James Rodriguez described Colombia's opening win at the 2026 World Cup as a "great feeling that money can't buy".

Colombia beat Uzbekistan 3-1 at Mexico City Stadium on Wednesday thanks to goals from Daniel Munoz, Luis Diaz and Jaminton Campaz.

Colombia are now unbeaten in their last four World Cup matches (W3 D1), equalling their longest undefeated streak in the tournament (W4 in 2014). They have only lost two of their previous 10 matches (W7 D1) dating back to 2014.

The victory also saw Colombia move to the top of Group K following the first round of fixtures, after Portugal were held to an unexpected 1-1 draw by DR Congo.

James was delighted with Colombia's win over Uzbekistan, while he also took a subtle dig at other teams who did not perform as expected.

"This match was something unique, like it was my first game, seeing all this when the anthem played, it's a great feeling that money can't buy. I'm happy about that," James told ESPN.

"I'm happy because we played a good game. The first game is always tough to win; there are several teams that couldn't win against teams that are supposedly 'easy'.

"I think we played a good game and finished the day well.

"They are tactically strong and were sitting deep, so I dropped back a bit to try and thread passes through, and Jhon [Arias] and [Gustavo] Puerta used that space to play between the lines.

"That's easy when you have these guys next to you, who have unique quality."

Countries from Asia have lost 13 of their 14 World Cup debut matches – the only exception was Kuwait’s 1-1 draw against Czechia (then Czechoslovakia) in 1982.

However, both Uzbekistan and Jordan scored on their debuts in 2026, a feat only previously achieved by Kuwait in 1982 and Saudi Arabia in 1994 (1-2 vs Netherlands) among Asia’s debutants.

Fabio Cannavaro, who became only the fourth individual in history to have won a Ballon d'Or and participated in a World Cup as both a player and a manager, believes his side were nervous ahead of their competition debut.

"It was their first match [in a World Cup] and it took them a while to understand where they were, the atmosphere in the stadium wasn't easy," said Cannavaro.

"We played in Mexico, but it was like playing in Colombia with all the people who were here.

"It's tough; losing 3-1 is tough. [The players] were too nervous. In the first half they only thought about defending, in the second half they didn't."