Huayramarca national football team

The Huayramarca national football team is the representative squad of Huayramarca in international. It is currently organised by the Federación Huayramarquina de Fútbol (FHF), the current governing body for football in Huayramarca.

The team primarily contest the World Cup and CAFA Cup, which alternate annually. Since its inception, Los Cóndores have managed to build a resilient team that has adapted to a diverse set of circumstances, from low moments such as World Cup 85 Qualifiers to their first qualification for the World Cup Finals in the 90th edition of the tournament.

The Beginning (85)
Born in the midst of a political crisis in Huayramarca, the team was a plan from some sectors of the Huayramarcan society in order to provide entertainment for people in a moment where this was needed as a scapegoat of a tragic daily reality. As a society, Huayramarcans have always enjoyed sports a lot, especially when politics may turn the nation into a chaos every second, they just want to run away from that horrible and desperate situation; this time, they decided to try luck on football.

Considering the levels of poverty on Huayramarca, many young people may give a shot for football in the chaotic Liga 1 or lower tiers, with the hopes of achieving a decent salary that may help their families to get away from poverty and huayco-prone neighbourhoods. Liga 1 has fourteen teams from different parts of the country, mostly focused on the Sierra and Costa regions since those are the most heavily populated ones. The recent decisions taken in the Government and the Huayramarcan Football Federation, where they ended a ban on transferring players to foreign teams, has filled with optimism and illusion a lot of youngsters, that now aim to be another Huayramarcan playing abroad.

Immediately after the HFF creation, the president of the Plurinational State, Hugo Mina (Costeño), thought it would be a great idea to form a fringe squad for the  AOCAF and then try to make it into Baptism of Fire or World Cup Qualifiers, hence he asked for Eliezer González (head of the Huayramarcan Football Federation) to try and apply for said tournaments. He sent notes in order to sign-up for those events, but he sent them incorrectly, at AOCAF, he sent it to a grandmother living up near the Andean Organization for Coffee, Agriculture and Forests (located at Cumbayá) instead of sending it to the proper AOCAF tournament organizing committee, which turned González into laughing stock for several weeks in Huayramarca. Despite that, González managed to sign-up properly for the WC, despite he was rejected for Baptism of Fire because he applied to the “Burger of Fire” and not the Baptism of Fire.

After all, the HFF managed to convince 25 players from the amateur-ish Liga 1 sides to build the National Team, whose nickname is resumed to the and  word “Kuntur” (The Condors), all those players ranged from being high school students, to chemists, bus drivers, and even people from the local tavern, whose preference is revealed on how they named their team “Real Ebriedad”, which was later supported by Cristalina, the main brewery firm from Huayramarca. Those 25 players decided to investigate some football techniques and decided to apply them at the different games they played on the inaugural Liga 1.

Nothing that would be possible without the support of Omar Caicedo, a Costeño who migrated to Québec and Shingoryeo and decided to learn some football techniques while managing Beyreuth University, where he won three national titles out of eight seasons on his span with them. Caicedo is a fan of high-pressure football, known as “gegenpressing” or El as Huayramarcans may call it. Caicedo’s strategy proved right on some matches played by Huayramarca against their northern neighbour, Québec and Shingoryeo, beating them 5-1 at Huayramarca’s  Estadio Nacional and tying 2-2 at Iqaluit on Québec

Caicedo's ideas helped a lot despite Huayramarca was, by then, a newcomer. During the first part of the World Cup Qualifiers, earning some mixed results during it, but it failed for a part of the second half, where the team accumulated an 11 winless game streak added that they weren't capable to snatch a win during their first eight local games. In fact, their first home win came at the 9th home game, after that, they won three out of their four last home games, earning a 8 games unbeaten streak to finish off the Qualifiers.

Said streak wasn’t a mere happening, it was somehow a confirmation on how the Huayramarcan National Team had turned into a squad that forged a reputation as a hardworking team, with limited chances to put some squads in troubles but capable enough to defend well and to avoid harm being done against them. The Cup of Harmony 77 was an interesting test for the team, to see if they are capable to handle out the nerves of what it implies to be struggling for a knockout spot until the last second of the last match, which is what happened to the Condors, since they tied their first three games, they had a chance to get into the last rounds but they had to face Port Ember, the top seed of their group. Huayramarca succumbed to the nerves and wasted a 2-0 lead to see how Port Ember scored five goals in quick succession.

Consolidation (86 and 87)
A spectacular beginning on World Cup 86 Qualifiers helped the Condors to finish 4th in the first half of qualifiers, being two points below the second placed squad, but defeats against top dogs such as Ko-oren and Tequilo killed the desires of this national team to qualify, also, instigated by poor performances against low and other mid-ranked nations boosted that debacle. The Cup of Harmony wasn't different to the end of the World Cup Qualifiers, it was in the same shape, defeats, defeats and pressure on the squad due to the fact that they were worried on what was happening on Huayramarca, due to the death of Hugo Mina, uncertainty surged and caused the players to have a subpar performance in the tournament, despite a late win that turned to be the first ever one for Huayramarca in the Cup of Harmony.

With the latest investments made by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports to the Huayramarcan Football Federation, by multiplying tenfold their budget, the HFF has now sent the managerial staff of the Condors to other nations, in order to gather new ideas and apply those in order to build a competent side in tactical terms, with the main purpose to achieve World Cup qualification for the first time as soon as possible and provide that joy to the Huayramarcan folk. That heavy investment provided some benefits during the 87th World Cup Qualifiers, where Huayramarca left behind the label of being an "uncomfortable rival" to take a protagonist role in their group, finishing second behind Audioslavia with a solid 40 points in 18 matches. Things in playoffs might be forgettable since the beginning, since Huayramarca didn't took advantage in the first leg despite playing home, tying with Tikariot and then being defeated heavily at the second leg (1-4), made the Condor's illusions of WC Qualifying end horribly.

Despite the downturn in the team's mindset, the team faced some struggles at the Cup of Harmony group stage. Being defeated by Mriin at the first game, defeating Garifunya 1-0 and then tying against Ibixa for the second time in the cycle sent the Condors to the Knockout phase of CoH for their first time ever, Xanneria was a hard rival for the Round of 32, Huayramarca's miracle run was about to start with a narrow 2-1 win over them; then two rock-solid performances against Saint Domingue and a well-known foe from the WCQ Group (Sargossa) with a 3-1 and 2-0 respectively, put Huayramarca among the best four sides in the Cup of Harmony. Being defeated by Mriin with a hard-fought 2-3 and then once again a 1-4 against Newmanistan were enough to confirm Huayramarca as the 4th placed side, with desire to improve their performance in this World Cup Qualifier, hoping to achieve heights that they haven't reached ever before.

Stagnation (88 and 89)
World Cup 88th would prove to be an interesting situation for the team and fans overall, Huayramarca would have a rather forgettable first half of the qualifiers, with a 6-game winless streak that became a ballast enough to keep the team away from the Top-3 during the entire Qualifier. Despite that, with an affected morale, the team tried to struggle back in hopes of a miracle, something that didn't happened but made the team finish the cycle with a rather strong 7-game unbeaten streak that prolonged to the Cup of Harmony and through the beginning of the CAFA Cup, being then a 13-game unbeaten streak, hence, the longest period that Huayramarca has ever enjoyed without a single defeat. Despite being eliminated from CoH at Round of 32 in AET and then in CAFA Group Stage, the team has managed to recover their path with a decent ending for a cycle that seemed to be catastrophic to say the least.

Life may repeat some of their lessons if people doesn’t manage to learn from them, the Huayramarcan National Team enjoyed their best start ever in a World Cup Qualifier, nine goals for and one against in the four first matches, the team was displaying a defensive strength unknown for many fans, they continued the path by defeating Squornshelan Remnant States and Nephara in important matches. “It was too good for being real” said many fans, and Tumbra proved them right, as they grounded the Huayramarcans at the Estadio Nacional with a painful 0-3, so painful that marked a steady decline of the team for the second half, as the team got a succession of draws and defeats that sent them from the top of the table to the fifth place in a span of four matchdays.

As the team tried to recover with some wins, Squornshelan Remnant States slapped The Condors seven times and the crisis turned visible. Desperate attempts of the team to pull off a comeback seemed to work as they got a solid victory against Delaclava, and despite being defeated by Nephara, results worked for the team; but the time came and the team wasn’t able to held favourable scores against Martune and Tumbra in a direct duel that ended in a sore 1-1, as the Huayramarcans were eliminated with said score line. Someone had to pay the broken dishes, Northwestern Kalactin was that someone, Omar Caicedo used an alternative XI and shifted to a more offensive version of “El huayco”, enough to achieve the largest win of the Huayramarcan National Team, a 5-0 victory that did nothing to comfort fans and Omar Caicedo itself.

The sequels of this elimination shook hard Omar Caicedo tactical foundations, as he noticed that something was failing and that led to multiple reformations such as the Huayramarcan Football Federation lifting a ban for Huayramarcans to be transferred abroad, resulting in six players going to different leagues in order to gather more experience among the big leagues, new tactical movements and athletic development for themselves; also, there’s a possibility that “El huayco” might be reformed into a more offensive version of it, as the team failed to convert severe number of goal occasions into goals, hence, there’s a belief that the team needs a deeper attacking mindset, something that Rodolfo Zelaya, a retired Guayabalense international has injected to the team.