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End of an era for South American side
LILLE, France (AP) -- Colombia's uneven run in the World Cup has come to an unceremonious finish and with it the end of a brilliant but often stormy era.Head coach Hernan Dario Gomez and several players who for years were mainstays in one of Latin America's top teams have announced they're leaving the national team.
After several years of top-flight soccer under Francisco Maturana and Gomez, his pupil, Colombia is in for a revamping.
Gomez, a veteran of two World Cups assisting Maturana before becoming head coach, says the team needs "a new course and fresh ideas."
Veteran midfielders Carlos Valderrama and Freddy Rincon are stepping aside, and striker Faustino Asprilla's future is uncertain following his dismissal for criticizing his coach and teammates.
Colombia came to France hoping to improve on a disastrous first-round elimination in the United States in 1994. But a weak attack, internal turmoil and age wiped out those dreams.
Four years ago, the team suffered a 3-1 loss to Romania in its first match and was eliminated with a shattering 2-1 defeat by the U.S. A few days after the team arrived home in Colombia, defender Andres Escobar was dead, shot for having scored an own goal in the U.S. game.
In France, Colombia's collapse again began with a loss to Romania, this time by 1-0 in both teams' first match.
But even before the team arrived in France there were rumblings that grew to a roar by the time Colombia was eliminated Friday night with a 2-0 loss to England.
Furious at being benched five minutes from the finish against Romania, striker Asprilla criticized Gomez and some of his teammates. The Parma forward blasted the coach for "favoring untouchable" players, such as the slow-footed Valderrama, 37.
Gomez responded by kicking Asprilla out of the team the following day. But Colombia was unable to recover from the turmoil or the lack of firepower, gaining only a difficult 1-0 win against lowly Tunisia in its second match, before losing to England.
"We lost against two strong teams. We beat Tunisia and we finished where we deserved," Gomez said. "That's the reality of Colombian soccer."
Now, Colombia must start anew.
"I'll step aside so that someone else may reap what has been sowed in the past ten years, may fix what's wrong and reach for better things. I did all I could," Gomez said after Friday's match against England. "It's up to others to lay out a fresh course with new ideas."
"Now I'm tired and sad, even sick," he added. "Being in a World Cup is supposed to be a beautiful experience, but it was terribly hard because of all the tension and passion that whirl around a national squad."
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GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan