase of a major competition.

missed the coffee all contact James, the mood that gives him in the center of the field, the machinery room in which the Colombian occasions gestation. And Colombia was about to leave a world championship without scoring for the first time in eight duels, without the prodigious intervention of Yerry Mina in the 93rd minute, when all seemed lost.

James was still encouraging them before the extension and in the short rest between the two times of the extension. Leader, standard of the group. He experienced tense shootout, like the captain who took his helm, unable to guide his in the second quarterfinal.

And he cried in the end, because the dream was at hand, perhaps the pity of the thrust that a player of his character and personality could have given them.