MIAMI, Florida – The 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup is just weeks away and for invited team Colombia, the tournament represents an amazing opportunity to take another step forward in their women’s football program.
A year after finishing as runners-up at the 2022 Conmebol Copa America Femenina, Colombia took the women’s football world by storm at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup by defeating Germany on their way to a quarterfinal finish.
With the 2024 Paris Olympics on the horizon this summer, Colombia are looking to make the most of their W Gold Cup opportunity.
“The W Gold Cup is the kind of tournament that helps you shore up those details that you need in a competition,” said MF Leicy Santos in an interview with Concacaf.com.
“It is about being prepared and being ready to face those games in which you cannot commit those errors, because those small details can do you in. In that sense, a demanding tournament like the W Gold Cup is very beneficial for the team,” added Santos.
Colombia have been drawn into a difficult Group B in which they will face Brazil, Panama and the winner of the Prelims match between Haiti and Puerto Rico. Potentially, Colombia could be facing three 2023 Women’s World Cup teams in the group stage.
“The W Gold Cup is a new competition for us, and it will help us arrive with a good level to the Olympic Games, and more than anything allow us to face strong opponents,” said MF Daniela Montoya to Concacaf.com.
And should Colombia advance to the knockout stage, there could well be a match-up with some of the giants of women’s football, like four-time Women’s World Cup winners the United States, or reigning Olympic champions Canada.
Playing that type of high-stakes affair against one of those two sides would be a challenge that Santos and her Colombia teammates would relish.
“Before you would feel that you knew you were going to suffer and have a bad time against [USA and Canada], because of the football and physical differences, but now, the Colombian national team is a team that is much more mature. It knows how to play and knows how to understand what is its strength and develop it in the best way,” said Santos.
“In that aspect, I think that has been our biggest area of growth in a sporting sense, knowing what is our strength and then working to make it better in our football. And on the mental side we have taken a step forward and have begun to believe in the talent that we have,” concluded Santos.
