Peru: The Fantastic Four

On Friday Peru opened their World Cup qualifying campaign at home against Paraguay. Peru dominated the entire game, forcing Paraguay to take shots from outside the area and from free kicks, while Peru pushed on hard and were unlucky not to score more. The game ended in a 2-0 victory, but the margin of victory should have been greater.

In the buildup to the match, all eyes were on “the fantastic four” of Claudio Pizarro, Paolo Guerrero,Juan Vargas, and Jefferson Farfan, who are viewed as Peru’s most marquis players, to really step up and produce for Peru. Most were missing from Copa America (Pizarro and Farfan were injured and Vargas was not 100% having just recovered from injury) and football fans and pundits were curious to see how Peru would perform with their top players after such an impressive Copa America. Still others hypothesized that the influx of too many egos would unbalance a Peru squad that was perhaps successful because of players who were concentrated on winning matches rather than their reputations.

 “The fantastic four” surpassed all expectations. Not only did they all perform at a world-class level individually, they did so as a unit too. All four of them moved in and out, interchanging positions, running into space, supporting one another, and generally troubling the Paraguayan defense. This was especially impressive for the captain, Claudio Pizarro, who has spent his entire career at Striker, but in this game played attacking mid and even right wing on occasion.

Peru started the first half brightly. They pressured hard and won possession from the starting whistle.Rinaldo Cruzado and Adan Balbin bossed the Peruvian midfield, tackling and distributing the ball magnificently. Paraguay looked as though they were only interested in leaving with a point, but Peru would not settle for a draw.

In the 24^th minute Pizarro signaled Peru’s intentions by battling his way into the area, heading wide a difficult cross from Farfan from the right corner. Just a few minutes later, Guerrero would dribble past several Paraguayan defenders to unleash a furious shot at the Paraguayan goal that stung their keeper’s fingertips. In the 36^th minute Farfan had a shot of his own from outside the area which Paraguayan goalkeeper, Diego Barreto watched in relief as it rolled wide after being deflected by a defender. Peru battled hard the first half and dominated the overall possession, especially in the last ten minutes of the match, but could not find the go ahead goal. The two teams would go into halftime 0-0.

Peru would come out on fire in the second half, and only 2 minutes in, in the 47^th minute, Paolo Guerrero redeemed his earlier miss with a wonderfully taken goal. Peru’s relentless pressure forced Paraguay into a bad mistake, which saw Farfan intercept a lazy cross-field pass. “El Foquita” surged past his markers and put the ball in front of Guerrero, who made the overlapping run. Guerrero’s lovely touch sent him past a Paraguayan defender and Barreto, allowing him to slot home the go ahead goal. True to how the game was playing out, “the fantastic four” huddled around Guerrero and celebrated Peru’s first goal of the World Cup qualifiers.

The goal forced Paraguay out of their defensive shell, as they went to salvage a point in Lima. Every point matters in World Cup qualifiers, and Paraguay did not want to see this one slip away. Peru would not relent, but continued to pressure and press on for another goal. The chance came in the 56^th minute, as an excellent free kick from Farfan was just inches away from finding Pizarro in the box. It appeared as the striker did manage to get a toe to the ball, forcing a good save from Barreto. Just four minutes later Paraguay got their best chance of the game through a counter attack started by Estigarribia, but the final ball was scooped up by Peruvian keeper Fernandez, who had not let his guard down despite not having seen much of the ball the whole match.

Peru’s attacks were being led by Pizarro, and were coming closer and closer to finding the second goal. Vargas had some shots from outside the area that threatened the Paraguayan goal, but he could not find the elusive goal. Finally in the 73^rd minute “the fantastic four” combined once again for a beautiful team goal.

The play started from the back as Barreto’s goal kick was headed away by Santiago Acasiete. His clearance went straight to Rinaldo Cruzado, who dribbled it out of midfield. He passed the ball expertly to Jefferson Farfan, who chipped the ball back to Cruzado. Cruzado returned the favor and headed the ball right back toFarfan, sucking the Paraguayan defense right towards Cruzado expecting this interplay to continue, but Farfan cleverly backheeled a lovely pass to Pizarro, who came streaking down the right flank. Pizarro did his “Messi impression” and dribbled past his marker to the byline where he delivered a pinpoint cross right to the feet of Guerrero in the middle of the penalty box and scored for a partial 2-0.

Peru played wonderfully, proving that the Copa America wasn’t a fluke. In fact, you could even argue that with the whole “fantastic four” on the pitch together, Peru might’ve had a serious chance of winning the cup instead of settling for a well earned 3^rd place. Now Peru set their sights to Chile in Santiago, hoping to continue this good run of form. Peru will be looking for the win against their CONMEBOL rivals, but a point will do and hopefully Peru can give some more joy to their expectant fans. Arriba Peru!

Man of the Match: Paolo Guerrero. You can’t overlook his two goals. He also showed off his wonderful touch and amazing strength as he held off defenders and pushed forward to attack. Let’s hope he can continue in this vein and keep scoring goals.

Goals: Paolo Guerrero 1-0 47th min, Paolo Guerrero 2-0 73rd min

Lineups:

Peru: Raúl Fernández; Roberto Guizasola, Santiago Acasiete, Alberto Rodríguez, Yoshimar Yotun; Adán Balbín, Rinaldo Cruzado (Luis Advincula 90th min), Juan Manuel Vargas, Jefferson Farfán; Paolo Guerrero (Carlos Lobaton 90th min), Claudio Pizarro (cpt)

Paraguay: Diego Barreto; Carlos Bonet, Elvis Marecos (Miguel Samudio 25th min), Darío Verón, Iván Piris; Paulo da Silva, Christian Riveros, Marcelo Estigarribia, Hernán Pérez (Oscar Cardozo 66th min); Roque Santa Cruz, Robín Ramírez (Wilson Pittoni 55th min)Goals: Paolo Guerrero 1-0 47th min, Paolo Guerrero 2-0 73rd min

Top Player Ratings

CM- Rinaldo Cruzado: 8.1- magnificent performance from the Chievo man. He did all the defensive work Bablin did, and some extra offensive work to boot. He was the impetus behind the second goal and generally looked active and strong the entire match. The next Cesar Cueto?

RW-Jefferson Farfan: 8.8- one assist, involved in the second goal, he played like a monster against Paraguay. Picked off passes left and right, moved and dribbled well, and was unlucky to not score himself. Great work from “El Foquita”

ST- Paolo Guerrero: 9.0- two goals, “El Kaizer” is still on fire after his wonderful Copa America campaign

ST- Claudio Pizarro: 8.5- a surprising amount of work from “El Bombeador de los Andes”, he played everywhere in the attack as opposed to goal poaching, as his is want to do. Got an assist, led the attack, all around great work from the skipper.

By: David Wall

Edited: Marcelo Mata