Drugs, Murder, And The World Cup Part 2: The Narco History Of Colombian Football
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. In this second part two of our three-part special on Colombian football and the tragedy of Andrés Escobar.
Co-hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper dissect one of the greatest World Cup qualifying matches ever played: Colombia's stunning 5-0 victory over Argentina at El Monumental in Buenos Aires. This episode explores the dramatic buildup to the match, the hostile reception faced by the Colombian team, and the extraordinary performance that shocked the football world. The discussion then examines the dangerous euphoria that followed, as Colombia began to believe that they could win the 1994 World Cup, and the dark realities of the narco state.
You can listen to this episode ad-free over on our Patreon - Follow the link here - or go to Patreon.com and search for It Was What It Was. You will also get access to our World Cup countdown, magazine retrospectives and bonus episodes as well as a monthly Q&A with Rob and Jonathan.
01:39 Colombia's Mindset Before the Match & The Hostile Reception
04:07 The Lineup: Colombia vs Argentina at El Monumental
11:25 The Match Begins: Early Tension & Argentina's Miss
14:05 The Plane Incident: A Bizarre Moment at El Monumental
16:01 GOAL: Rincón Opens the Scoring
17:26 Maturana's Psychological Tactics at Half Time
18:05 GOAL: Asprilla Makes It 2-0
18:47 GOAL: Valencia Volleys In the Third
19:56 GOAL: Asprilla's Exquisite Curler Makes It 4-0
21:00 GOAL: Valencia Completes the Rout - 5-0
22:14 The Monumental Applauds Colombia Off the Pitch
24:32 The Celebrations: 100 Deaths & National Hysteria
30:55 "Now We're F***ed": The Burden of Expectation
33:19 World Champions Before the Tournament Begins
39:25 21 Friendlies & The Cash Grab
44:51 The Dark Side: Meeting With the Cali Cartel
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For us, it's very difficult to accept that there are women in the world who are more beautiful than are women. |
| 0:12.3 | If there is a beauty contest, everybody stays up late to see if she wins, and if she doesn't, we feel cheated. |
| 0:18.0 | We struggle to believe there are prettier women in the world than ours. In cycling, |
| 0:22.0 | we spend the entire year believing our cyclists are the best in the world. And so when it comes to |
| 0:26.9 | the Tour de France and he finishes second, we blame him for being too cocky. Again, this shows that |
| 0:32.5 | Colombians don't know how to lose. We find losing hard to handle, and that's because of our history. |
| 0:39.3 | Well, |
| 0:39.6 | welcome to it was what it was. |
| 0:41.6 | That was the great Francisco Maturano, |
| 0:44.6 | talking about one of the greatest games in World Cup qualifying ever, |
| 0:49.0 | the 5-0 win of Colombia over Argentina. |
| 0:52.2 | Jonathan Yogan, |
| 0:52.8 | pick that quote for us as you go through this fantastic game, |
| 0:58.1 | bit by bit, minute by minute, we're going to unpick it, |
| 1:01.0 | but really also look at the tragic implications in some ways it's going to have the euphoria and hysteria. |
| 1:08.6 | It builds up because we are in the middle of our three-part series on the tragedy of Andres Escobar. |
| 1:15.0 | And these first two episodes are really setting the scene for why we get into a state whereby Andres Escobar is shot dead after a dismal World Cup performance by Colombia in USA in 1994, clearly one of the most significant and tragic |
| 1:30.3 | events in World Cup history ever. So this is all prehistory, it's all context, but it's all |
| 1:35.7 | very relevant. Before we get into that, Jonathan, today, I just want to remind people that we're |
| 1:40.0 | going to have a special edition on this on our Patreon. So do sign up for Patreon. |
| 1:48.7 | It's with Professor Matt Brown. And if you're interested in the intersection between football and Colombian history and society, that is just for you. I mean, we're going to go deep, deep, |
| 1:53.9 | deep into those issues and to why Colombia is the country is and why football plays such a big |
... |
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