Picture courtesy of El
Comercio of Quito,Ecuador
|
Ecuador: Jose Cevallos; Ulises De la Cruz,
Augusto Poroso, Ivan Hurtado, Marlon Ayovi; Alfonso Obregón, Jimmy
Blandón, Clever Chala, Alex Aguinaga; Eduardo Hurtado, Agustin Delgado
DT: Hernán Gómez. Perú: Oscar Ibáñez; Jorge Soto, Miguel Rebosio, Juan Pajuelo, Percy Olivares; Jose "Chemo" Del Solar, Juan Jayo, Nolberto "ñol" Solano, Roger Serrano, Roberto Palacios; Claudio Pizarro DT: Francisco Maturana. Ecuador Subs: Burbano x Aguinaga, Graziani x I.Hurtado, Kaviedes x Delgado Peru Subs: Soria x Serrano, Zuñiga x Olivares, Ciurlizza x Jayo Gols: Chala ("14 1st H), I.Hurtado ("5 2nd H) *Ecuador* Pajuelo("35 2nd H) *PERU* Stadium: "Olimpico Atahualpa" Quito, Ecuador 2800 meters above sea level Attendance: 45,000 fans |
| The game started very slow, Ecuador quickly grabbed possetion of the ball, and began making threads on Peru's goal. Aguinaga and Hurtado began quick passes, and the Peruvian team looked tired, people around the Criollo began to think if it was a estrategy so that as to not get tiredbut unfortunately that was not the case. In the 14th minute a ball squeezes through the Peruvian defense and puts Clever Chala in a scoring chance where the Ecuadorian manages to kick the ball towards the Peruvian Net, Oscar Ivanez came close in deviating the ball but his efforts came to nothing. Ecuador was enjoing it, an early goal that brought down all of "Pacho" Maturana's tactics. Atahualpa Stadium was shining yellow and also many smiles. At "El Criollo" many ecuadorians were celebrating, something i find hard to understand because most of them play volleyball, and do not practise soccer that often unlike peruvians, who gather everyweek at Branch Brook Park. Pacho made a big mistake when he took out Roger Serrano, whom has been playing at high altitues for he plays for Cienciano, 3000 meters above sea level, of the Peruvian Soccer League. Soria enterd but made no contribution. Personally i thought this was not Pacho, what was going on through his head? was he afraid of taking out Juan Jayo, Roberto Palacios or Jose Del solar? I really think that Pacho had personal preferences just like Juan Carlos Oblitas did in the last Qualifiers with players like Reynoso,Carty and Maestri, i am sorry if i am wrong but i hope Pacho gives an explanation. | Anyhow, Ecuador
grew little by little, Peru looked confused, their passes were going outta
the field or into the wrong players. Ecuador, inspired by their public
rotated the ball around the midfield and controlled the ball brilliantly.
At the 34" minute Agustin Delgado received a chest-pass from Aguinaga and
had a clear one-on-one opportunity that keeper Ibanez magnificintly blocked.
I thought Ecuador was going to win big time. On a counterattack Palacios
took a shot that Cevallos deviated to a corner kick. Other than that Peru
did nothing else in the 1st half. Ecuador came out deserving the 1-0 score.The
second half started as Olivares was sunstituted by forward Israel Zuniga,
apparently he played knowing he was not able to give 100%, which I personally
dislike, Olivares please if you cannot endure give other a chance, I respect
you and admire along with Chemo, Pizarro, Maestri and Solano, but next
time think about don't play when you cannot.
Ecuador received a direct kick from about 30 yards, although it deflected in the barrier, Eduardo "El Tanque" Hurtado picked the loose ball, shotted and place the ball far towards Ibanez's right. Hurtado screamed so loud, as well as the whole city of Quito rejoyced. Peru was destroyed in their heart. The happyness that Ecuadorians had did not last too much as Peru deeply wounded in it's heart, had courage, had e guts to get up and bounced back. |
As the time was running
Gomez , Ecuador's manager, replaced the heart and soul of the team by replacing
Aguinaga by Borbano, Grazianni for Eduardo Hurtado and Kaviedes for Agustin
Delgado. Peru took advantage of this began cosntructing dangerous instances.
At the "35 minute of the second half a indirect kick charged by Solano
was headed in by Juan Pajuelo to open up the Peruvian score. At "El Criollo"
hundreds of fans like me were jumping up and down, to celebrate to scream
outloud "hey we can score here too, yeahp that's my country" we didn't
care how many ecuadorians were at the Criollo, they can somewhere else
if they do not like it, too bad. Although Peru outplayed Ecuador in the
last 20 minutes, time was playing against Peru too. |
 whom
i give a great efforts, missed the goal when he shotted the ball and went
touching the horizontal post out of bound. The time had come, misteriusly
it ended at exactly 45 minutes with no additional time. In conclusion Ecuador
played okay, but did not deserve to win, and this is not like if Peru played
well, because it's totally false, Peru was terrible, completely confused,
one of the worst performances since the early '90s. However, this score
could have been much more if Ecuador wanted to, but they stayed happy with
the victory. Now Peru has to confront a very wounded Colombia that has
lost to Argentina. It's going to be a hard game, but PERU most...i repeat
most WIN in order to dream, in order to have that illusion of saying "yes
it can be done" or in spanish "si se puede". See you on July 19th from
Monumental Stadium in Peru, which is the most beautiful Stadium in South
America. |