After beating New Zealand 2-0 in a qualifying match, the Peruvian national team is taking the country to its first World Cup in what will be 36 years. Following the match, exhilarated fans took to the streets of Lima to celebrate their team’s imminent trip to Russia next summer.
Sure, the team still has a world-class field of competition to contend with, but for now, the fans are beyond thrilled that their team has made it to the big game.
Prior to the match (and during the match), there were elements of bad behavior — fireworks and laser pointer abuse — that could have served as a bad omen of things to come. But the revelry following the team’s victory over New Zealand was, for the most part, peaceful, if raucous.
How hard were the folks in Peru partying?
Aggressively enough that following Jefferson Farfan’s first goal for the side in the 27th minute, Chile was reporting seismic activity that was attributed to very, very, happy fans.
The country’s president, Pablo Kuczynski, offered not just his heartfelt congratulations to the team, but also something for the celebratory populace. Following the victory, the government announced that Thursday would be an impromptu national holiday.
From the looks of the scene in Lima, many of these fans weren’t going to be terribly productive hours later at work anyway, so it was a practical consideration as well as an empathetic one.
Let’s hope they can keep the country in one piece if they manage to make a deep run next summer at the 2018 World Cup. Something tells me the fanbase will be properly rested and recovered by then.
Probably.
