Peru national football team
The Peru national football team is controlled by the Federación Peruana de Fútbol. The team competes with the other 9 nations in the CONMEBOL conference within the FIFA. The top four teams in the conference advance to the FIFA World Cup competition, which can easily be considered the playoffs of international football. The fifth team plays the winner of the Oceania conference and advances to the Cup. Historically speaking, Peru has had difficulty competing with Brazil and Argentina in WC qualifying rounds.
Between 1970 and 1982, a Golden Generation of Peruvian footballers qualified for three out of four FIFA World Cups and won the Copa América in 1975. Teofilio Cubillas was the star of the side, scoring five goals in two different finals, and his attacking flair and skill became synonymous for the world with Peru's football team in the 70s. Unfortunately, five straight qualification failures since then have plagued the once proud side.
The preliminaries for Korea/Japan were certainly not any respite from that, as the team finished eighth in the group with just four wins in eighteen matches. The fact that they only managed to score 14 goals in that many matches demonstrates how far the attack had fallen since the days of Cubillas. Particularly low points of the qualifying tournament included a 3-0 loss at Venezuela and defeats in over half of their home matches -- to Uruguay, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil.
The campaign to reach France 1998 was thwarted only by the goal difference tiebreaker, as they finished even on points with Chile but had to watch as their southern neighbours went to the world's biggest stage.
After making their FIFA World Cup debut at Uruguay 1930, Peru next made an impact on the finals at Mexico 1970 where they beat Bulgaria and Morocco to start off the tournament with a surprising bang. The Brazil of Rivelino, Tostao, Jairzinho and Pelé put an end to that adventure 4-2 in the quarter-finals. The Argentina 1978 finals also saw Peru emerge from their opening group, as they managed to beat Scotland and Iran, then drew with the eventual finalist, Holland.
Once into the second round in 1978 - a second group stage - they did not live up to their promise, falling rather dismally to Brazil, Poland, and Argentina without scoring a goal. By Spain 1982, the magic was pretty much done, as the team fell at the opening hurdle, drawing with Cameroon and Italy before getting crushed by Poland 5-1.
Nobody in Peru could have imagined that this would be their last appearance at a FIFA World Cup for at least three decades. Nonetheless, hope springs eternal, and once again many feel that the current Peruvian crop have what it takes to qualify for Germany 2006. Until now, Peru?s qualifying campaign has been plagued by inconsistency. The 2004 Copa América, which they recently hosted, brought more of the same and saw them crash out in the quarter-finals against Argentina, sparking a wave of criticism against coach Autuori and his squad.
World Cup record
- 1930 - Round 1
- 1934 - Did not enter
- 1938 - Did not enter
- 1950 - Did not qualify
- 1954 - Did not qualify
- 1958 - Did not qualify
- 1962 - Did not qualify
- 1966 - Did not qualify
- 1970 - Quarterfinals
- 1974 - Did not qualify
- 1978 - Round 2
- 1982 - Round 1
- 1986 - Did not qualify
- 1990 - Did not qualify
- 1994 - Did not qualify
- 1998 - Did not qualify
- 2002 - Did not qualify
