Colombia came to Rose Bowl not to bury ghosts but simply to beat Paraguay. It came not to erase its past but to enhance its future.
And it accomplished that Tuesday, with a goal and an assist from surprise starter James Rodriguez lifting Colombia to a 2-1 victory that made it the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Copa America Centenario.
But that’s not all that was significant about Tuesday’s game, because the victory came on the same field where the darkest chapter in Colombian soccer history was written a generation ago.
In a group-play game in the 1994 World Cup, defender Andres Escobar scored an own goal for the U.