Colombia finished its last training session on Thursday in Kansas City with the starting eleven still under wraps, and the only real debate left was up front. Néstor Lorenzo said even the players did not yet know the lineup, leaving Jhon Córdoba as the favorite to lead the attack and Luis Javier Suárez as the live alternative.
That uncertainty matters because this was Colombia's final workout before the match against Ghana, the point at which most of the XI had already taken shape in public view. The pattern that has repeated keeps Camilo Vargas in goal, Dávinson Sánchez and Jhon Lucumí at center back, Jefferson Lerma and Gustavo Puerta in the double pivot, and James Rodríguez, Jhon Arias and Luis Díaz in attack, while Daniel Muñoz and Johan Mojica are again the likely full-backs after the previous rotation.
The Federación Colombiana de Fútbol then set Lorenzo's press conference for Arrowhead Stadium and a later mixed zone with images at Sporting KC Stadium, giving the day a formal final-stop feel without solving the one question that still matters. In that setting, the coach's decision to hold back the lineup was not a tease but a sign that the last call had not been made.
That is where the choice between Córdoba and Suárez becomes the story. Córdoba starts as the favorite because the structure points that way, but Suárez remains available if Lorenzo wants a different profile at center forward, and the switch would be the only change in a plan that otherwise looks settled. The rest of the team has been mapped out closely enough that the No. 9 role is now the last moving part.
By the time Lorenzo speaks at Arrowhead Stadium, the question should no longer be whether Colombia has prepared enough. It is whether he keeps the preferred shape intact or uses Suárez to alter the last piece of the attack before Ghana.
