Peru Lose a Hard Fought Match

In Peru’s final match of the international break they visited Santiago, Chile. The match was extremely exciting and hard fought by both teams, with Chile emerging the eventual victor. Peru played valiantly, but in the end, a lazy first half and some questionable refereeing  contributed to their loss by the deceptive margin of two goals in a 4-2 thriller.                

Peru went into the match with confidence, having finished third in the Copa America over the summer and thrashing Paraguay, a World Cup contender, in a 2-0 domination the day before. Perhaps this led them to be complacent in the first half, but honestly I think the Peruvians looked more  nervous than  overconfident. Despite shaky defense, Chile had done their homework. Los 4 Fantasticos were all double and triple marked, basically neutralizing the Peruvian attack. Peruvian defenders did not attack very often and the Peruvian midfield played, by and large a supporting role, leaving the attack up to just “the Fantastic 4”, making the strategy of multiple markers on each player possible.

Chile came out of the gates strong, scoring in the 4^th minute capitalizing on a Chilean corner with a neat double header. Chile would keep attacking hard, and, in the 17^th minute, Jean Beausejour sent in an excellent cross that Chile’s Vargas beat home past Fernandez. Peru created some good opportunities and even had a very good penalty shot in the 28^th minute when Marcelo Isla did a behind the back pass (with his hand) to clear the ball from the area after a header from Paolo Guerrero.  In total the referee missed 4 handballs in the area, two of which were clearly intentional and should have been penalties, Neither incident was called, and judging by the referee’s lax policy on fouling, it would appear that Peru was going to get little help from the ref in this match. The first half saw Peru’s best effort, from Paolo Guerrero, crash against the upright and bounce to safety and the half ended 2-0 in Chile’s favor.

The second half began just like the first with Chile finding an early goal from Gary Medel in the 47^th minute putting Peru down 3-0. Peru would really come on strong after the third goal, and just two minutes later, Claudio Pizarro would show just why he is captain with a wonderful individual effort to score a goal  that equaled Medel’s, dribbling past the entire Chilean defense to the byline and managed to nutmeg (nutmeg?) Chilean keeper, Claudio Bravo, for the goal. After the fourth goal Peru would begin to control possession and attack more, resulting in more missed opportunities (by who?). Rinaldo Cruzado tried a chip from the edge of the area that bounced off the crossbar and out for a goal kick.  Peru would crash two more shots off the posts, for a total of 4 good efforts that barely missed the mark. In the 59^th minute, Juan Vargas would send in an excellent free kick which Jefferson Farfan would just barely meet with his head, converting the chance for 3-2. Peru would press on hard to find the equalizer, but Chile would get the two goal lead again after Valdivia would go down in the box after contact with Fernandez and the referee awarded Chile the penalty. Humberto Suazo would convert the chance, though Fernandez guessed right and will be cursing his bad luck for just missing the save.

It was a game of a lot of ups and downs for Peru and it has to be said that the referee might have been a bit biased. Markarian, who up until this point had been both praised and criticized for his defensive work with the team will have to reexamine the back four and make adjustments as he sees fit. In the end Chile was on their game and Peru didn’t find theirs until the second half, and that was what settled the affair on the night.

Man of the Match: Claudio Pizarro- Pizarro drove Peru forward the whole game. He truly looked like the captain that night and really did everything he could to get Peru into the game, including a wonder goal of his own. In the end his age and fitness could be questionable as he faded as the game went on, but his spirit never died and the team responded to that well.

Line-ups

Peru: Raúl Fernández; Renzo Revoredo, Santiago Acasiete (William Chiroque 87th min), Alberto Rodríguez, Yoshimar Yotun (Roberto Guizasola 45th min); Adán Balbín (Carlos Lobaton 45th min), Rinaldo Cruzado, Juan Manuel Vargas, Jefferson Farfán; Paolo Guerrero, Claudio Pizarro (captain)

Chile: Claudio Bravo; Waldo Ponce, Gonzalo Jara, Marcos Gonzales; Gary Medel, Arturo Vidal, Macelo Isla, Jean Beausejour, Jose Valdivia (Carlos Carmona 90th min), Humberto Suazo (Esteban Paredes 72nd min), Eduardo Vargas (Matias Fernandez 84th min)

Goals: 1-0 Waldo Ponce 4th min; 2-0 Eduardo Vargas  17^th min; 3-0 Gary Medel 47^th min; 3-1 Claudio Pizarro 49^th min; 3-2 Jefferson Farfan 59^th min; 4-2 Humberto Suazo 72^nd min

By: David Wall 
Edited: Matt Tobin

Mr. Wall and His Player Ratings

GK-Raul Fernandez: 6.6- could have been better on the second goal, but the other three were unstoppable; came close to blocking the penalty

RB-Renzo Revoredo: 5.9- very poor performance at right back. He looked sluggish and was caught out of position too often. Looked a lot stronger at center back though when slid over after the inclusion of Guizasola.

RWB-Roberto Guizasola: 6.8- good work from the wing back. He went forward really well and got back in time to defend, something Revoredo was not doing. I think on the back of these two performances he’s a starter ahead of Revoredo and Corzo. Corzo is the future and deserves playing time, and Revoredo appears as though he’s more comfortable at center back, so I say let Guizasola get more time on the right

CB-Santiago Acasiete: 6.2- his age started to show this match. While he was more secure on the ball, he was easily caught out of position on multiple occasions. Still though he worked hard, but he is the one player in defense Peru cannot afford to look shaky as he marshals that back line.

CB-Alberto Rodriguez: 5.5- way too many mistakes from the Sporting CP man. One would think a player of his caliber would put in a more mature performance, but some of his passes and tackles were laughable. He is still Peru’s best defender, but he simply didn’t show it this game.

LB-Yoshimar Yotun: 5.0- poor, just poor. He is still quite young and learning at this level, so there is time to improve, but after such a good match against Paraguay, Yotun just looked out of his league in Santiago. It was almost like there were two different players if you look at both performances. None of his passes came off, his dribbling was weak, he couldn’t hold the ball, his tackling was off the mark, and he was caught out time and time again. Probably just nerves, but he needs to improve drastically if he wants to start over Vilchez, a consummate professional.

LWB/Winger-Juan Vargas: 6.3- extremely poor first half at LW. He couldn’t find his cross or dribbling ability. He looked sluggish and clumsy. In the second half he slid down to LWB and performed much better. He concentrated mostly on defense and was able to boss the left side to a degree. Assisted the second goal with a beautiful free kick though. Later it came out that the Peruvian (and Fiorentina, his club team) fitness instructor would call Vargas’s fitness into question, saying he is overweight and needs to get in shape. Might have had to do with the poor performance, hopefully he can rectify this.

CDM- Adan Bablin: 5.8- invisible on the pitch, delivered nothing

CM- Carlos Lobaton: 6.3- came in for Bablin in the second half. Was a bit more involved, but really didn’t do much. Had one or two shots from distance that troubled Bravo, but nothing too serious.

CM- Rinaldo Cruzado: 6.8- one of Peru’s players who performed up to scratch. Didn’t see much of any of the ball in the first half, but really got into it in the second, hitting the post twice and linking well with Guerrero, Pizarro, and Farfan.

RW/CAM- Jefferson Farfan: 6.9- was triple marked in the first half, so he couldn’t do much. In the second he got some more space with support from Guizasola and got more involved. Excellent dribbling and passing as always, but he did appear a bit selfish at times. Got the second goal.

ST-William Chiroque: 6.6- came on late, didn’t have much time to do anything, but he did have one great shot that Bravo did well to save.

ST- Paolo Guerrero: 6.9- hard work from Paolo, but not enough. Also looked a bit selfish at times and he hit the post once.

ST- Claudio Pizarro: 7.2- Scored one of the best goals of the game and drove Peru forward. He worked the hardest of all the forwards and it showed. Great leadership, even if Peru couldn’t equalize; he rallied the team to at least save face. Great work from the skipper, even though it was below his normal standard, the team needed him.