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The 2011 Copa America in Argentina brought together twelve teams, and the third part of this guide deals with two of the continent's most frustrating football nations. Colombia and Peru both have big populations, intense football cultures and long lists of talented players. Both had spent years falling short of what they should have achieved.
Colombia: talent without trophies
Colombia, with more than 46 million people in 2011, was the second most populous country in South America after Brazil, and that population is football crazy. Half a dozen big clubs from a handful of cities, among them America de Cali, Millonarios, Deportivo Cali and Once Caldas, who won the Copa Libertadores in 2004, contested the Categoria Primera A twice a year, and Colombian players were spread through the major leagues of Europe and South America. By rights, Colombia should be challenging Brazil and Argentina for bragging rights on the continent.
They were not. Decades of political, social and economic upheaval, including the shadow of the drug trade, internal armed conflict and the instability caused by groups such as FARC, had left the national team under-performing with monotonous regularity.
Never boring, though. The story of the great Colombian side of the 1990s reads like an unbelievable soap opera, featuring drug cartels, eccentric goalkeepers, death threats during a World Cup and, after the 1994 tournament, the murder of defender Andres Escobar. And it truly was a fine team. Carlos Valderrama was the elegant playmaker at its heart, surrounded by the unpredictable Faustino Asprilla, the class of Leonel Alvarez and the drive of Freddy Rincon.
Their famous 5–0 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires in September 1993 may have flattered them a little, since Argentina missed several chances at 0–0, but it came in the middle of a long unbeaten run built on stylish, almost hypnotic passing football that Colombia had not reproduced since. Failure to win anything with that generation, and the trauma of Escobar's death, pushed the country towards a more physical style. The so-called spontaneous generation was never properly replaced, and too many ordinary players wore the shirt in the years that followed. The one exception was the 2001 Copa America on home soil, a tournament of shocks boycotted by Argentina, in which Honduras knocked out Brazil and Mexico reached the final. Colombia won it.
Gomez's 2011 squad
The 2011 squad looked like the most talented in at least a decade, and it had a direct link to the 1990s side in coach Hernan Dario Gomez, assistant manager at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups and head coach at France 98. He had since changed his approach, replacing the Valderrama-style playmaker with creative, attacking wide midfielders, a formula that took his Ecuador team to the 2002 World Cup.
Gomez had hoped to build around Racing Club's tall young playmaker Giovanni Moreno, but a cruciate ligament injury ruled him out. Rather than throw in Porto's teenage prospect James Rodriguez, who was instead leading Colombia to the final of the Toulon Tournament, Gomez settled on a 4-1-2-3. A holding midfielder, either Carlos Sanchez of Valenciennes or Gustavo Bolivar of Tolima, would sit behind two all-round midfielders, almost certainly Fredy Guarin of Porto and Abel Aguilar of Hercules.
Guarin had enjoyed a superb season with Porto, finally shaking off his inconsistency and scoring a string of spectacular long-range goals. His understanding with club-mate Radamel Falcao looked crucial. Falcao had become one of the most feared strikers in Europe, strong, quick, clever in his movement and ruthless in front of goal, although his international record of seven goals in 28 games was well below his club form.
The wide attacking roles offered plenty of choice: Wigan's Hugo Rodallega, the explosive Dayro Moreno, whose goals had just won Once Caldas another league title, and Hertha Berlin's Adrian Ramos. Teo Gutierrez of Racing Club and Jackson Martinez of Chiapas offered more traditional centre-forward options. At the back, captain Mario Yepes, 35, with 77 caps and a club career that took in River Plate, Paris Saint-Germain, Chievo and AC Milan, was the wise head beside the younger Cristian Zapata of Udinese. A recent 1–0 defeat to Spain, in which Colombia passed well and created plenty of chances without scoring, summed them up: classy, attractive, short of goals.
Peru: two golden ages and a long hangover
Peruvian football has enjoyed two golden ages. The first came in the 1930s, culminating in the 1939 Copa America won on home soil. The second, more spectacular, came in the 1970s, when the generation of Teofilo Cubillas and Hugo Sotil reached three World Cups and won the 1975 Copa America.
After their last World Cup appearance in 1982, Peru endured nearly three decades of scandal, tragedy, corruption and mediocrity. In December 1987 a plane carrying the Alianza Lima squad crashed into the Pacific, killing the entire playing and coaching staff among the 43 dead and depriving the national team of a generation. In 2008 the Peruvian federation suspended several senior players over a hotel party before a qualifier the previous November, and the 2010 World Cup campaign ended with Peru bottom of the CONMEBOL group.
The disappointment was sharper because of the hope raised by the Under-17 side that did surprisingly well at the 2007 World Cup. Reimond Manco, Damian Ismodes and Anderson Cueto were all snapped up by European clubs at a young age. None made it, and Manco, once billed as the great hope of Peruvian football, was without a club by 2011.
Markarian's Peru
Under new coach Sergio Markarian, a well-travelled and tactically astute Uruguayan, Peru looked different. He spoke of wanting a tighter, tougher, more aggressive team, and two impressive goalless draws at the Kirin Cup in Japan, against the hosts and the Czech Republic, suggested he knew what he was doing.
Crucially, the players suspended during the World Cup campaign, among them Jefferson Farfan, Claudio Pizarro and the defender Santiago Acasiete, were back. Markarian planned a 4-2-3-1 with Acasiete of Almeria anchoring the defence and a double pivot in midfield, usually including the smooth passer Paulo Cruzado of Juan Aurich. Schalke's powerful Farfan and Fiorentina's Juan Manuel Vargas, a fine crosser with a long-range shot and a big engine, would supply the threat from the wings, with Pizarro, whose spell at Chelsea had never shown his true worth, behind Hamburg's Paolo Guerrero. Winger Raul Ruidiaz and midfielder Luis Ramirez of Corinthians offered options from the bench.
How the 2011 Copa America turned out
Both teams did better than their reputations. Colombia topped their group, which included the hosts Argentina, while Peru came through theirs, and the two under-achievers then met in the quarter-finals. Falcao missed a penalty in normal time and Peru won 2–0 after extra time.
Markarian's side lost the semi-final to the eventual champions Uruguay but beat Venezuela 4–1 to finish third, and Guerrero was the tournament's top scorer with five goals. Uruguay won the final 3–0 against Paraguay in Buenos Aires.
The bigger rewards came later. Colombia, with James Rodriguez in the team, reached the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup, and James won the Golden Boot. Peru finally returned to the World Cup in 2018, their first appearance since 1982. More South American football coverage from the writer behind this series lives on GolGolGolGolGol and on his Twitter page.