One of the most remembered campaigns of the Peruvian National Team in international competition was in the Sub 23 Pre-Olympic, played in Paraguay. In that championship, the 'team of everyone' left a good impression despite not qualifying for the Sydney Olympics: they were eliminated in the second phase due to goal difference. But there were elements that stood out, such as Claudio Pizarro, who finished as the third top scorer with 5 goals.
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Teddy Cardama and his beginnings as a coach
That team was under the command of Teddy Cardama, who at that time was beginning to show himself as a coach and was close to qualifying the national team for the Sydney Olympics.
This great campaign catapulted him to coach in the First Division for teams like Universitario de Deportes, Sport Boys del Callao, Cienciano, among others.
What happened to Teddy Cardama?
However, Cardama's present is different from those years. Today he coaches Juan Aurich in Liga 2, in an atypical presentation of the Chiclayo team that not only causes suffering for the fans, but also for their coach.
It turns out that El Ciclón, due to administrative problems with its board of directors, was unable to register the entire squad for the current season and is facing the Liga 2 championship with only 14 players.
Last weekend, Juan Aurich had players suspended and they played with 11 players on the field and only 1 substitute. Although Cardama is aware of this situation, at first he planned to leave the club, however, upon seeing the effort of his players, he decided to stay.
"I have never experienced this situation before. In my long career, I had never gone through something like this, but well, it is what we have to face and I do it for the human group I have. Kids who give everything on the field. Yesterday I had one who was in the clinic and today he plays the game. It is truly admirable everything the kids do," said Cardama to Líbero.
Cardama in the Pre-Olympic
In 2000, Teddy Cardama was the coach of the national Under-23 team that participated in the Pre-Olympic in Paraguay. Claudio Pizarro was the star for scoring goals in that international event.
Peru started with a 2-0 defeat against Uruguay, but in the second match they recovered and drew 1-1 with Argentina.
In the third match, Peru defeated the host Paraguay 4-3 and then beat Bolivia 5-2.
These results allowed them to accumulate 7 points in the table and tie with Argentina, however, due to a better goal difference, the Albiceleste team qualified for the next round.