Linda Caicedo is sick and twisted for this footwork and shot.
She’s going to be audacious for a long time, a generational talent.#COL | #FIFAWWC | #BeyondGreatness pic.twitter.com/RAXQ7bi5uh
— nubia ✰ (@nxbaafnkln) July 30, 2023
Five German shirts were marking inside the box by the time Caicedo got to the ball, two of them close to the Colombian, one on the other side of the six-yard box, and two closer to the penalty spot. Her first touch was to get a spinning ball under control. With her second – to her left – Caicedo dribbled past an incoming challenge and took another defender positioned in line behind out of play. Third was a toe touch to cut inside and take out the defender to her left. Perhaps she had noticed Germany’s number 23 Sara Doorsoun, a predominantly right-footed player, commit her body weight on her strong foot, and that she won’t be able to just plant out her left foot to evade a cut back and risk a penalty. Or maybe she just fed off her instinct as the great offensive players do in those split seconds. Another thing they do is use what they call a half touch in tight spaces with a lot of traffic – as Caicedo did. Soft enough to set up what they call the final act in the attacking business – a big finish. A curler injected from her right foot that evaded a defender sticking her leg out and the German goalkeeper flying the best she could to ping the top right corner. What kids these days refer to as a banger. 1-0, Colombia.
They couldn’t have lost after that? Even after the Germans equalized from the spot. Vanegas got the goal she was looking for and Colombia a win that so many others were desperate for. Germany’s first defeat in a Women’s World Cup group stage since 1995, fueled by an 18-year-old.
Linda Caicedo really is 18. Real Madrid felt she was good enough to play for them at 17, so they signed her earlier this year. Her senior international debut came at the age of 14, a year before she was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer. A surgery, six months of chemotherapy, and she was back at training days later. In 2022, Caicedo featured across four international competitions – the South American Under-17 Women’s Championship, the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the Copa America Femenina, and the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in India, where she led Colombia in their first ever FIFA World Cup final. Yeah, there’s something about her.
Colombia assistant Angelo Marsiglia describes the prodigious left winger as “de otra planeta” (from another planet). Nothing less would define her trajectory from being a professional footballer at 14 with Colombian club, America de Cali to Real Madrid and a senior World Cup debut in less than four year’s time.
The goal on Sunday wasn’t even Caicedo’s first at the tournament. No, that was five days back in Colombia’s win against South Korea. Another curler, this time from the edge of the box, having darted in from the midfield. It made her the youngest scorer at this World Cup. The one against Germany made her the joint-second top scorer. In between, Caicedo had a rare human moment when she fainted at training with the medical staff rushing to her aid.
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Her coach Nelson Abadia addressed it as “just an incident, she was tired. She was a bit stressed as well, because she was playing in her first World Cup … (which) has great relevance. And she’s 18 years of age. She’s a girl as far as football goes.”
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There was no stress come matchday though, as the teenager laced her boots to score what’s being referred to as the goal of the World Cup. Colombia lead Group H and a draw against Morocco will be enough to see them through to the knockouts. It will only be the second time a Colombia Women’s team manages to do so.
