Remembering when USMNT, Colombia battled for 3rd place at 1995 Copa America

For those who have kept tabs on the United States men's national team since the 1990s, the Copa America Centenario probably feels eerily similar to the 1995 Copa America.

Twenty-one years ago, the USMNT journeyed to Uruguay and made history, leaving the Copa America with a fourth-place finish. Along the way, the team defeated Chile in what was its first win over a South American team in South America in 65 years, stunned Argentina with a 3-0 victory, and triumphed over Mexico on penalty kicks.

However, the USMNT completed the Copa America in less than glamorous fashion, as its 1-0 loss to Brazil in the semi-finals set up a third-place match in which Steve Sampson's side fell 4-1 to Colombia.

The North Americans were, quite understandably, drained from playing only two days earlier and for the sixth time in 16 days. Sampson made several changes to his starting XI, opting for the likes of Mike Lapper, Mike Sorber, Jovan Kirovski, and John Kerr, but the alterations did nothing to stop an inevitable thrashing.

"Unfortunately, we had to play a third-place game that none of us wanted to play," Sampson said. "As much as we would have loved to come away with a bronze medal, the players were exhausted."

Colombia took the pitch with Carlos Valderrama, Faustino Asprilla, and Freddy Rincon, all of whom found the back of the net after Luis Manuel Quinonez opened the scoring in the 30th minute. Asprilla's goal came after Rene Higuita, the most eccentric 'keeper in the history of football, rocketed a free-kick off the crossbar. The USMNT's Joe-Max Moore converted a penalty kick, but it was merely consolation.

"(Colombia) had some wonderful players," Brad Friedel, between the posts for the USMNT that day, said. "They were a strong, strong team back then. I think most people agree that they underperformed at the 1994 World Cup. Playing in Copa America was their next opportunity to try to put that performance right. Losing to us in the World Cup, no matter whether we played them in a friendly, a consolation game, a third-fourth place game, they were going to try to not lose to us."

As coincidence would have it, the USMNT and Colombia will battle it out for third place once again on Saturday when, in the Copa America Centenario's third-place match, they meet at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Although the USMNT will have had four days of rest and will be playing its sixth match in 22 days, the rematch will see Jurgen Klinsmann experiment with his starting XI to some degree, even if it's not quite to the extent of Sampson's changes for the third-place match in 1995.

Tim Howard will start in goal, while Fabian Johnson and John Brooks are both nursing injuries.

The USMNT was able to sweep its defeat to Colombia in 1995 under the rug, not just because it could be easily blamed on exhaustion, but because access to the team's fixtures was limited - the Internet and social media were in their infancy. Should Klinsmann's side suffer a similar result against Los Cafeteros on Saturday, it will be a poor finale to an encouraging performance at the Copa America Centenario, on display for an entire country to see.