In July 2018, the municipality of San Miguel – a Lima community near the Jorge Chávez airport – inaugurated a statue in honor of coach Ricardo Gareca, who had qualified the Peruvian team for the World Cup after 36 years of absence. When the Argentine signed for La Roja, the councilors decided to destroy it, but five months later the monument was still standing when both squads faced each other in a new reissue of the Pacific Classic in the Copa América.
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Pedro Gallese, Alexander Callens, Carlos Zambrano, Miguel Araujo, Andy Polo, Sergio Peña, Wilder Cartagena, Piero Quispe, Luis Advíncula, Gianluca Lapadula, Edison Flores, Marcos López (Luis Advíncula, min. 34), Paolo Guerrero (Edison Flores, min. 70), Joao Grimaldo (Piero Quispe, min. 70), Luis Abram (Alexander Callens, min. 83) and Oliver Sonne (Andy Polo, min. 83)
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Claudio Bravo, Paulo Díaz, Igor Lichnovsky, Mauricio Isla, Gabriel Suazo, Víctor Dávila, Marcelino Núñez, Erick Pulgar, Diego Valdés, Alexis Sánchez, Eduardo Vargas, Darío Osorio (Diego Valdés, min. 45), Marcos Bolados (Víctor Dávila, min. 64), Ben Brereton (Eduardo Vargas, min. 64) and Rodrigo Echeverría (Marcelino Núñez, min. 84)
Referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio
Zambrano (min. 17), Erick Pulgar (min. 21), Víctor Dávila (min. 46), Alexis (min. 78)
The centuries-old rivalry has a new flavor, since Gareca was key for Chile, showing off its golden generation, to remain on the sidelines of the World Cups in Russia and Qatar, while Peru not only obtained its best results in decades, but also shone in the last editions of the Cup. But in the Arlington stadium, Texas, the duel was more about friction and violence than good football.
Rimac’s team celebrated the goalless draw as if it were a victory, even though they once again had problems creating scoring situations. Chile did not show the fresh and offensive game that had marked the first friendly matches, where they scored eight goals in three games and made us forget that neither Arturo Vidal nor Gary Medel, absolute protagonists of the team in the last fifteen years, are in this call. marginalized by Gareca from the final roster with which he would face the contest in the United States.
In a group made up of Argentina and Canada, doubts outweigh certainties in the analysis of the game. Even more so in the case of the Chileans, due to the generation of the game, which once again stemmed from the disorder of Alexis Sánchez, moody and sullen with his teammates in the frustration of not being able to associate with the rest of the attackers.
Gareca has insisted that his mission is to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, so the Copa América is just a field of experiments. But the expectation generated overestimated those in charge of replacing Vidal and Medel. Diego Valdés, champion with América from Mexico; Víctor Dávila, a figure in CSKA of Russia, and Marcelino Nuñez, midfielder for Norwich in the Championship, promised to reissue a fast and deep formula to sustain the attack, but they could not with the iron marking imposed by the Uruguayan Jorge Fossati, an experienced coach who took charge of the post-Gareca era. An unpleasant task due to the legacy left by El Tigre, who transformed, in his eight years of management, Peruvian soccer, who could not renew his contract due to the high cost of his claims.
As rarely the Pacific Classic generated so many expectations. A rivalry that will keep the definition of group A in suspense, where the world champions, led by Messi who plays almost at home, are the big favorites. Outside the World Cup qualifying zone, Chile and Peru played with gritted teeth, but with the certainty that the great battle will be fought when the road resumes in September, although in Arlington, Dallas, it was clear that they would never They will be willing to give an inch.
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