SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Tournament openers are as special as they come, but Friday evening’s US-Colombia match to kick off the Copa América Centenario will mean a little extra for US men’s national team midfielder Alejandro Bedoya.
The 28-year-old, who hails from the Miami suburb of Weston, Florida, is of Colombian descent on his father’s side – both his father and grandfather played professional soccer in Colombia – and has plenty of pride in his Colombian heritage. So much so, in fact, that he admits he wore a Carlos Valderrama wig and cheered on Colombia as they faced the United States in the group stage of the 1994 World Cup, a 2-1 upset win for the USA.
Now the tables have turned, and Bedoya says his family will be going against their countrymen to cheer him on as he does battle with Los Cafeteros at Levi’s Stadium on Friday (9:30pm ET, FS1, Univision, UDN). His sister and mother, along with “a bunch of other family and friends” are making the journey to Northern California, and excitement levels in Bedoya households across two continents are through the roof.
“My family just decided to make a group chat on my phone with all my family from Colombia on, so that thing, I can’t even get a read to catch up to the messages,” he told reporters ahead of US training on Thursday afternoon. “We’re all excited, it should be fun, but I hope we can get the best out of the result and get a win.”
Bedoya, who now boasts 48 caps and two goals for the US, has been in strong form for both club and country as of late, making him a very likely candidate to be part of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s starting lineup against Colombia.
He proved integral in the USMNT’s 4-0 friendly win against Bolivia on Saturday, where he featured not as a wide midfielder on the right – his usual position for the US – but as a central midfielder, where he has seen some time with club team Nantes. He picked up two assists and helped the US boss midfield play against their South American opponents in 63 minutes on the field.
Though it remains to be seen where Klinsmann will line him up Friday night, the German head coach went out of his way to praise Bedoya’s progress over the last two years.
“He went through his own learning curve, also, since the World Cup,” Klinsmann said of Bedoya. “He had a couple of up and downs, but the last couple of months he was outstanding. Outstanding with Nantes, he was very strong with his presence in Europe and also as a personality, it seems he’s getting more mature.
“He understands now he’s getting towards an age where people expect a little bit more leadership, a little bit more responsibilities, not just going with the flow.”
US captain Michael Bradley was a little more succinct in assessing the improvement of one of his midfielder partners.
“He’s better,” Bradley said with a smile. “He’s a better player now than he was a few years ago. I’m not trying to simplify it in any way, but that’s ultimately for all of us – you want to improve, you want to take everything you do and make it count at higher level and in a more consistent way.”
If Bedoya is able to make it count on Friday, he’ll do it to the delight of plenty of family and friends – not to mention tens of thousands of US fans – in the audience. Even if it’s a little bittersweet for his dad’s side of the clan.
