Twenty-three years after stunning South America to become continental champions, Cienciano are once again chasing history, this time in the quarter-finals of the Copa Sudamericana.
At the Estadio Garcilaso de la Vega, some 30,000 supporters packed into the ground to watch the first leg against Uruguay's Montevideo City Torque, turning the high-altitude city of Cusco, better known worldwide for its proximity to Machu Picchu, into a footballing focal point for the night. Cienciano's stadium sits at 11,030 feet above sea level, a factor long thought to give the club an edge against visiting sides.
Cienciano's roots trace back to 1902, when Englishman William Newell brought football to students at Cusco's National School of Science and Arts shortly after Peru's independence. What began as a school team spent decades in amateur competition before entering Peru's professional league in the early 1970s. Despite modest resources, the club would go on to write one of the most remarkable chapters in South American football history.
In 2003, Cienciano became the first Peruvian club to win an international trophy, lifting the inaugural-era Copa Sudamericana with a squad whose average age was 28 and whose budget paled next to Peru's traditional powerhouses. On their run to the title, they eliminated Chile's Universidad Católica, Brazil's Santos and Colombia's Atlético Nacional before beating Argentina's River Plate in a two-legged final, with the decisive match staged in Arequipa due to stadium capacity issues. Cienciano followed that triumph by defeating Boca Juniors in the Recopa Sudamericana. That December, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics ranked Cienciano the best team in the world.
Author Paolo Sosa, who has written about the rivalry between Cienciano and fellow Cusco side Real Garcilaso (now Cusco FC), said the 2003 triumph resonated far beyond football at a time when Peru was gripped by political and institutional turmoil.