MARKARIAN SACKED

Sergio Markarian is not the manager of the Peru national football team anymore. He resigned a couple of days back. The 69 years old Uruguayan had said earlier that he would not continue at his post if Peru fails in making it to the World Cup finals and he did exactly that.

The performance of Peru in the World Cup qualifying games was way below par. They were one of the 9 teams that were taking part in the CONMEBOL qualifying tournament and they finished at no. 7 in the points table. They played a total of 16 matches out of which they managed to win just 4. They were defeated 9 times, while, the remaining 3 games were draws.

The 4 teams from CONMEBOL that made it to the finals were Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador.

Markarian’s tenure as the manager of the Peru national football team had started 3 years back in 2010. He had taken over from Jose Del Solar. There were big expectations with him and it was believed that he had the ability to guide Peru to the World Cup finals. But, he couldn’t do what was expected from him. Peru’s World Cup qualifying campaign was disastrous again and he decided to quit.

Talking to the reporters after resigning from his post, Markarian said, “Peru couldn’t qualify for the World Cup finals and the management is responsible for it. I am horribly disappointed.”

“I always maintained that if I couldn’t guide the team to Brazil, I would quit and I have done exactly that.”

“The Federation wanted me to continue, but, I am a man of my words. So, I reject their offer.”

Meanwhile, Markarian’s resignation has been confirmed by the Peruvian Football Federation as well.

PIZARRO WILL FEATURE

Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro is expected to become one of the important players at the club following the departure of Mario Gomez to Fiorentina recently. Gomez was sold to Fiorentina in the anticipation that Bayern Munich will be able to sign Robert Lewandowski from Borussia Dortmund. It is believed that the Champions League holders have agreed personal terms with the Polish international, but they have been unable to sign him because of the persistence from Dortmund that they would not allow him to join Bayern Munich.

This leaves new manager Guardiola with just two options up front and one of them is Pizarro. The former Chelsea striker has a great campaign last time around by playing as one of the three strikers in the squad. He has revealed that Guardiola has changed a lot since his arrival just over a month ago. Despite winning three major titles last season, Guardiola has substantially altered the formation and the way the club trains. Pizarro has said that it is difficult to get used to this new style of way immediately, but he reckons that once they clearly understand what the manager wants, they will be unstoppable.

Bayern already have one of the best squads in the world and the recently brought in Gotze as well.

“I can’t say [how long it’ll take], we need to be patient. It takes time to understand what he wants, but we’re on the right track. We still need some time, but we’ll do it. It’s different, I’ve been in football a long time and I’ve never had a coach who makes so many changes. Once we get it I think we’ll be a great team. For the strikers it’s a bit easier – we just need to put defenders under pressure up front, that’s what he wants,” said Pizarro.

PERU LINE UP FRIENDLY

The Peru national football team will play a friendly match in South Korea next month. This announcement was made by the Korean Football Association yesterday.

However, it hasn’t been decided yet that the match will take place at which venue. The KFA is likely to announce that soon.

This is only the second time that these two countries will take on each other. The first and only match played between them was 42 years back in 1971. Peru had hosted that match.

There is not much difference in the world rankings of South Korea and Peru at the moment. Peru is at the 30th position, while, South Korea is at no. 40 in the official FIFA rankings.

According to the reports, the Peruvian Football Federation wanted this match to be organized a bit earlier, but, South Korea has to host East Asian Championships as well in July, so, the KFA decided to schedule this match in August.

South Korea has already made it to the World Cup 2014 finals which are going to be organized in Brazil. But, Peru is yet to get there. They still have some games remaining though and this friendly game will be good practice for them.

The South Korean team is also going through a transitional phase at the moment. There have been changes in their management recently and the former skipper Hong Myung-Bo has been appointed as the new manager of the team. So, this match is going to be important for them as well. This is an opportunity for them to test their preparations for the World Cup Finals.

Meanwhile, South Korea is considered as a strong contender in the East Asian Championships as well. They know their home conditions pretty well and they would be hard to beat. The three other teams which will take part in the East Asian Championships are Japan, Australia and China.