Nobody scored for 120 minutes in Vancouver, which meant Switzerland and Colombia's Round of 16 matchup came down to the cruelest format in sports: 5 shots a side, sudden death if it goes long. Colombia fans showed up ready for a party, and pregame energy around the team was electric before a ball was even kicked.
That confidence made sense given how the match played out for 2 full hours without a goal. But shootouts don't care about vibes, and Colombia's night unraveled fast once the penalties started. Davinson Sanchez clanked one off the crossbar and Cucho Hernandez had his attempt flat-out robbed by Swiss keeper Gregor Kobel, who guessed right and dove to his glove side. Manuel Akanji missed one for the Swiss too, but it didn't matter -- Colombia needed to be perfect and wasn't.
How do you miss that Colombia?!?! #KingsCup
Rubén Vargas stepped up and buried the clincher, sending Switzerland through 4-3 on penalties and sparking a full-team sprint to the corner flag. It's the kind of moment that gets replayed for days, and Barstool's own feed had the shootout and the celebration in full.
Switzerland finishes off the shootout and the bench empties in celebration.
This isn't just another quarterfinal for Switzerland -- it's their first trip that deep into a World Cup since 1954, over 7 decades of near-misses and early exits finally broken. And the reward for pulling it off is about as brutal as it gets: a date with defending champion Argentina and Lionel Messi, still the biggest name in the sport even as this tournament winds toward its final stages.
Colombia, meanwhile, heads home with nothing to show for a scoreless, chance-starved night against a Swiss side that simply didn't blink when it mattered. Missed penalties from 2 different Colombian players will be the story locally for a while, fair or not -- shootouts have a way of reducing 120 minutes of work to a handful of gut-check kicks. For Switzerland, the reward is a shot at the sport's biggest star with a spot in the semis on the line.