Cruyff, Sotil y Neeskens, stars of FC Barcelona in the mid 70 (Photo: A Peruvian man)
Selection Peru He lived its golden age in the early 70. The red stripe team He had much level players Chumpitaz, Oblitas, Teofilo Cubillas or Panadero Díaz, who braved the Copa America 1975 with the hope of winning the title. But nevertheless, the protagonist was a player who only participated in the final game: Hugo Sotil.
The Peruvian attacker was one of the great stars of combined franjirrojo. Not in vain, at that time it was part of FC Barcelona in which he shared a dressing room with players like Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens and Carles Rexach. Obviously, the coach of his country (Marcos Calderón) he called to dispute that Copa America.
But nevertheless, the fact that the format of this edition was different from today caused the competition with home and away games without an established headquarters began in July and ended in late October. Thus, He banned the Catalan club Hugo Sotil to travel and focus solely on his club, FC Barcelona.
From the distance, Peru followed developments with great longing tournament. Peru, Brazil Y Colombia They swept their respective groups and ending in the first position so qualified for the semi-finals. They joined Uruguay It coming directly at this stage of the championship since it was the reigning champion of the previous edition.
Peru eliminates Brazil
Again a tie Return to decide the finalists. Colombia he eliminated Uruguay after winning 3-0 in Bogotá and lose 1-0 in Montevideo. Meanwhile, Peruvians had to contend with the powerful Brazil to which they defeated by 1-3 Belo Horizonte then fall by 0-2 in Lima. At that time goals scored away from home they did not have double value so that the pass had to be decided with a 'hand innocent’ which proved to be the Veronica Salinas, granddaughter of the Peruvian leader Teofilo Salinas, President of CONMEBOL. Coincidence or not, Peru It was a finalist.
The final against Colombia It was most exciting. Colombians defeated at home 1-0 while Peruvians achieved victory 2-0 in Lima. Again, that counted the points accumulated during the competition and caused no goals that I had to play a playoff game on neutral ground. The American champion was decided in Caracas (Venezuela) a 28 October 1975.
Hugo Sotil travels without permission
It was then that figure Hugo Sotil He gained prominence. Footballer Barça after playing a league match your team against Racing de Santander at Camp Nou He decided to take a plane to take him first to Madrid and from there to Caracas without permission from his club. Peru reached its destination just two days before the final match against Colombia.
Peruvian technician had no doubts and placed Sotil as a starter and the player could not be decisive scoring the only goal in a match that ended with victory Peru by 1-0. No time to celebrate the title, the player immediately returned to Barcelona where, far from what you might think, He was congratulated for his success and received no punishment (Let it know) by the directive culé.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hbniHVjJic
Thus Peru getting the second Copa America its history. The first was in the distant 1939 when selecting red band he won a championship in which only participated the host (Peru), Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador a league system. Local made full of victories by winning the 4 so it matches ended as the first ranked 8 points ahead of the Uruguayans won 3 meetings and joined 6 units.
