Paolo Guerrero and the adventures of Peruvian sports journalism

The days are approaching and there is no room for more verse. This Friday the 25th, Juan Reynoso, coach of the Peruvian Soccer Team, will give the list of the 26 called up for the two games on the first date of the qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup in Mexico-USA-Canada. The first game, on the 7th /9, will be visiting Paraguay; while on 9/12 we will receive Brazil.

No matter how you look at it, Blanquirroja has it very difficult. Firstly, due to the lack of generational change; and secondly, because of the irregular football moment that more than one team has been going through, with the exception of Gallese and Advíncula, who have been breaking it in their respective clubs. From there, there is no more, the lights of an immediate past are off, as if a blackout had spoiled the party and returned us to our reality.

That: reality.

The effortful acts of candor are null and void as soon as they encounter the gestures of evidence. Peru had the opportunity to rebuild its football after qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. There was sporting legitimacy to develop a serious plan in the medium and long term, but we already know what happened. To date there is a questioned leadership in the Peruvian Football Federation, for which things are not going well at all in terms of sporting achievements (let’s look at the recent failures of the sub 17 and 20, under the supervision of Chemo del Solar ), less in terms of sports management, not to mention its weakened ethics (police intervening in the Videna facilities, what a level), more than enough reasons not to go around burning brains: nothing serious can come out of this mother ship that looks after the interests of Peruvian football.

So, let’s not sell smoke to the fans.

We all want Peruvian soccer to change and to have professional players, decent clubs in international competitions and fighting Peruvian teams both in their respective categories and in the majors. But we do not have even a tenth of the ideal.

For this reason: we should ask ourselves if we want a generational change or we aim to give everything for an upcoming participation in a Soccer World Cup.

It will sound strange, but in this scenario in which we are presented with two ways out of reality, it is more plausible to try for a classification than to ask for the complete renewal of Peruvian football with leaders/former players attached to coaches marked by controversy and lack of sporting achievements. It cannot be done that way, it is an impossible task. The Peruvian does not like cochineo.

Reynoso plays his last cards (if he has any left) on this first double date. His recent tactics in friendlies made it clear that he cannot be experimenting when he already had a base team. And after Lapadula’s injury, Reynoso will have to resort to the experience, backed by his current status, of Paolo Guerrero. His presence in Ecuador’s LDU is no less than auspicious. His game is frontal and his hunting eye has not suffered. It doesn’t matter if he is a player close to 40 years old, the team needs a leader on the field and a forward who worries the solid Guaraní and Carioca defenses. Because Guerrero worries. We cannot say about the new Peruvian forwards in full activity.

We have no choice but to resort to experience and the miracle so that Guerrero does not get injured, so that Tapia and Aquino raise their hierarchy, so that Cueva – because Reynoso will call him – loses weight… For what I said, it annoys that our only respect card, a certain sports press – the magic of talking about football: whatever is said, even nonsense, generates addiction -, without any analytical merit – former players, for example, limited by esprit de corps when making valid criticisms every time obvious sporting misconduct occurs; Not to mention many colleagues, who seem more like representatives of players than analysts with well-founded proposals—he is already sending him to retirement when it is tacit that at this rate Guerrero will not leave football, but that football will leave him.

If the footballer is legitimized by his current status, why so much fuss about questioning Guerrero’s presence in the national team? I wish they had that firmness to condemn what they condemn lukewarmly: racism in Peruvian football, namely. Therefore, there is no need to sell flower, but rather an analysis with hope but with a grounded cable, because although there is now one more direct quota for South America in the 2026 World Cup event, it must be noted that the Blanquirroja arrives greatly diminished, in comparison. to other processes, for the sole reason that there are no more spare parts. No new value lives up to the beginnings of Farfán, Palacios, Vargas, Solano, Carrillo, Jayo and others, and the playoffs should not serve as a warm-up to gain experience (with that criterion we went more than 30 years without going to a World Cup, therefore, we have a clear picture of the gray moment of the selected team to denigrate the experienced and bet on talents of which we still do not know if they are going to measure up or not).

Paraguay has leading players, not to mention the injury of its star from Brighton & Hove Albion FC of the Premier League: Julio Enciso. Brazil will come to Lima without Neymar, but it is still a powerful team. What will be Reynoso’s strategy? The situation is so meager that obtaining two points out of six is ​​a good deal.

Fossati and Gareca, waiting for news.

(Matias Reyes).