"Once considered the third [best] team in South America behind Argentina and Brazil," writes Reuters' Brian Homewood, the Peru national team continues to self-destruct because of the disciplinary problems and bitter grudges that find them languishing at the bottom of the final 10-team Conmebol qualifying group.
Homewood points out that while Peru boasts a trio of players excelling in the Bundesliga - Hamburg's Pablo Guerrero (who just scored both goals in a 2-1 win on Saturday), Schalke's Jefferson Farfan (who scored the lone goal in the losing effort vs. Hamburg), and Werder Bremen's Claudio Pizarro (who has scored 12 goals this season) - none of them will be on the field when it plays archrival Chile in a World Cup qualifier this Saturday.
Although Farfan and Pizarro, who were each suspended for 18 months for alleged disciplinary reasons following a loss to Brazil in November 2007, have had their sentences commuted to three months, coach Jose del Solar continues to avoid calling them up while suffering through recent lopsided losses, including a 5-1 defeat in Ecuador and a 6-0 thrashing in Uruguay.
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