Colombia beat Haiti 3-1 in a friendly match with goals from Dayro Moreno, Juan Guillermo Cuadrado and Roger Martínez for Columbia, the world’s fourth-ranked men’s soccer team. Wilde-Donald Guerrier scored the only goal for Haiti in front of a reported crowd of 20,107 fans at Marlins Park in Miami.
Haiti, ranked 71st by FIFA played hard and shocked the crowd of mostly Colombia fans by tying the score 1-1 on a goal by Wilde-Donald Guerrier in the 35th minute who took a corner kick from Jeff Louis and placed the ball to the left of Ospina. It was Guerrier’s eighth career goal for Haiti.
Five minutes later, however, midfielder Max Hilaire was ejected for a second yellow card, forcing Haiti to play a man short for the final 51 minutes.
“That was a big handicap,” said Haiti coach Patrice Neveu, 62, a France native who took over the team last year. Undermanned on the field, underrated perhaps in the rankings and overwhelmed by the fans who rocked Marlins Park, Haiti was unable to hold off Colombia in the second half.
Both teams used the match to prepare for the 100th anniversary of Copa America, which begins Friday for Colombia against the United States in Santa Clara, California and Haiti against Peru on Saturday in Seattle.
