Ricardo Gareca: The man who leads Peru to Copa America final

Photo: AFP

11:43 | Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Jul. 7.

Ricardo Gareca has done it again. With Peru's berth in the final of the Copa America, the Argentine coach once again has shown his ability to guide the red-white team to success at the highest level of world soccer.

Since Gareca took the helm of Peru in March 2015, the Incas have steadily grown as a team and achieved a series of feats and first-ever milestones.

With their 3-0 rout of Chile in the southern city of Porto Alegre on Wednesday night, the side achieved their first berth in a Copa America final in 44 years.

Peru had not reached the championship match since 1975, when Hugo Sotil and Teofilo Cubillas led them to their second title at South America's soccer championship.

Paolo Guerrero, the national team's all-time leading scorer, and other key players such as Edison Flores and Andre Carrillo will now have the chance to hoist a third trophy if they can pull off a new Maracanazo against host Brazil in today's final.

Under Gareca's leadership, Peru also qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 36 years.

Although the initial goal was for the Argentine to lead the Incas to a spot in the 2022 tournament, he achieved that objective four years ahead of schedule when the squad secured a berth at the 2018 event in Russia.

Peru achieved that feat despite appearing to be on the verge of elimination after eight qualifying matches.

They have shown similar resilience at this year's Copa America in Brazil, bouncing back to record two wins after suffering a humiliating 5-0 defeat at the hands of the host nation in the group phase.

Under Gareca, Peru also set a new record for consecutive matches without a defeat (15) —an unbeaten stretch from March 23, 2017, to June 9, 2018, that lifted the Incas to a best-ever world ranking of No. 10.

The red-white team recorded 10 wins and five draws across a series of World Cup qualifying matches and friendlies during that streak, which finally ended with a 1-0 loss to Denmark in Peru's debut match at the 2018 World Cup.

One of the wins over the stretch was a 2-1 away victory over Ecuador in Quito on Sept. 5, 2017, Peru's first-ever road win against that neighboring country in a World Cup qualifier.

Edison Flores and Paolo Hurtado each scored in that match, which helped enable Peru to secure fifth place in the CONMEBOL regional standings and a spot in an inter-confederation playoff versus New Zealand, a two-match series that the Incas won 2-0 on aggregate to clinch the World Cup berth.

Prior to that important victory over Ecuador, Peru had earned their first road win in 12 years in a World Cup qualifying match by defeating Paraguay 4-1 in Asuncion on Nov. 10, 2016.

Paraguay opened the scoring in that match, but Peru stormed back in the second half with goals by Christian Ramos, Edison Flores and Christian Cueva (as well as an own goal by Paraguay's Edgar Benitez).

In the quarterfinals of this year's Copa America, Peru won their first-ever penalty shootout at the competition in a 0-0 (5-4) victory over Uruguay, a win that earned them a spot in Wednesday's semifinal against Chile.

Goalkeeper Pedro Gallese stopped a shot by FC Barcelona superstar Luis Suarez at the start of the shootout and Edison Flores finished off the victory with one final goal, following earlier successful attempts by Paolo Guerrero, Raul Ruidiaz, Yoshimar Yotun and Luis Advincula.

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(END) EFE/RMB/MVB

Published: 7/7/2019

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Ricardo Gareca: The man who leads Peru to Copa America final

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