Romance in Rio

Last night, Rio's Maracana saw a sight to warm Brazilian hearts. A team in yellow, playing exuberant football, inspired by a twinkling number 10, dumped a cynical Uruguay out of the World Cup. The only slight blip for the numerous locals who made it into the stadium, was that the team in question was Colombia not Brazil. "The Coffee Growers" ("Los Cafeteros") are lighting up the competition, while the hosts labor. And in the next round, the two nations will clash in a match that will rock the entire continent.

In the stadium itself though, nobody was looking ahead to the quarter-finals, nor sharpening knives for soon-to-be-rivals. Instead, a crowd featuring only a handful of Uruguayans delighted in every touch from the Colombians, every ball won, pass completed, shot stopped or chance created. It was pure footballing romance, orchestrated from the sidelines by cupid José Péckerman and on the pitch by James Rodriguez. The 22-year-old is fast seducing this entire tournament and made the Maracana swoon as one with his first-half volley. The only question now is, how long the whirlwind affair can last.

Having seen the Colombians flood Rio since day one of this tournament, bringing with them such euphoria, it is hard to imagine them bowing out in the next round. For me, they already have the accolade of best supporters in the bag. Now, I would love to see them grab football's biggest prize, even at the expense of the hosts. Against Uruguay, Colombia achieved that rarest of feats: a triumph of idealism over pragmatism. And for that reason alone, I can imagine one or two Brazilians will be happy to celebrate the wrong team in yellow, should they win in the next round.