March 22, 2021
The 2021 season in Peru has just started, with the second round of matches being played this week. Most matches are streamed live on Bet365.com, and the GOLPERUoficial channel on YouTube shows highlights.
The Peruvian championship has been dominated by three traditional sides from the capital Lima. Universitario have won 26 championships, Alianza Lima 23 and Sporting Cristal 20 titles.
Sporting Cristal are the current champions. Although Universitario won Fase 1, and Ayacucho won Fase 2, Sporting were top of the aggregate table and beat Universitario 3-2 over the two match final.
For sponsorship reasons the league is named Liga 1 Betsson but it is more commonly referred to as Liga 1 or Primera Division. There are 18 teams this season, down from 20 last year, comprising the top seventeen teams from the 2020 Liga 1 plus the 2020 Liga 2 champions Alianza Atletico.
This year the season will be divided into three stages. In In Fase 1, the 18 teams will be divided into two groups of nine playing each other once, with the winners of each group playing a final to decide the Fase 1 winner.
Fase 2 will be played under a single round-robin format with the 18 teams playing each other once. The playoffs will then be contested by the winners of Fase 1 and Fase 2, as well as the top two teams of the aggregate table, who will play two-legged semi-finals with the winners playing a two match final to decide the national champion. However, should a team win both stages of the competition, the playoffs will not be played and that team will be declared as champion.
The bottom two teams of the aggregate table at the end of the season will be relegated, with the team placed in 16th place playing a relegation playoff against the Liga 2 runner-up.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic it was decided that the entire Fase 1 would be played at grounds in the capital Lima, with the hope that the teams from the provinces would able to resume playing fixtures at their home stadiums in May. Matches in Fase 1 would also all be behind closed doors.
This match was part of Group B in Fase 1 and the venue was the 11,600 capacity Estadio Alberto Gallardo in Lima, normally the home of Sporting Cristal.
Sport Huancayo finished 6th in the overall table for 2020, having also finished runners-up in Fase 1, and qualified to play in the COPA Sudamerica. Huancayo is east of Lima, 305 km by road and a 7 hour drive. The population of the city is estimated to be around 350,000 and is around 10,750 feet above sea level.
The club were
formed in 2007 and home is the 20,000 capacity Huancayo stadium. In 2019 their
average attendance was 3,519. Given the pronounciation of the city, the clubs supporters refer to themselves as "Wankas"........
Sport Huancayo’s first choice kit is all red and they are coached by Wilmar Valencia, who won 14 caps for Peru in the late 1990s and was a nominee for 2020 coach of the year.
Going into today’s match Sport had a 100% record from their two away matches played, beating Deportivo Municipal 1-0 in the league thanks to a goal from Rojas and then they beat fellow Peruvian side UTC de Cajamarca, who were 7th in the 2020 overall table 1-0 in the COPA Sudamerica, with Balta being the scorer.
Despite the winning run, Sporting rang the changes for this match, with only 5 players who started the previous two matches being in the starting line-up to face Deportivo, with four new signings making their debut, keeper Angel Zamudio ( ex-Ayacucho ), centre back Franciso Duclos ( ex-Alianza Lima ), left back Jackson Reyes ( ex Binacional ) and Javier Trauco ( ex Llacuabamba ), with Colombian striker Jarlin Qunitero making his first start after signing from Cantalao. 19 year old midfielder Jimmy Perez also made his debut.
35 year old right back Giancarlo Carmona won 5 caps for Peru a decade ago, whist 36 year old centre back Jimmy Valoyes is Colombian. On the bench was Liliu, the ex Inter Turku, Nomme Kalju, Westerlo and Birkirkara Brazilian forward.
Deportivo Binacional play in Juliaca, 1,460km south east of Lima, nearly 19 hours by road or 90 minutes by air. It is 12,500 above sea level, has a population of around 275,000, and is apparently known as the Windy City. Lake Titicaca is 45km from the city.
Home is the Estadio Guillermo Briceño Rosamedina, which has a capacity of 20,300. Their name apparently comes from being close to the border with Boliva.
In 2020 Binacional finished 13th in overall table but they caused a bit of a surprise in 2019 when they won their first ever championship. After winning the Apertura competition they beat Alianza Lima 4-3 on aggregate. Their average attendance that season was 9,337.
Deportivo lost their first match 0-4 to Sporting Cristal, suffering a red card to Perez 59th minute when already losing 0-2.
The club’s normal colours are all Sky Blue but for today’s match they wore all white.
Binacional also made 6 changes from their last starting line-up, but after the loss to Sporting Cristal it was more a case of shuffling the pack. Keeper Raul Fernandez has 29 caps for Peru, Argentinian midfielder Cristian Alvarez numbers Boca Juniors & Palestino amongst his clubs, and Camilo Mancilla, Maicol Balanta and Johan Arango are Colombians.
Kick-off was 11am local time ( 16.00 UK ) with temperatures forecast to be 26 degrees.
Binacional got of to the worst possible start, falling behind in the 7th minute. Liluya swung in a low free-kick from the left, Departivo centre-back Romero dived to head away but completely missed the ball, which bounced inside the far post.
Things got spicy shortly after 20 minutes when Morales went down injured after a challenge from Romero but the referee allowed play to continue. When play stopped Morales was carried off on a stretching after some lengthy treatment, and a slanging match started between Sport coach Valencia and an elderly guy in the main stand, presumably somebody associated with Binacional. Shortly after play resumed, Quintero nearly doubled the lead but his flicked header went just wide.
Due to the high temperatures a drinks break was taken after 30 minutes, after which Sport took complete control of the game. The impressive Liluya sent a ball over the defence for the marauding Carmona to strike first time on the run across goal into the corner for 2-0.
It was soon 3-0 when Cordova carelessly gave the ball away and a series of first time passes saw Liluya put substitute Rojas free on the left, and his cross was met at the near post by the fast arriving Quintero, whose bullet near post header from just outside the 6 yard box gave Fernandez no chance.
Huancayo’s dominance was illustrated 2 minutes later when they put 20+ plus passes together and Binacional looked totally outclassed. Liluya looked a class act pulling the strings in the middle of the park, and just before half-time he created another chance, this time for Quintero, but his shot was blocked by Romero for a corner. From the set-piece Quintero just failed to connect with the bouncing ball, and Binacional managed to get to the break just 0-3 down.
It was a strange performance by Binacional. Their midfield stood off Sport, applying little pressure and stood around watching the ball being passed around them. When they did try and get close, they committed a number of petty niggly fouls, often barely making contact, which led to plenty of exaggerated rolling around on the floor by the fouled player. The referee kept his cards in his pocket, probably having seen this all before !
Huancayo seemed to have settled for a 3-0 win after the half-time break, seemingly content to save their energies in the heat, and they instead stood off and allowed Binacional to have most of the possession. However, Binacional were not able to apply much pressure or use the ball as well as Huancayo had done in the first half. Mancilla did get into a good position sliding in for a free-kick but totally mis-kicked inside the 6 yard box.
Sport could have increased their lead on the hour, Reyes got to the by-line and his low cross was parried out into a dangerous position by keeper Fernandez. Unfortunately for Sport, there was no attacker on hand to tap in, although both Liluya and Quintero were waiting to score had Fernandez not made the save.
Arango looked the most likely to pull a goal back for Deportivo, sending a long shot just wide, although Zamudio had it covered, and a dangerous free-kick sailed just over the bar. Another free-kick was straight at Zamudia who pushed up it up in the air before catching the ball. Near the end of the match Binacional had a shout for a penalty when Arango’s free-kick appeared to strike the arm of a player in the wall, but the referee didn’t give it. De la Cruz looked big and powerful upfront for Binacional, but was caught offside so many times.
On the basis of these displays Sport Huancayo look to potentially have a good season ahead of them, whilst Deportivo Binacional could be in for a hard season.
Sport Huancayo : Zamudio – Carmona, Valoyes, Duclos, Reyes – Trauco ( Benites ), Perez, Liluya ( Huacca ), Alfredo Rojas ( Barreto ), Morales ( Alexis Rojas ) – Quintero ( Liliu )
Deportivo Binacional : R. Fernandez – Cordoba, Mesones, Romero ( Zela ), Mancilla – Balanta ( Polar ), Alvarez ( Carranza ), Arango, Ojeda ( Palomino ), Flores - De la Cruz
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKChyQ97oKU
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