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testmeat photoblog


4th July 2010

¡sí se puede!

i took this as i was changing peruvian soles into bolivian bolvianos before crossing the border. when i got back onto the coach, i asked our guide what ¡sí se puede! meant. instead of a translation, i got a story:

back in 2003 cienciano, cusco's main football team, qualified for copa sudamericana - which is the south american version of the uefa cup, or europa league as it's now called. this was quite an achievement as cienciano weren't a particularly successful club. however my guide, being cusco born and raised, was just happy that his club had a chance to participate in the competition. in the quarter finals they managed to overcome the brazilian club santos who are one of the biggest clubs in south america. then in the semi's they beat atletico nacional who are probably the best team in colombia. they then faced the argentinian river plate in the final who, as r. burgendy would say, are kind of a big deal. the final, like the previous ties, would be played over two legs. however the argentianians argued that the cusco club had an unfair advantage playing at home due to the high altitude of the stadium. unbelievably this argument was upheld so cienciano were forced to play their 'home' leg in arequipa, the stadium of their rivals melgar.

the away leg was an end-to-end, back-and-forth affair that finished 3-3. this left the tie hanging in the balance, but cienciano were still very much in it. only two other peruvian teams had made it to the finals of an international tournament, and both had lost, so cienciano represented peru's best chance of finally becoming victors in south american football. as a result lots of new cienciano fans came out of the woodwork, and the entire country began to support the plucky underdogs against the argentian giants. well, with the exception of the fans of their arequipan rivals, some of whom went to the match just to support the opposition. the second leg began and it wasn't long into the game when cienciano had a player sent off, they now had to play one of the best teams in the continent with ten men. they found it difficult to get a foothold in the game, and while they made it to half time goalless, they didn't seem that threatening.

the crowd grew less vocal and more subdued as the game went on, as though they were waiting for the inevitable. then one fan began to shout out ¡sí se puede! ¡sí se puede!. the people around him to a cue from him, and began chanting as well, and it soon spread around the entire stadium. with all of the cienciano fans chanting ¡sí se puede!, willing their team on, 15 minutes from time this energy transferred onto the pitch and the peruvians scored from a free kick to make it one-nil. the crowd were ecstatic, and the chanting amplified. cienciano actually finished the game with nine men, after another player was sent off, but the only important numbers were the one goal scored and the zero goals conceded.

the team were crowned champions of south america, the players were regarded as heroes, and ¡sí se puede! became their mantra. all of which was a long way of saying ¡sí se puede! translates into yes you can! - an encouraging affirmative similar to the exclamation rob schneider's character shouts in the waterboy.

here's the original
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i've posted 7 photos taken on 10th September 2009

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