Huayramarca national football team

World Cup 90 - The Artistic Huayco

The expectations towards Los Cóndores weren't the best, as fans started to feel disappointed after seeing how the project led by Omar Caicedo was apparently stagnating. The high points of World Cup 87 and the Cup of Harmony 79 were now looming behind in the memories of fans and the Government, who was now pressing in order to justify their investment during the last World Cups. Omar Caicedo and Rubén Condori appointed Rodolfo Zelaya as a second assistant, to build a new mindset in the national team focused to offensive football and more stamina in the players in order to avoid faltering at decisive instances of a match.

Campaigning from the Federación Huayramarquina de Fútbol didn't stopped by letting Zelaya in, it featured the "Together Forever" initiative to decentralise the hosting of home games for the team; instead of the typical hosting rights provided for the Huayramarca D.M., Guayaquil and Sechura, the FHF decided to use four more cities into the qualifiers, featuring Cajamarca, Nauta, Lima and Puerto San Carlos in order to bring the National Team closer to fans, no matter where they live. This initiative proved to be popular among fans, as the attendances for matches provided seven sell-outs during the Qualifier.

As the fate of Huayramarca was put into Group 5 with the likes of Valanora and Krytenia, with an opener against Valanora at Guayaquil, things started not in the best way possible as Huayramarca got a lucky 0-1 defeat against the Vanorians in an outcome that could've been clearly worse. After that, the team recovered by getting a streak of three clean sheets against Vietnamerium, Talamia and Melbergia before being defeated against Acastanha at the Metropolitan District by the minimal margin possible.

Since that defeat, the recovery was notorious for the team as they were able to implement the ideals of Omar Caicedo, Rodolfo Zelaya and Ruben Condori, a team that wouldn't have any fixed position in the field, being collaborative and able to risk it all in order to win as much as possible. A victory in the road against Sannyamathland was the beginning of an unbeaten streak that lasted until the first leg of the World Cup Playoffs, including valuable victories against Krytenia, a suffered 4-3 against Acastanha and a golden point against Valanora on the road. This streak wasn't enough to put Huayramarca at the top, but forced the Vanorian side to avoid slipping up during the Qualifier and guarantee their direct WC berth in the last match day. For the record, Huayramarca got into the play-offs, against Omerica, as the best second placed team and the seventh best team overall, performance-wise, throughout the Qualifier with a spectacular defensive display that were worthy of seven clean sheets.

During the Qualifiers, specially in the play-offs, Omar Caicedo emphasised the players to behave like artists in the pitch. As they faced Omerica in the play-offs, the attitude for the team was notoriously different from what it was before, as the players' chemistry was noticeable on how they coordinated themselves to rotate positions and support each other. Despite being defeated 2-1 in Omerica by the home team, the second leg at Estadio Marítimo at the San Carlos Archipelago, the fans gave the team a warm reception at the stadium worthy of the instance of the match. As Huayramarca took offensive roles since the beginning, fans were even more supportive to make the team break the ice, as the legendary Bryan Tello did in the 20th minute with a solid right-foot shot to score the only goal of the game. Huayramarca had to defend their goal with strong discipline, as the Omerican side pressed constantly during 90 minutes in order to avoid extra-time. As it was inevitable, Omerica decided to defend in order to force penalties, a strategy that went against them in the worst way possible, as Juan Mamani saved the last penalty of the series in order to give Huayramarca their first World Cup qualification ever.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Valanora	14	11	2	1	37	15	+22	35	Qualification to World Cup 90		—	2–2	2–0	2–1	1–2	3–2	4–3	7–1
2	Huayramarca	14	11	1	2	29	12	+17	34	Advance to playoffs		0–1	—	3–2	0–1	2–0	2–0	4–1	5–1
3	Krytenia	14	6	2	6	22	20	+2	20			1–3	0–1	—	3–0	1–1	3–2	2–0	1–0
4	Acastanha	14	5	2	7	22	26	−4	17			1–1	3–4	1–2	—	3–4	2–0	1–3	1–0
5	Talamia	14	4	3	7	20	25	−5	15			0–1	1–2	3–2	1–2	—	3–6	1–2	0–0
6	Sannyamathland	14	3	4	7	21	29	−8	13			2–5	0–2	1–1	4–3	1–3	—	1–1	1–0
7	Vietnamerium	14	3	4	7	14	24	−10	13			0–3	0–1	0–3	2–3	1–1	0–0	—	1–0
8	Melbergia	14	2	4	8	7	21	−14	10			0–2	0–1	3–1	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	—

Source: World Cup Committee

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Omerica	2–2	Huayramarca	2–1	0–1 (AET - 4-5 PKs)