Copa America preview: Time for Peru to repay amazing support on the pitch
One of the stories of the 2018 World Cup was the travelling Peru support. One Peruvian fan was so concerned he wouldn’t get a ticket to watch his country in Russia that he put on 24kg so he could apply for one of the special seats. Peru were officially the eighth-best supported country at the World Cup after FIFA revealed 43,583 tickets were sold there and that doesn’t take into consideration natives who now live in other countries. Before booking a place in Russia, Peru had to overcome New Zealand in a World Cup play-off and it was reported 687,000 people applied for tickets for the second leg in Lima. Football evidently means a lot to the people of Peru.
Peru were unfortunate at the 2018 World Cup. Successive 1-0 defeats to Denmark and eventual winners France meant Peru were eliminated from the competition after two matches, though they did manage to beat Australia in their final group game and finish third in Group C. Andre Carillo scored Peru’s first goal at a World Cup since 1982 and finished the first phase as the fifth highest WhoScored rated player in Group C (7.20). The 27-year-old is part of the Peru squad preparing for this summer’s Copa America and will hope Peru don’t have to wait until their third game before scoring.
Reaching their first World Cup finals in 26 years was the pinnacle for this generation of Peruvian players. That is reflected by the sharp drop off in form since returning from Russia. Peru have won just three of 10 matches since winning their first game at a World Cup in 40 years. Peru even lost to El Salvador in March. You can almost certainly bet their fans will turn out in their numbers in Brazil this summer and Ricardo Gareca’s men desperately need to improve their performances to match their amazing support.
Peru have named a squad almost identical squad from the 2018 World Cup and this summer they are least in the knowledge that iconic striker Paolo Guerrero will be available for the entire tournament, which was not the case 12 months ago. It was unclear less than a month before the start of the World Cup whether the 35-year-old would be able to lead his country out due to a doping ban but he was finally cleared to play. Peru will not be short of experience this summer, with six members of their squad all with more than 50 caps each and Gareca will lean on that to try and navigate through Group A against Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela. Peru have reached at least the quarter-final stage in the last eight editions of the Copa America. Getting out of the group should be the bare minimum expected of Peru this summer, though they need to shake off their current funk if they want to repeat their third place finishes in 2015 and 2011.
