Fishing show host boats giant tarpon, asks not to be judged

Paul Worsteling battled the “silver king” for two hours in the Pacific off Colombia. He had hoped to set the tarpon free.

A TV fishing show host has asked social-media followers to withhold judgement after sharing an image showing him posing with a massive tarpon that he landed recently off Colombia.

“BEFORE YOU JUDGE – PLEASE READ THE POST,” Paul Worsteling, of the Australia-based iFish TV, implored via Instagram.

Tarpon, known for their power and spectacular acrobatics, are listed globally as vulnerable. Most anglers release the “silver kings” whenever possible.

Worsteling, who was fishing out of Darien Lodge, said he casted a lure to the tarpon and fought the “beast” for two hours before it was alongside the boat.

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A post shared by Paul Worsteling 🎣 (@ifishtv)

“Unfortunately she fought to the death and could not be revived on the leader,” Worsteling bemoaned.

Worsteling added that tarpon, which range from Virginia to Brazil in the western Atlantic, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, are considered invasive in the Pacific off Colombia. (Their dispersal into the Pacific was via the Panama Canal.)

“The upside to this is Tarpon are an invasive species in Colombia and very much appreciated by the small local community we are staying with,” Worsteling stated Friday. “It’s been an afternoon of joy bringing the fish back and watching as the locals all come together to harvest and distribute the fish.”

Worsteling did not provide a length or weight of the tarpon.

The world record for tarpon, according to the International Game Fish Assn., stands at 286 pounds, 9 ounces. That gargantuan fish was caught in the Atlantic off Rubane, Guinea-Bissau, in 2003.

Colombia vs. Paraguay: Where to watch Copa America, TV channel, streaming

Colombia puts a 23-game unbeaten run on the line in its opener

Colombia faces Paraguay on Monday night as both teams begin their Copa América journey.

Along with Brazil, Colombia is widely expected to advance out of Group D, which also contains Costa Rica.

Paraguay will look to change that narrative on Monday at NRG Stadium in Houston, but it won’t be easy: Los Cafeteros head into this tournament on a 23-match unbeaten run.

Colombia will be looking to win just its second Copa América, and first since 2001.

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These two side met most recently in November, with Colombia securing a 1-0 away win in World Cup qualifying.

In contrast to its opponent on Monday, Paraguay enters the match on a difficult run of form: a win over Panama in the team’s final pre-Copa friendly snapped a four-game winless run for La Albirroja, who have been eliminated in the Copa América quarterfinal in back-to-back tournaments.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the match.

Colombia vs. Paraguay (Copa America)

  • When: Monday, June 24
  • Where: NRG Stadium (Houston, TX)
  • Time: 6 p.m. ET
  • Channel/streaming: FS1 (Watch FREE on Fubo), TUDN, Univision, ViX (Watch on Prime Video)

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Colombia vs. Bolivia: How to watch, live stream

A CONMEBOL power meets a minnow as Colombia and Bolivia finalize their Copa América preparations

One of CONMEBOL’s best sides will take on one hoping to show some growth, as Colombia and Bolivia will face off in a friendly at Rentschler Field in Connecticut.

For both sides, the meeting will be a final tune-up ahead of Copa América. Colombia kicks the tournament off with a Group D clash against Paraguay on June 24, while Bolivia opens its slate in Group C against the U.S. men’s national team one day earlier.

Los Cafeteros will be hoping to build on last week’s 5-1 obliteration of the USMNT to bolster its claims as a serious Copa América contender.

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Under manager Néstor Lorenzo, Colombia has not lost a single match in two years, and boasts serious attacking depth to compliment stars Luis Díaz and James Rodríguez.

Bolivia, meanwhile, will head into the game hoping for a feel-good result. La Verde have won just three times in 15 attempts since the start of 2023.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the match.

Colombia vs. Bolivia (international friendly)

  • When: Saturday, June 15
  • Where: Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field (East Hartford, Conn.)
  • Time: 5 p.m. ET
  • Channel/streaming: Fanatiz (WATCH LIVE)

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Lalas slams ‘shameful and embarrassing’ USMNT display vs. Colombia

The former USMNT defender didn’t hold back

Alexi Lalas has hit out at the U.S. men’s national team for a “shameful and embarrassing” performance against Colombia on Saturday.

The USMNT suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat in a Copa América warm-up, as Los Cafeteros scored three late goals to turn a one-goal lead into a blowout at Commanders Field in Landover, Maryland.

On his “State of the Union” podcast, Lalas held nothing back when reviewing a match that has ramped up the pressure on the team and coach Gregg Berhalter.

“This was a shameful and embarrassing, and to be quite honest, an unacceptable performance,” the former USMNT defender said.

“We were all looking for a reason to believe in this team. For some, a reason to believe in this team again. For some, a reason to believe in the team for the first time. Against elite competition with [World Cup] ’26 in the background, and not only did they not give us that, but the way in which they performed — and I use that term very loosely — I think gives a lot of people pause, and I think brings up a lot of questions.”

Though this group of U.S. players contains many who ply their trade at some of Europe’s biggest clubs, Lalas said there was no evidence of that kind of experience during the game against Colombia.

“There was no authority on the field and when I say authority, I mean authority that comes from a maturity that you expect from some of these players given their pedigree. And there was certainly no confidence/swagger.”

After the game against Colombia, the USMNT now has arguably an even bigger challenge. Berhalter’s side will face Brazil in Orlando on Wednesday in its final tune-up friendly before the Copa América kicks off.

Watch Lalas slam USMNT display vs. Colombia

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Richards admits USMNT must change mentality after Colombia thrashing

The U.S. is looking to bounce back after a humiliating defeat to Colombia

U.S. men’s national team defender Chris Richards has admitted that the team must improve mentally following a humiliating 5-1 defeat to Colombia on Saturday.

The USMNT’s Copa América preparations got off to the worst possible start in Landover, Maryland, as a late collapse saw a one-goal game turn into a thrashing by the South American side.

Individual errors were at least partially to blame on all five Colombia goals, which Richards said could potentially be viewed as a positive.

“Some of the positives that we can take from the game is that we did play with one of the Copa favorites for 65, 70 minutes,” Richards told the media on Monday.

“We watched the tape back, I think almost all of their goals were goals that we gave to them rather than completely being broken down.”

Both Richards and Tim Ream admitted that the USMNT wasn’t up to the task mentally on Saturday, which will need to be corrected quickly with Brazil looming on Wednesday in the team’s final pre-Copa América friendly.

“From being on the field you learn how much these games mean to other teams,” Ream said. “I know we talk about these being friendlies and you’re not playing for three points or moving on in a knockout stage, but you understand and start to get a feel for what those games are going to be like.

“We’re moving into tournament play after this week. So knowing what it means to them, I think it needs to mean as much if not more to us and that goes back to the intangibles, the fight and the will to try to get a result.”

Asked about what needed to change going into the match against Brazil, Richards echoed his teammate’s thoughts on the mental side of the game.

“I think a few things willl need to change, not just structurally but also I think mentality, like Tim spoke about,” the Crystal Palace defender said.

“When you play these types of teams, even if it’s a friendly, you can tell the spirit, the fight that they have. And so I think for me, the one thing that we really need to change is our mentality.”

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Berhalter: USMNT lacked ‘respect for the game of soccer’ in Colombia capitulation

Berhalter, Pulisic, and Turner were beyond frustration after a loss the coach called ‘a wake-up call’ for the USMNT

There are losses, and then there are nightmares.

Saturday’s 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Colombia was the latter for the U.S. men’s national team, leaving Gregg Berhalter’s side chastened just over two weeks before the start of the 2024 Copa América.

“From the 75th minute on, it was I think a lack of respect for our opponent [and] the game of soccer, what we were doing,” Berhalter told reporters at Commanders Field in Landover, Md. “We’re not framing it a lesson learned, we’ll frame it as a wake-up call.”

Berhalter peppered his post-game remarks with the phrase “really disappointing,” calling out the USMNT for its lack of effort and focus. The second half, which saw three Colombia goals in the game’s final 13 minutes, was a particularly frustrating topic.

The late capitulation “overshadows how we got back into the game, how we were aggressive, how we had them on their heels,” said Berhalter. “They were struggling for a moment when it was 2-1, and we weren’t able to capitalize on it, and then the game went to pieces.

“There were some positive chunks of the game, but again, what I’m looking at right now, 5-1? It’s not good enough, that’s for sure.”

Some of the USMNT’s top players concurred, with goalkeeper Matt Turner offering an apology in a post-match interview with TNT before bemoaning the USMNT’s “naivety” on the day in a mixed zone shortly thereafter.

“We really just opened up and allowed them to do exactly what they were planning on doing to us,” explained the New Jersey native. “It’s frustrating, because we knew what we were getting into, and then we didn’t take care of our business… We can’t accept that level of effort from everybody — from all 27 of us and the coaching staff — if we want to have any success this summer.”

Pulisic: USMNT ‘nowhere near the level’ required

Team captain Christian Pulisic said more than once that he would be watching video of the match to pick out all of the issues, but clearly had some facets of a miserable performance in mind.

“It just felt like they were waiting for us to make a mistake and then just kill us in transition. That’s just what happened over and over again,” explained the AC Milan attacker. “We were nowhere near the level we need to play at if we want to win games coming into Copa América.”

Berhalter came back to a collective stumble, reeling off a wide range of issues contributing to Colombia’s goals.

“We can’t just point to one player. It was multiple players, again, not respecting the game of soccer [and] the opponent in that case,” explained the USMNT manager. “Our whole idea was, the space has got to be small. If you make the space big, you’re in trouble. And you saw, as soon as we opened up, it was lights out…

“Go back and check the goals, it’s midfielders not recovering. It’s guys losing the ball in positions when our fullbacks are high. They got hung out to dry on a number of occasions.

“It’s the second phase from a set piece, it’s a miscue on a ball that’s going out of bounds in the first six minutes in the game. So, it’s a collective thing, and the reason why I’m so disappointed is because, guys just didn’t do their job. It’s about your role, your responsibility. We didn’t do that.”

The coach concluded with a summary of the mood in the mixed zone, and surely throughout a fanbase that was expecting the USMNT to compete with one of CONMEBOL’s best.

“It’s a collective performance,” stated Berhalter. “Collectively, we’re not happy.”

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USMNT goalkeeper Turner apologizes to fans after Colombia thrashing

The USMNT No. 1 admitted his side couldn’t match Colombia’s intensity in a blowout loss

U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper Matt Turner offered an apology to fans after his side was crushed 5-1 by Colombia in a friendly on Saturday.

The USMNT got its Copa América preparations off to the worst possible start, as it was thoroughly outplayed at Commanders Field in Landover, Maryland.

Gregg Berhalter’s side was sloppy throughout, and three late Colombia goals turned a narrow defeat into a blowout.

Turner was also at a level below his best, as he was partially to blame on Colombia’s first two goals, and was also yellow carded in the second half for handling the ball outside his box.

“Obviously disappointed in the way we played, the way I played,” Turner said in an interview on TNT after the game.

“Everybody needs to look in the mirror after that game and figure it out because obviously that’s not the level that’s required to compete.”

As the USMNT aims to improve ahead of Wednesday’s game against Brazil, Turner had some strong words on his side’s display Saturday.

“We can’t get too hung up, we have a game in another couple of days,” the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper said. “And it’s important for us to be able to respond. When you look forward to tournaments, it’s not always going to be perfect, and you have to figure out the ways to get the job done.

“Today we didn’t have any answers for the way Colombia changed themselves, changed the way they pressed. And they just had a different intensity about them that we didn’t have for the game.

“So it’s really, really disappointing in front of such a great crowd to perform like that, so I want to apologize to the fans as well, because that’s not what we’re about and we need to bounce back in a big way.”

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Three thoughts as Colombia hammers USMNT in Copa America tune-up

The U.S. men’s national team is off to the worst possible start in its preparation for Copa América. Gregg Berhalter’s side was hammered 5-1 by Colombia in the first of two pre-Copa friendlies on Saturday, as the USMNT conceded five goals in a game …

The U.S. men’s national team is off to the worst possible start in its preparation for Copa América.

Gregg Berhalter’s side was hammered 5-1 by Colombia in the first of two pre-Copa friendlies on Saturday, as the USMNT conceded five goals in a game for the first time since 2009.

The USMNT went down two goals within the first 20 minutes and though Tim Weah gave his side a second-half lifeline, Los Cafeteros mercilessly exploited several late U.S. errors to score three goals late.

It won’t get any easier now for the USMNT: Next up is Brazil, the final warm-up game before the Copa América begins.

Before moving on to the match in Orlando, let’s consider three takeaways from Saturday’s game at Commanders Field in Maryland.

Even though he has often been on the bench and/or out of form at the club level, Matt Turner has generally brought his best to the USMNT over the past few years.

Unfortunately for Turner, that appears to be changing.

The Nottingham Forest keeper was beat at his near post for Colombia’s opener — admittedly a difficult shot to stop from close range. But there were even more questions on Colombia’s second.

Rafael Santos Borré’s bicycle kick was extravagantly executed, but it was also a shot that an international starter would expect to save. Turner didn’t.

Midway through the second half, Turner was whistled for handling the ball outside his area — a basic mistake that led to a yellow card.

Questionable goals allowed have become a trend for Turner with the USMNT of late. Jamaica’s opener in the Nations League could have been saved, and a Trinidad & Tobago goal in November was simply a howler.

Could we see Ethan Horvath against Brazil? It doesn’t seem out of the question at this point.

The USMNT can only hope that it got all of its suicidal errors out of the way before the Copa América started.

All five of Colombia’s goals can be at least partially blamed on individual errors by the USMNT, and there were plenty more mistakes that very nearly turned into even more goals against.

Johnny Cardoso and Tim Ream had a miscommunication on Colombia’s opener, and the latter’s giveaway led to the second goal — featuring an unmarked Santos Borré scoring on the aforementioned Turner error.

The wheels truly fell off in the second half. All three of Colombia’s late goals were directly from giveaways, with Johnny Cardoso, Tim Weah and Cameron Carter-Vickers (with Ricardo Pepi failing to check back enough) the culpable parties.

It’s bad enough to conceded five goals, but Berhalter will feel even more frustrated when he reviews the film and sees how all of them were at least somewhat self-inflicted.

If the USMNT is going to make any noise at the Copa América (or the World Cup for that matter) it is going to have to overcome an increasingly vexing issue for Berhalter: beating good teams.

Per the Elo rating system, the USMNT has not beat a top-25 team outside of Concacaf since Berhalter took charge in 2019.

Saturday saw another opportunity go by the wayside, as sixth-rated Colombia never looked like the team that would break Berhalter’s streak.

The U.S. has another chance on Tuesday against third-rated Brazil, and yet another in its final Copa América group-stage game against Uruguay.

The way the USMNT performed on Saturday, it’s hard to see that streak being halted.

Colombia’s Santos Borre scores incredible bicycle kick goal vs. USMNT

Colombia produced a true golazo against the USMNT

Colombia brought some magic to Commanders Field, much to the chagrin of the U.S. men’s national team.

Rafael Santos Borré contorted himself to produce a spectacular overhead kick as los Cafeteros took on the USMNT in a friendly on Saturday.

With Colombia already leading 1-0 after an early Jhon Arias goal, a short-corner routine initially seemed to have fizzled out. Arias’ intial service towards the middle of the goalmouth found only Tim Ream, but the veteran center back’s header popped the ball more or less straight up into the air.

Crystal Palace midfielder Jefferson Lerma took advantage, rising over defenders Joe Scally and Johnny Cardoso to bravely keep the play alive.

Still, most of the work had yet to be done. Santos Borré was spinning away from the U.S. goal before he even saw Lerma’s header coming his way.

The Internacional forward had to improvise, and what followed was stupendous. The 28-year-old twisted himself before jumping up to thump the ball past Matt Turner in the 19th minute.

Turner may look back and think this was a save he could have made, but the decidedly pro-Colombia crowd in Landover, Md. wasn’t concerned one bit.

The golazo ended up being a match-winner for Colombia, though the CONMEBOL powers didn’t exactly need a wonder-goal to get the job done. A miserable second half from the USMNT saw Colombia run out 5-1 winners.

Watch Santos Borré’s bicycle kick

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USMNT vs. Colombia: How to watch friendly, TV channel, live stream

The USMNT will get a major test against Colombia, whose last loss came over two years ago

The U.S. men’s national team will get a real test heading into Copa América as it squares off with Colombia just outside of Washington, D.C.

The USMNT has been open about how important it will be to contend for a first-ever Copa América success, especially given the caliber of teams involved.

Los Cafeteros rank right up there with any team from CONMEBOL, and are themselves a major contender to win this summer’s major tournament.

USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter will want to measure his side against a top opponent, but he also enters this match with a major puzzle to solve. Sergiño Dest’s knee injury has left the team without a clear answer at right back, and the U.S. could possibly test a new formation to address the issue.

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Colombia, meanwhile, will be looking to fine-tune an eclectic roster featuring players whose clubs are in four different confederations.

Since Néstor Lorenzo was appointed the team’s head coach in June 2022, Colombia has not lost, posting a 14W-5D-0L record that includes wins over powers like Brazil and Spain. One of those five draws is a scoreless clash with the USMNT back in January 2023.

Following Wednesday’s friendly against Brazil, the USMNT will start the Copa América on June 23. The U.S. is in Group C alongside Uruguay, Panama, and Bolivia. Meanwhile, Colombia awaits its start in Group D, where Brazil, Paraguay, and Costa Rica are the competition.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the match.

USMNT vs. Colombia (international friendly)

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