The U.S. national team suffered their third and final defeat in the Copa America on Thursday, falling to Colombia 1-0 in Venezuela despite playing the final minutes with a man advantage and a field player in Colombia's net following goalkeeper Robinson Zapata's ejection late in the match.
Colombia jumped into an early lead when midfielder Jaime Castrillon came thundering through the U.S. box and leapt to connect to Camilo Zaniga's driven cross from the right flank. Castrillon's powerful header flew by U.S. goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who had no chance to make a save.
The South Americans were unlucky not to double their advantage just three minutes later after a crazy scramble in front of Guzan's goal eventually ended with the ball being cleared off the line.
In the 21st minute Eddie Johnson made a nice run down the right flank, drawing a foul to set up a free kick in a dangerous position. Justin Mapp whipped in the ensuing cross, which was cleared fisted out of danger Zapata. However, the ball fell nicely in front of Sacha Kljestan, whose well-struck volley curled right into Zapata's waiting arms.
Hugo Rodallega had a golden opportunity to give the Colombians some breathing room after he was taken down in the box by Guzan. The Chivas USA starter atoned for his mistake, though, diving to his right to palm away the penalty kick that Rodallega took himself. Danny Califf was on hand to knock away the rebound.
Bob Bradley's side went into the locker room down just a goal after Cesar Valoyes failed to put a shot on target after running in on Guzan on the left side of the penalty area.
Eddie Gaven, who came on for Herculez Gomez to start the second half, had the first look at goal after the intermission. The Crew midfielder got his head to a cross at the near post in the 53rd minute, but his shot whistled over the crossbar.
The USA missed another opportunity to draw level in the 68th minute when Johnson's corner kick flew through the six-yard box. At least two U.S. players were within inches of redirecting the ball on goal.
Colombia should have sealed the result some seven minutes from the final whistle when Andres Chitiva raced into the U.S. end all the way into the box almost completely uncontested. As Guzan came off his line to close the angle, Chitiva opted to pass rather than shoot and the opportunity was wasted as substitute Lee Nguyen cleared the danger.
The U.S. thought it had registered an equalizer seconds later when Kyle Beckerman slammed a deflected shot into the net only to see the flag raised for offside. That's when the game took a strange turn.
Referee Manuel Andarcia of Venezuela showed Zapata a straight red card, apparently for wasting time as he took off his goalkeeping gloves in order to tie his shoelaces. Having already used its three allotted substitutions, Colombia was forced to insert a field player into the net and play the remaining minutes with 10 men. But the U.S. couldn't take advantage of the situation and Colombia held on for the victory, sending the U.S. home with three losses in the South American championship.
Jonathan Nierman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
