How to summarize the Peruvian performance in Santiago? Well, in three words: disaster, pain and disappointment. In that order, because it exemplifies each stage of what the match against Chile was. The disastrous game that the two-color team offered is a constant that does not seem to worry Reynoso. From the beginning we saw a disjointed team, without inventiveness or ingenuity. We didn’t have the ball, we weren’t protagonists nor did we want to win the game. We just went to look for the Chilean goal after 1-0 and with Bryan Reyna who tried in the short time he was there. But this is not enough, more is needed and there is no solution in sight.
Reynoso played a defensive game, as is customary when he plays away in the Qualifiers. He opted for a counterattack, but it didn’t work. The only action we had in the first half was with Luis Advíncula and a left-footed shot without much direction. Then, the usual debt: we were not able to kick directly at the goal and we defended Chile’s attacks tooth and nail. The local team surpassed us and due to their offensive insistence the figure of Pedro Gallese grew, something that is not surprising either, because we always need him. The ‘1’ put his hands and even his face to avoid the goal, he was the one who pushed himself the most and who suffered the most in the 90’s.
But that’s football and the disaster in the game was already evident. Without ideas or associations, Peru resisted as long as it could, even with the modifications that Reynoso made to change what seemed to be an inevitable destiny. Marcos López entered at the beginning of the complement; Then Wilder Cartagena, André Carrillo and Anderson Santamaría did it. However, the procedure was the same. Nothing changed and Chile continued to insist, until they were rewarded: they quickly took a corner kick to the confusion of the bicolor and Diego Valdés beat Gallese.
Only there did Reynoso react, when Peru was down on the scoreboard. And the one who insisted the most was Reyna, whom he preferred to replace an inconsequential Andy Polo and in a position different from the one he plays in the ‘U’. But, beyond that disaster, what caused the pain and subsequent disappointment was the second Chilean goal. Alexander Aravena easily took out Anderson Santamaría with his body, sent the cross to the far post and López, in a careless action, committed an own goal that sealed the defeat. Everything was finished.
That way of losing hurts and disappoints because there are no arguments to make us think that the situation can change. It seems that Peru went backwards instead of advancing or, at least, staying in a process that already had an idea of the game. Within the lack and need, the bicolor had found in itself an identity to sustain itself. That same thing gave him hope to achieve good results; but what we have today is a team that cannot associate or kick on goal. And so it is difficult to get good results. We walk towards hopelessness, always playing not to lose it instead of gaining it.
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