June
16th,
2018
Cold
first thing with frost, sunny but double jumper day.
Peru
play Denmark in the World Cup today and I am as hopeful as the
Peruvians, who have been obsessed over their country being at the
event being held in Russia this year. I go for a walk around the
fields between the village pf Ollantaytambo and the Urubamba river
hoping to find a Green-tailed Trainbearer, a lovely sort of
hummingbird but fail to do so.
Into
the village square I find a cafe with a large flatscreen TV and sit
with Peruvians, Canadians and two Swiss girls as the match begins.
The noise level in the cafe rises and the excitement level is high.
We all want Peru to do well.
Penalty
to Peru! The referee uses the new Video Assistance Referee to confirm that the Peruvian player was tripped.
Vamos Peru!
The
poor young Peruvian player blasts it over the bar!
0
– 0 at half time, the player who missed the penalty is comforted by
team mates as he cries his way off the pitch. Peru have played well
but have wasted chances by snatching at the ball in great positions.
Second
half. Denmark score. Peru don't and the match ends 1 – 0 to
Denmark. Resignation from the Peruvians in the cafe but I tell them
that they were lucky in my humble opinion.
Sky
Sports report :-
Denmark
took advantage of some sloppy Peru finishing - including a missed
penalty - to win their opening World Cup Group C clash 1-0.
Yussuf
Poulsen got the decisive goal (59) but Peru only had themselves to
blame as they squandered a plethora of chances, most notably when
Christian Cueva blazed over a first-half penalty, which was awarded
after a VAR review.
The
disciplined Danes were also indebted to goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel,
who made six saves and now hasn't conceded a goal in international
football for 534 minutes.
Leaving
the cafe, after a lovely spaghetti bolognese, I walk around to the
village football stadium and watch a ladies match for half an hour or
so. Some of the players are quite good, others not so but there is a
crowd of a couple of hundred who are enjoying the match.
I
spend the afternoon going up the valley to the east in the sunshine.
There is a breeze of cold air coming down it but the views of the
surrounding snow-capped mountains are beautiful. No new birds but
good views of Red-crested Cotinga and Green & White Hummingbird
amongst others.
Green
Year list : 274 birds average new birds to list per day : 3.62
birds
altitude
: 9,321 feet
No comments:
Post a Comment