Experts identify struggling players in match against Colombia

The group stage matches of the 2026 World Cup on the fields of North America are reaching their peak. In the first round of Group K, the Uzbekistan national team played its first-ever Mundial match. Unfortunately, Fabio Cannavaro's pupils' debut started poorly — our representatives against the Colombia national team 1:3 lost the opportunity. Ahead, the 'White Wolves' face another serious test. A frustrated Portugal national team led by Cristiano Ronaldo, who failed to defeat DR Congo in the first round and is hungry for victory, will take the field against our representatives.

In fact, considering that the Colombia national team is exactly 37 places higher than Uzbekistan in the FIFA rankings, this result may seem expected for the football world. However, the prestigious 'Euro-Football' publication analyzed the match in detail and revealed how much individual player errors contributed to our national team's defeat. The publication's experts rated our representatives on a 10-point scale, setting the starting grade at 6.0.

Through the following analytical sports table, you can find detailed information about the three lowest-rated defenders and goalkeepers in the match against Colombia and the errors they made:

Causes of defeat: A clear difference between level and class

According to the analysis, our experienced defender Rustam Ashurmatov (3.0) made many simple mistakes in the transition from defense to attack. In particular, in the situation where Daniel Munoz opened the scoring, he did not expect the opponent to run into the penalty area and strike with a jump. Publication experts emphasize that the level of the championships where the players play daily spoke for itself. While Ashurmatov was hardened in the leagues of Uzbekistan, Korea, Russia, and Iran, Munoz and Diaz, who played against him, are key stars of English and German clubs.

Our goalkeeper Otkir Yusupov (3.0) also failed to perform at his level today. While he couldn't save the team on the first goal, a large part of the error for the second goal scored by Luis Diaz fell on him — he touched the ball during the shot, but his failure to keep his hand firm was the deciding factor. Additionally, he handed the ball to the opponent several times when coming out of the goal.

For our young star from the English Premier League Abduqodir Husanov (3.0) this match was also a real test. It became clear that he lacks the experience to play under great pressure on the international stage. Luis Diaz frequently put Abduqodir in a difficult position on the wing and scored the winning goal under his defense in the 65th minute. Even though Husanov received a yellow card in the first half, the referee spared him and kept him on the field when he committed a similar foul in the second half.

Final note from Zamin sports commentators:

Such serious mistakes and low ratings in the first game of the World Cup should not be an insult to our players, but a great lesson. Our boys felt in practice that top-level opponents do not forgive even a small mistake. We believe that Fabio Cannavaro will quickly work on these shortcomings and present a perfect and victorious game that our fans have missed in the historic match against Portugal on June 23. Forward, Uzbekistan!

Always follow the hottest analytical articles of the World Cup, exclusive statistics of our national team players, and Mundial news with us on the Zamin pages!