Alianza Lima snaps losing streak, celebrates Quevedo's return and consoles a tearful Chavez

Matute could breathe easy again. Alianza Lima had gone four games without a win and were still nursing a painful loss in the derby against Universitario, so the victory over Deportivo Garcilaso, in matchday 10 of the Clausura, meant something more than three points. It meant healing.

The match was settled with a comfortable 2-0, but the image that stuck in fans' memories wasn't either of the goals. It was Kevin Quevedo coming on in the 61st minute, greeted by applause from a stadium that had spent weeks waiting to see him in the blue and white shirt again.

A return that wasn't supposed to happen this way

Pablo Guede, Alianza's head coach, had been clear beforehand: the original plan was for Quevedo to return only after the FIFA date. It was no accident that he was left out of the Clausura opener. Guede himself admitted the forward wasn't at "the physical level or training level" the group needed, and that there had been an internal incident that led Quevedo to apologize to everyone.

You don't apologize for nothing, you don't apologize if you haven't messed up. So he messed up, he talked to his teammates, he talked to me, he apologized to everyone, and from that moment on he started training.Pablo Guede

But soccer has its own plans. Injuries and absences piled up, the squad list of 20 players needed filling out, and Guede ended up calling up Quevedo sooner than expected. With the score already at 2-0, he didn't hesitate to send him onto the field. The lack of match rhythm showed, understandable after so much time out, but so did that spark of his for taking on defenders and looking for goal, the very thing Matute had missed so much.

After the match, the Argentine coach made no secret that the bar remains high for the number 27.

I told him he wasn't going to play until the break, but he'd been training well, we have to push him, he's good, but it's up to him to be at 100 percent. If he stops training well for even one day, he won't play.Pablo Guede

Chavez's tears and the group hug

Some wins feel different, and this was one of them. The week before had been brutal for Gianfranco Chavez and Alejandro Duarte, the two players involved in the mistake that gifted Lisandro Alzugaray the goal that made it 2-1 in the derby loss to Universitario. Criticism spared neither of them.

That emotional weight carried over into the match against Garcilaso. Both started the game, clearly affected, and their teammates knew it. So the moment the referee blew the final whistle with the 2-0 secured, the whole team went to find them. With Duarte the gesture was even more visible: a group hug meant to ease the pressure of a week that had felt endless.

Chavez couldn't hold back the tears and cried for several minutes, surrounded by teammates offering comfort. There were no big speeches, just the group's support for two players who needed to feel that Matute was still a safe place for them.