Colombia

The Story

Colombia missed the 2022 World Cup, which still feels strange to type. This is a country whose 2014 run — James Rodríguez's six goals, the salsa-step goal celebrations, the Falcao-less attacking joy — was the breakout moment of that whole tournament. They were eliminated by Brazil in a quarterfinal that was less a soccer match than a cynical Brazilian ankle-tackle clinic, and the country took it personally. Then they didn't make Russia in 2018's knockouts, then they missed Qatar entirely. Eight years of waiting. They're back.

This Colombia is built differently from the 2014 version. Néstor Lorenzo, the Argentine manager who learned under José Pékerman during that golden run, took over in 2022 and has constructed a team around Luis Díaz — now at Bayern Munich, terrifying — with James as the elder statesman who still gets a starting role because the alternative is unthinkable to a country that loves him. The depth is the story: Daniel Muñoz at Palace, Jefferson Lerma alongside him, Richard Ríos in midfield, and a real center-forward question that Lorenzo is solving by committee.

They land in Group K with Portugal, Uzbekistan, and DR Congo — a winnable group, a real path to the Round of 16, and a likely Round of 16 against a UEFA superpower. The 2014 run is the ceiling. The realistic floor is going out in the group with stories to tell. Colombian soccer, at its best, is joyful in a way most national teams aren't. They are worth your time.

3 Players to Know

Luis Díaz

The 29-year-old Bayern Munich winger who came up barefoot in La Guajira playing for the Wayuu indigenous community team, got scouted by Junior Barranquilla, went to Porto, then Liverpool, and last summer made an €80 million move to Bayern, where he's part of an attacking trident with Harry Kane and Michael Olise that has terrorized the Bundesliga. He scored seven goals in CONMEBOL qualifying, the most of any Colombian. He is, at this moment, the best player his country has produced since Carlos Valderrama.

James Rodríguez

The most romantic figure in this Colombia team. Thirty-four years old, currently playing in MLS for Club León after a club career that's been a slow fade since his 2014 Real Madrid peak. Néstor Lorenzo keeps calling him up because James in a Colombia shirt is still capable of one moment per match that nobody else on the field can produce. This will almost certainly be his last World Cup. There will be a tribute video. Have tissues ready.

Daniel Muñoz

The 29-year-old Crystal Palace right-back who helped his club win the 2025 FA Cup and has become one of the most underrated wide defenders in the Premier League. Bombs forward for 90 minutes, gets back, never seems to tire. The new Colombia is built on these players — not the legacy stars but the European-grinder fullbacks who let Luis Díaz play forward. Muñoz is the most reliable of them.

The Food

Signature Dish

Bandeja paisa is the national dish — a tray (literally, 'paisa platter') with rice, red beans, ground beef, chicharrón, fried egg, plantain, avocado, and a corn arepa, all on one plate. It is enormous. It is a lot. It is the kind of meal you order once a year and remember for six months. The everyday star is the arepa — flat, griddled corn cake, eaten with cheese for breakfast or split open and stuffed for lunch. Sancocho (a long-simmered chicken or beef stew with yuca, plantain, corn) is the Sunday meal. And the coffee — Colombia is the third-largest producer in the world, and the good single-origin stuff from Huila or Antioquia is genuinely transformative.

Where to Eat in DFW

DFW's Colombian scene is small but real. La Cacerola Colombian Restaurant and Sabor Latino are the most consistent sit-down options, and Zaguán Latin Café & Bakery in Oak Lawn does Colombian pastries — pandebono, almojábana, pan de yuca — that taste like Bogotá. For a true bandeja paisa, do the homework on Yelp the week of the match: the Colombian community in DFW is concentrated in Irving and northeast Dallas, and the best food often comes from family operations that don't advertise. The arepa truck scene has also exploded — search for Arepa TX and similar Instagram-only operations.

Fan Culture

Colombian fans bring the loudest, most joyful traveling support in CONMEBOL after Argentina and Brazil — the yellow shirts, the Carlos Vives playlists at full volume in the parking lot, the drums, the vallenato accordion that somehow shows up at every watch party. The chant of "¡Sí se puede!" rolls through the crowd in a way that feels less like protest and more like celebration. Expect aguardiente shots being passed around, a lot of dancing during stoppage time, and the absolute conviction — even when Colombia is down 2-0 — that the next attack will be the one. The Colombian diaspora in Florida, New York, and Texas has been waiting eight years for this. They are going to be loud.