London Olympics: Colombian soap star aims to clean up against U.S.

LONDON — Colombia is a decided underdog against the U.S. in its second-round group-play match in women’s soccer Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland.

But forward Orianica Velasquez believes the team has a Cinderella performance in it and, given the path she’s taken to the Olympic Games, she knows a thing or two about Cinderella stories.

Velasquez, who will begin her senior season at Indiana University in the fall, was identified as a real soccer player while playing Betty, a ficitional one, on Colombian TV.

A high school classmate at Bogota’s Colegio Americano, who was an actress, asked Velasquez to audition for a walk-on role in a soccer-themed teen soap opera called “Juego Limpio” (or “Fair Play”). She not only got the part, but when Coach Ricardo Rozo saw it, he was so impressed with Velasquez’s skills he recruited her to the Colombian national team.

“I did that for a year and I was famous for a little while,” Valesquez said of her TV turn. “It was a great experience and people still recognize me because of my character.”

“What I want, though, is to become famous for a second time through doing well in soccer and I hope I can make that happen,” she said.

Velasquez’s move from the stage to the pitch has worked out well for everyone: She got an education and a new language; Indiana Coach Mick Lyon got the school’s first soccer Olympian, a player who has scored 19 goals in three season, fifth-most in school history; and Rozo got a player who has 13 international caps for Colombia, including two in last summer’s World Cup where she was named Player of the Match in a scoreless draw with North Korea.

But the other World Cup match was a 3-0 loss to the U.S. in group play. And after losing, 2-0, in a rematch with North Korea in its Olympic opener Wednesday, Colombia looks to be little more than a speed bump again for the Americans.

Not so fast, warns Velasquez.

“I think we can win the match,” she said of Saturday’s group-play game. “You have to think that you can do impossible things and we have to play with that belief.

“I know that the U.S. is physical and they have a great team with many Olympians, so it is going to be a different level for us.”

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