Perhaps Hernan Rengifo Should Adopt a Larger Personality

You know that feeling you have when you leave the house in the morning and you're pretty sure you forgot something important but can't quite figure out what it is?

Yeah, Peruvians apparently don't suffer from that:

Peru striker Hernan Rengifo has criticised the country's football federation after he was left behind in the team hotel following Wednesday's World Cup qualifier in Colombia... Peruvian media said that the squad left their team hotel in Medellin earlier than planned but that nobody told Rengifo of the change.

Oops. At least they didn't leave him alone in the Andes with no teammates to eat.

But nobody noticed? Is the guy that unpopular or are Peruvians just that oblivious? Officials didn't even realize they had left Renfigo behind until after they arrived back in Lima.

Renfigo was obviously not to happy about it and implied that it might have been on purpose, saying: "What happened with the team and the journey will remain on the consciences of the directors. They know their responsibilities."

Peru sits dead last in CONMEBOL qualifying on 7 points. The national team program is such a joke that the Peruvian players union is threatening to boycott the national team if things don't start changing in advance of the next round of qualifiers that starts July 14.

The entire sport is in general disarray in Peru. The country was also suspended briefly last year by FIFA over problems with the election of the country's federation president. Additionally, domestic players have gone spells without being paid, and, financial difficulties have caused many clubs to simply close up shop. Even one of the best-named teams in football, Total Clean, had to merge with Atletico Chalaco to form the way-less-cool Total Chalaco.

Fortunately Depotivo Wanka is still in tact.

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South America does it again

The Copa Peru in happier times

Well, I opened my big mouth yesterday and said we'd have more insanity from the South American soccer world before week's end, and it took less than 24 hours to find more!

From the report:

At least 100 people were injured over the weekend when a fight broke out during a Copa Peru match in the southern city of Ayacucho, the official Andina news agency reported.

I really, really love being right.

The whole sorry incident makes sense, I suppose. Towards the end of the Copa Peru match between Sport Huamanga and Sport Huancayo (and by the way, looking at that Wikipedia page will blind you, as it's seemingly the most complicated tournament ever), the Huancayo fans get restless and begin fighting Huamanga's fans until cars get upturned and the police are called in. And of course, it's all the ref's fault:

Referee Alejandro Villanueva called a penalty against the home team with four minutes left, and shoving broke out, the El Comercio newspaper reported on its Web site. The referee halted play for nine minutes, then he allowed the match to resume with four minutes on the clock, prompting fans to start throwing stones and other objects on the field. Fans tore down the security fence and ran on the field, battling police, who fired tear gas at the crowd. A National Police patrol car was set on fire by angry fans outside the stadium.

As insane as the footage looks below, it's just another day in the life of soccer in South America (and don't forget the Polish effort from a couple of months ago).



Perhaps the saddest thing of all about this story, besides the violence of course, is a comment on the YouTube page itself:



Mega sigh. Obviously this guy's never been to any sporting event involving a team from Philadelphia.

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Peru is Crazy

Forgive us for not covering enough Peruvian soccer. And really after this weekend, we're going to make an effort to do more. Why? Because Peru is fucking crazy (What? Don't you read the headlines on our blog posts?)

Exhibit A: Sport Boys, who have the misfortune of being saddled with maybe the gayest name in football after "Man City" (not helped by the pink jerseys, guys), drew 2-2 with Atletico Minero.

Sport Boys, currently DFL'ing in the 14-team Primera Profesional, might have been on a bit of a high entering the match as the team had just been paid Friday five months of back wages the players were due, or over due, rather.

Of course that was probably offset by a difficult week leading up to the match. To elaborate, we give you what might be the best sentence ever written in the history of South American soccer: "Sport Boys players did not train for most of last week because they said they could not afford taxi fares or buy petrol to get to practice."

Oh but there is more fun! After Sport Boys keeper Michael Sotillo was caught off his line for the equalizer in the 82nd, a mob of angry Sport Boys fans charged the pitch in an attempt to attack Sotillo. Fortunately for him, police successfully intervened.

There is video from the match below, although unfortunately the crowd bum-rushing the goalie ain't on it:



What happened in Callao makes the match between Deportivo San Martin and Universitario seem quaint and cheeky by comparison.

With San Martino down to nine men, Universitario officials "complained that the home team's ball boys were deliberately deflating the spare balls to hold up play."

San Marino's reaction sparked a brawl "in which a number of officials traded blows and Univeristario players also joined in, holding up play for five minutes."

Univeristario leveled at 1-1 eight minutes from time and the match ended in a tie.

(Quotes and the bulk of the info come from the Reuters South American Soccer round up found here. Oh, and hat tip here for the t-shirt design that I pilfered and altered for the pic.)

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