Two nations looking to return to form will do battle today in an international friendly between Colombia and El Salvador. The match scheduled for 8 p.m. ET will be held at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey and can be live streamed here free. Additional TV coverage can be found on beIN Sports en Español.
Colombia striker Rademel Falcao had this to offer ahead of today's international encounter (via Goal): "Colombia will have to give 100 percent to beat El Salvador and Canada, and on the other hand, we take the opportunity to continue to grow as a group and improve. The most important goal is the World Cup in Russia in 2018, but there are also short-term goals and we want be the best we can be. Colombia is ready for big things."
Head coach Jose Pekerman was asked about the new 2018 cycle, and was adamant about not using Colombia's recent friendly with Brazil as its startpoint. "Do not consider the game against Brazil," he stressed. "It was a match played out of context that we had not scheduled. We went into it without having all the players in the condition that we always want to have them for these kinds of matches."
Tactical Preview
Player to Watch: Colombia's James Rodriguez quickly assimilated to the winning culture of Real Madrid since joining from Monaco. The 23-year-old has two assists in seven appearances and is averaging 2.3 key passes per match.
Colombia's Projected Lineup (4-4-1-1): Vargas; Armero, Zapata, Franco, Zúñiga; James Rodríguez, Sánchez, Aguilar, Cuadrado; Gutiérrez, Falcao
El Salvador's Projected Lineup (4-4-1-1): Carrillo; Hernandez, Molina, Ortiz, Mendoza; Renderos, Menjivar, Ceren, Alvarez; Orellana; Burgos
Note: Credit all statistics to officially licensed data from Opta Sports (via WhoScored).
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