This article seeks to reconstruct and interpret the discourses and narratives elaborated during the elimination of the Colombian soccer team that participated in the 1990 FIFA World Cup Italy. This exercise proposes some thoughts on the social mechanisms to cope with defeat, and it is based on the analysis and organization of press articles and audiovisual resources of speeches given by players and sports journalists. With this information, we reconstruct the symbolic value assigned to the defeat and participation of Colombia in that competition. This research allows us to observe the rhetorical, aesthetic, and ethical role that can be elaborated from defeat and its relationship with collective identities in the sports field.