“Peru, a little watch that always gave the exact time. Until one day it stopped.

“Lima is a cemetery,” Freddy Lazo, a microphone lion, tells us graphically. And he continues: “This elimination went very deep. Of every one hundred Peruvians, ninety-six claimed that Peru would be in the world. There was an excess of triumphalism. And about Ricardo Gareca: “95% of the people want him to stay, the press is divided, 60% ask him to continue, 40% think that he has already completed his cycle, that his image with the players and leaders is worn out” . Gareca’s image worn out with the leaders? Wow… that’s the World Cup.

“It is as if they had turned off the country”graphs Miguel Villegas, sports editor of El Comercio. “Above all, the smile faded, that gift that the national team had given us. This team covered up so many things that happen in the country…”

“Peru is a wake, there is a gloomy mood in the country, a national sadness. There’s not even any noise… People take it to mean that Gareca is leaving, that a brilliant cycle is over and that it will take another thirty-six years to return to a World Cup”says colleague and friend Ricardo Montoya. He continues: “Getting a great manager is very difficult. Getting one that also has the class of Ricardo, almost impossible. And there is no replacement of players. Football represented the only joy in the country, now not even that”. He does not stop, his sore monologue continues: “Gareca gave us back our game identity, he made us competitive, we went to a World Cup, we reached a Copa América final, in another we came out third and in one more, fourth, we cut his streak winning Chile 3 to 0, he discovered players where there were none…. He did a lot.”

It is curious: in all the newspapers in the world, when one goes to sections, they appear in order of importance more or less like this: latest news, opinion, politics, economy, world, city, culture… Sports ranks eighth or ninth, but it happens that In general, no event impacts the population like the fate of their soccer team. Nothing summons more, nothing makes happy or sad, not even ten percent of what this phenomenon linked to the sense of belonging. No other activity is capable of bringing forty thousand citizens to Russia or twenty thousand to Qatar. In prosperity or in crisis. It is the overwhelming force of this game-passion.

THE MOODS

The Selection (with capital letters) was the adored chiche of the population. And he crashed to the ground, blasted into a thousand pieces. In Colombia and Chile the elimination caused frustration, but not even compare. Both selections were already bad and extreme unction was expected. Instead, Peru raised the illusions to the stratosphere. And when you had to show up, the team showed up. On top of that, he had the playoff against Australia, which in its Asian group had just drawn 2-2 with Oman and lost 2-0 to Japan (in Sydney) and 1-0 to Saudi Arabia. I mean, what was Australia? Apparently nothing. Everything came together: the euphoria, clinging to that beautiful rope that was the National Team, the idea of ​​going to win the World Cup again -this time in Qatar- with forty or fifty thousand Peruvians, the underestimation of the rival, the absolute security of qualify… And a penalty broke everything. Why, sir? Why? Can’t you turn back time, turn back this movie and kick another one? Or that Valera himself throw it to the left of Redmayne?

No, impossible, the World Cup dream is already in the hands of God.

What happened…? Was Gareca wrong…? Why didn’t he take Ruidíaz, who is a criminal…? Why wasn’t Costa on the bench, who also kicks…? And Trauco, Zambrano… were they deleted?

The technician’s responsibility remains safe as long as the approach and the names -except Yotún- were the same. It happened that the players did not respond. They are heroes of previous battles, but in Doha they gave nothing. There was a general blackout. Just the day that was most needed. Perhaps the Oreja touches the 7, Zambrano and Callens the 6, Gallese too, because they hardly kicked him, but later he covered a penalty. The rest do not exceed five. Hopefully. And, most importantly, the virtuous triangle of this team did not exist, the soccer powerhouse, which is Yotún-Carrillo-Cueva. An inverted triangle whose base is Yotún.

As in the Titanic story, the drama unfolded quietly. First there was no Ruidíaz, then Australia came to the playoffs and not the Emirates, which was more convenient, lastly, Yotún’s injury, and stirring that stew, success. Fatal. Without Yotún, which is the compass, the inspiration was in charge of the other vertices of the triangle. Carrillo, surely without having reached his best competitive pace, did not provide any light. And they lowered the lever for Cueva, he was in the dark. There was not a hint of football, not a drop of creativity. Because Australia was not beaten by running, but by playing. The only surviving arrests were made by Edison Flores because he is very clear that soccer is with goals, and where he can rest his instep on the ball, he takes out his rifle. Wherever you are.

The creators of a team are the engine of the car, if they don’t work the body doesn’t move. And it didn’t move. Sometimes a saving header appears, a bomb from outside the area, a lucky rebound. This time nothing happened. And in the prisons that unexpected goalkeeper appeared, enormous, with his beard like a Protestant pastor or a Norwegian lumberjack who moved insistently, disturbingly. He was the ghost of the movie. He was looking to confuse. And he confused. Graham Arnold had that card up his sleeve and played it in the 120th minute. Well played, he’s in the World Cup.

Arnold thought the same as Marcello Lippi in the 2006 World Cup: France has a 70% chance of winning and we have a 30% chance. But if we go to penalties we are 50 and 50. That is how Italy won. And Gareca, what? Was he wrong about Valera? Was it Zambrano or Trauco? God only knows. If he chose the first, it is because he is convinced that he is a better executor than the other two. Or because Zambrano and Trauco looked the other way. Ultimately, it was his decision, he is the coach. El Flaco is already beyond good and evil in Peru. Impossible to question it. Doing a historical retrospective: Is it better than Didí? Better than Tim? More than both together? Difficult to answer those questions, which seem disrespectful, but have a logical basis. Rarely does the work of a coach emerge so clearly in a football process. As time passes, Gareca’s work in Peru will be etched in marble. He generated that state of collective euphoria, of national happiness.

The fan learned the team by heart and the team played by heart, he internalized all the concepts and Ricardo’s idea. He played the Peruvian way, he was right with almost all the players and they, hand in hand with him, evolved. The best cases are those of Christian Cueva, who went from general disbelief when the coach took him to the Copa América in Chile 2015 to being in the gallery of the all-time greats of the National Team. Or Advíncula and Zambrano, today headlines in Boca. Or Renato Tapia, who has become an essential player, with a brand, sacrifice, criteria and flexibility to distribute the ball. Or Yotún, a winger turned thinking midfielder, creative with a brand. When none of them played for their teams abroad, it was Gareca who believed in them. And these gave him back his confidence with play. It was a virtuous circle.

How to blame him for something? Without great elements he made Peru a little clock that always gave the exact time. Until one day it stopped. The end.