Peruvian Football

[ccfctommy]

I remember when we signed Ysrael Zuniga years ago, quite liked him. Nippy little forward. I think we signed him from Melgar?

How is the national team of Peru these days?

 

[lordofthepies]

Zuniga is 39. It's ridiculous that not only is he still playing but he's still doing well.

 

[Libertadores FC]

German Alemanno, was there ever a more cringey name lol, is he in anyway German?
Gutted, I like Aurich

Yeah its a dodgy name. Especially if you know Spanish. It literally translates to "German German"

 

[Libertadores FC]

I remember when we signed Ysrael Zuniga years ago, quite liked him. Nippy little forward. I think we signed him from Melgar?

How is the national team of Peru these days?

Our national team had a great Copa America but the qualifiers have been less than convincing so far. Doubt we'll make the World Cup this time around which is a shame.

Zuniga is back at Melgar and as Pies says he isn't doing badly either. He just managed to win the league too.

 

[Megaclyde]

Yeah its a dodgy name. Especially if you know Spanish. It literally translates to "German German"

Exactly haha, it made me laugh, like one of them families with minor German heritage doing everything they can to pretend they're not Peruvian (I know hes Argentine)

 

[Libertadores FC]

Universitario kick off away to Ayacucho, and I couldn't be more excited. We've reinforced well, got rid of all the worst players and I think we could really push for the title this time around.

Peruvian media really makes me laugh though. An article showed up on my Facebook saying that Ronaldinho was an Alianza Lima fan. I didn't even bother clicking on it

 

[Libertadores FC]

Universitario win the first game of the season 5-2! Great away win. Ayacucho are just terrible and I was super impressed by us. Guastavino with a great debut match scoring a hattrick and Rengifo was great once he came on scoring a goal that Alemanno would have definitely missed.

Here are the goals

 

[Libertadores FC]

Guastavino is a fantastic player for the Peruvian league. I'm so happy to have him back. He's excellent. The other day we came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 against Juan Aurich. Fernandez is out for 6 months unfortunately. Hopefully our backup goalkeeper can do a job until he comes back.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Terrible performance for Universitario on saturday. Its been the worst match out of the first 4. I don't buy the excuse that there is altitude in Huancayo either. Yeah its high up, but there was altitude in Ayacucho as well, where we scored 5. I understand that Huancayo are far superior to Ayacucho, but our performance was just so so poor compared to that match, that I say there was no excuse to not win that. They could have beaten us if they had buried their chances. Thank goodness its just Huancayo.

In other news, Melgar continue their awful home form by losing to Juan Aurich. Ubierna scored an absolutely brilliant goal.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Went to our game today.

But before I go on with the match, I think I should talk about some of my experiences today outside and inside the stadium

Firstly, walking in La Victoria for the first time in forever was interesting. Had a phone on me so I had to keep my hands in my pockets so that I didn't get mugged there was horse shit all over outside the stadium. I hate stepping on shit, as I believe most people do, so I had to mostly pay attention to the ground. That area in Lima isn't great. Centro is right next to La Victoria as is the stadium. Thankfully I was in a group so I wasn't in too much danger, but I had to make security checks for myself as that area of the city isn't great. In the stadium though, when the game was beginning we had a moment of silence, and while that was going on all that you could hear was a seller yelling "ICE CREAM". Disrespectful from him I know that isn't too interesting but I did find it hilarious when everyone was trying to have a moment of silence and he's still yelling just to sell ice cream that would've probably given you many stomach problems. Lastly, the taxi I took back felt like it was going to break down. A lot of the taxi's there played real life GTA I swear

But anyways enough of that. Now for the match. A comfortable and easy win for Universitario. Alianza posed a slight threat at times, but they were too lightweight and could never finish their chances. They started attacking a lot when we were up 3-0, and managed to score 1. Universitario just didn't try after the 3rd goal like most teams usually don't. And they should in my opinion, because that's the way to win. Like Germany, they're ruthless. They'll keep on scoring even after its 5-0. They don't care, they'll keep going. Enough about that though. The player of the match for me was Polo. He gave Alianza Atletico's defence nightmares. If I'm correct he would have scored the second if Ruidiaz didn't get that very slight touch. Guastavino didn't play as well as other days but he did play well and he scored as usual. Trauco was also class. He's been a very good signing for us. Shame he wasn't called up to Peru. I agree that Advincula and Yotun are better than him but I still think he deserved to at least get called up even if he didn't play as he's been probably our second best player this season. I'm very happy with how we're playing this season. We've definitely taking a big step forward from a horrendous 2015 campaign. I'm pretty confident now that we'll win the league, but of course we do need to see how we do against Cristal and even Alianza Lima.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Scored this great header playing some footy today. Let us remember the great Freddy Torrealba.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Time to talk about our season. Haven't said much so far yet, but we're absolutely killing it this season. We've been class and I've been dreaming of the title.

Roberto Challe has completely changed this side. We were fighting relegation most of last year, and now we're a couple points clear. We almost did win the Clausura last year though, but the squad wasn't ready as Ruidiaz was winning the title by himself. Challe's got us playing beautiful football, while not comparing the 2 standards, its as fun to watch as Liverpool in 2013-14. Its a joy to watch as we always very dangerous on the break. Not giving teams a moment to breath here. Losing only 1 game so far understandably in the high altitude of Cuzco against a decent Real Garcilaso side. Our worst match so far has to be the 2-2 draw against Juan Aurich, but even there we came back to draw 2-2 after being 2 down, and it showed our fight there. We didn't give up and kept going. 1 defeat in the Apertura so far, and by far the best Peruvian team.

Beating Alianza was an amazing feeling. If I'm correct we haven't beat them since 2013? I'm not sure what the exact fact there is but we've had some disgraceful matches against them in the last 2 years and we've been poorer than them in the league as well. Getting one over your historic rivals is a great feeling, especially after the fans caused the game to be suspended after the first half. They were an embarrassment but as for the match overall, we didn't batter them as I would have liked but we looked a lot more dangerous on the break than them. Alianza Lima is still far from a title winning team, and their manager speaks a load of shit. Like when he said that he can sign Lionel Messi or that Sheput plays like Cesar Cueto. Not a bad manager by any means though, however he's a bit delusional.

This title run is no fluke either. Massive changes in the squad over the break, and its made a huge difference. First off, we got rid of all the shit players, like German Alemanno, who was the blooper king. We've replaced him with Hernan Rengifo who is a very experienced striker and has played at NT level, and while he doesn't always play due to Ruidiaz being the first choice, he's done well when he actually did play. Bringing back Guastavino was an excellent decision as well. Part of our 2013 title winning squad, and he's by a mile the best player in the country. Shame he isn't Peruvian, could have done well for our NT. He's just a player that's too good for this league and we have to keep him at any cost. He didn't play in the 2014 Libertadores campaign for us, because he left after we won the league. We NEED to keep him, and with him we have a genuine chance of advancing from our Libertadores group should we qualify. Depending of our group of course, we can do much better than those bottlers at Sporting Cristal. The only one in our squad who isn't doing great is Braynner Garcia. Not been very impressed with him. In goal, we now have Caceda who has been taking over the role of the injured Raul Fernandez. He's been very impressive. I thought we were in trouble without Fernandez but he's been proving me wrong. Caceda has been a revelation.

I'm dreaming of the title. It may not mean much to some of you because you'll think the Peruvian league isn't very important, but winning the title makes any fan happy. For example, the Scottish league is pretty bad, but I'm sure it will mean the world to Aberdeen fans if they won it. After 2 years of disappointment, mismanagement, and just being a laughingstock of a club, I'm delighted at how we're doing this year, its all thanks to one man though and his name is Roberto Challe. He's changed the club completely, what seemed a very difficult task to turn us around, he's done it and I couldn't be happier with the job he is doing here.

Y Dale U!

 

[Libertadores FC]

Another great win. Win against Cristal on Sunday and we are champions!

 

[Libertadores FC]

A 1-0 win over Sporting Cristal sees Universitario the Apertura champions.

I don't even know where to begin. Its been a ride. We've played some great stuff ever since Challe arrived, and with the reinforcements we made, and also getting rid of shit players like German Alemanno and Maxi Giusti, and replacing them with good players like Diego Guastavino and Hernan Rengifo, we were always going to win the Apertura. Losing only 1 game against Real Garcilaso in the altitude of Cusco, I can't express how great we've been. The last 3 games we've won using a B team! The big one was against Sporting Cristal where we were missing our 2 best players and we still managed to win it relatively easily, and by that I mean we outplayed them because they did have a few chances. We've one it with 1 match left (2 if you want to count the game in hand against Melgar) and we've proven that even without Guastavino and Ruidiaz, we can still win the league.

Now we aren't "league champions" yet, that is handed out at the end of the year should we win in the final against whoever wins the Clausura (I think that's how they decided to do it this year) but I'm still buzzing because we've made some great progress since 2013. In 2013, we won the league and then turned to shit. From Comizzo fucking off randomly as the manager, to Chemo Del Solar getting close to a title win only to lose to Leon de Huanuco at home 2-0 basically gifting Aurich the title, to Del Solar becoming a director at the club then hiring his mate Ibanez as manager who did terribly, to having little to no research done on Luis Fernando Suarez and then hiring him as a manager, to him fucking off as a director. Since Chemo has left the club, we've been great.

The last 3 years were painful. I knew we would become shit after the Copa Libertadores match against Velez. We may have almost won that match if Ruidiaz had not missed a close header that should have been a goal, but the performance was absolutely dreadful. Then we did terribly in the Copa del Inca. Getting 1 point in our Copa Libertadores group of Velez Sarsfield, The Strongest and Atletico Paranaense is embarrassing. Atletico Paranaense were a very poor Brazilian side and we should be beating Bolivian sides at home. That was only a foreshadowing of what was then to come. Chemo did alright in the Apertura, but then he decided to become a director and we were awful since then. We may have not fought relegation in 2014, but the truth is we were poor. Even during the Chemo Del Solar as manager stage. The Ibanez stage was awful, the Clausura of 2014 looked somewhat promising for some but I knew we were getting lucky early results, and we wouldn't win the league. Sure enough I was right and a 2-0 away loss to Union Comercio pretty much sealed the deal in that we weren't winning the Clausura. Then in 2015, things got worse. We were fighting relegation for the first half the year, and I wasn't sure how to feel that even a world cup manager in Luis Fernando Suarez couldn't save us. He was a very defensive manager and decided to play just like he did for Honduras in the World Cup for us. A lot of our fans got excited in the Copa Sudamericana 2015 after we beat Anzoategui 3-1, but in truth, they were struggling in Venezuela as well, so it wasn't an achievement. We got found out when get got battered by Defensor 4-0 on aggregate and we were out by then. However then Roberto Challe arrived and things changed from there. We very nearly won the Clausura and the only reason we couldn't win it was because we simply didn't have the quality and we relied on good games from Raul Ruidiaz to carry us. It was a hard 3 years, but for those who were patient we got our reward for waiting in winning the Apertura, and now we're hoping to win the league at the end of the year. We've had so many poor players in the last 3 years, From Cris Martinez, to German Alemanno, to Maxi Giusti, and there were many others. Of course there were some decent signings, I like Henry Gimenez and even Grossmuller. In the last 3 years, the worst was probably Cris Martinez. I criticize Alemanno a lot, but at least Alemanno knew how to get in position. All Cris Martinez did was get sent off and not have any sort of impact towards the game.

Its been a great season but we aren't done. I don't know how we'll perform in the Clausura but we do have the Copa Sudamericana, and as long as we don't get Lanus in the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana, I'm confident we can reach quarter finals just like Cesar Vallejo did 2 years back. We've been far above anyone in Peru, and we can definitely surprise a few teams.

 

[MJA]

Nice write up Lib and good to see your team doing so well.

I am far from accustomed to any South American club football so I was just wondering what the Apertura and Clausura relate to? Are they simply 2 separate divisions within the Peruvian league structure?

 

[Libertadores FC]

Nice write up Lib and good to see your team doing so well.

I am far from accustomed to any South American club football so I was just wondering what the Apertura and Clausura relate to? Are they simply 2 separate divisions within the Peruvian league structure?

Cheers!

The Apertura is the opening stage, and the Clausura is the closing stage. Basically the winner of both play a final at the end of the year and the winner of that wins the league.

I believe that's how they're doing it this year, the Peruvian format changes every year.

 

[MJA]

The Apertura is the opening stage, and the Clausura is the closing stage. Basically the winner of both play a final at the end of the year and the winner of that wins the league.

So do teams only compete in one or the other of those during the course of the 'normal' season and then the winner of each basically plays a winner takes all match at the end of the season?

 

[Libertadores FC]

So do teams only compete in one or the other of those during the course of the 'normal' season and then the winner of each basically plays a winner takes all match at the end of the season?

The apertura is basically the first half and the clausura is the second.

For example, Universitario would play Union Comercio at home in the Apertura, and then play them again away from home in the Clausura.

The winner of the Apertura plays the winner of the Clausura at the end, so yeah its a winner takes all.

 

[MJA]

The apertura is basically the first half and the clausura is the second.

For example, Universitario would play Union Comercio at home in the Apertura, and then play them again away from home in the Clausura.

The winner of the Apertura plays the winner of the Clausura at the end, so yeah its a winner takes all.

Ohhhh I see now. That means one team could win both the Apertura and the Clausura then? Assume that just means they win everything without the need for the final match?

 

[Libertadores FC]

Ohhhh I see now. That means one team could win both the Apertura and the Clausura then? Assume that just means they win everything without the need for the final match?

I'm not sure if they win everything without the final match. The Peruvian format changes every year, so I may be wrong but I believe that's how they are doing it this year. And yeah one team wins both the Apertura and the Clausura. Both winners play the final.

Last year, there was an early year tournament called Torneo del Inca, the winner of that went to a semi, and the winners of the Apertura, Clausura and best aggregate table who are not yet qualified went to a semi final. Last year it was Cristal, Cesar Vallejo, Melgar and Real Garcilaso. Cristal won the Apertura, Cesar Vallejo won the Torneo Del Inca, Melgar won the Clausura and Real Garcilaso was the best aggregate table team who haven't qualified yet. 2 years ago they had the Torneo del Inca but just had that as a warmup tournament. 2 years ago it was the Apertura winner vs the Clausura winner. Its a bit hard to keep up with all the format changes, but as I said I think they are doing apertura vs clausura winner. We didn't have the Torneo del Inca this year.

If Universitario win the Clausura, there should be no need for a final match, but if there NEEDS to be a final, I'm gonna assume the best aggregate table team goes into the final. Would be second place obviously as the same tournament winners would obviously be first placed team in the aggregate table.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Huancayo apparently want to resign from the league because they expelled Real Garcilaso. They're protesting because they find it unfair that they expel Garcilaso but not Universitario or Alianza as they owe money since a long time ago.

UTS

 

[Libertadores FC]

Also, it appears I was totally wrong about the above where I explained the format to MJA. This league is so complicated. Wish we just stuck to one format instead of changing it every single year.

 

[MJA]

What benefit is there to changing the structure constantly?

Also, why are teams being expelled? Is it all to do with money?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Libertadores FC]

What benefit is there to changing the structure constantly?

Also, why are teams being expelled? Is it all to do with money?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I ask the same, our football is a mess.

As for the teams being expelled, only Real Garcilaso have been expelled but it was due to lack of payments to debts or something like that. I really don't know much on the financial side of things in football if I'm honest.

 

[MJA]

I ask the same, our football is a mess.

As for the teams being expelled, only Real Garcilaso have been expelled but it was due to lack of payments to debts or something like that. I really don't know much on the financial side of things in football if I'm honest.

So if teams fall behind on debt repayments they simply get the boot? If they started to do that in England, we'd have about 20 teams left

 

[Libertadores FC]

So if teams fall behind on debt repayments they simply get the boot? If they started to do that in England, we'd have about 20 teams left

I swear a few conference teams have gotten the boot haha. Hereford most recently.

 

[MJA]

I swear a few conference teams have gotten the boot haha. Hereford most recently.

Yeah it does happen but it is generally only once the taxman stops getting paid. No-one else seems to ever create a fuss, probably through fear of being deemed the bad guys for ruining a local community club

 

[Libertadores FC]

Hoping to see that next week when I go to the Peruvian semi-final!

 

[Libertadores FC]

As it appears, Jefferson Farfan will sign for Alianza Lima later today.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Alianza Lima vs Universitario this window



Alianza



German Pacheco (Ex Atletico Madrid, played well for Juan Aurich)
Jefferson Farfan (Ex Schalke)

Hansell Riojas (Good player, same guy who got hit by the paper airplane at Wembley)

Luis Aguiar (Ex Peñarol, 2011 Copa Libertadores finalist)

Gonzalo Godoy (Ex Liverpool de Montevideo)

Juan Diego Li (Don't know much about him but apparently he can play good football)



Universitario



Aldo Corzo (The NT's current RB)

Alberto Rodriguez (NT's current CB. Best CB as well. Ex Rio Ave)

Luis Tejada (Arguably the best player in the league)

Juan Diego Gutierrez (Former Universitario man returning. Lots of flair)

Arquimedes Figuera (Current Venezuela international, last played for La Guaira)