Oliver Sonne: How would he play in Reynoso's Peru and how much could he contribute to the national team?

How to summarize Peru's 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 offered by the national team is a constant that seems to not worry Reynoso. From the start, an unconnected, unimaginative, and uninnovative team was seen. We didn't have the ball, we weren't protagonists, and we didn't want to win the match. We only went to seek the Chilean goal after the 1-0, with Bryan Reyna trying in the short time he was on. But it's not enough, more is needed and there's no solution in sight.

Reynoso set up a defensive game, as is customary when playing away in the qualifiers. He bet on the counterattack, but it didn't work. The only chance we had in the first half was with Luis Advíncula and a left-footed shot without much direction. Then, the usual debt: we couldn't shoot directly at the goal and we defended with all our might against Chile's attacks. The home team surpassed us and Pedro Gallese's figure grew with their offensive insistence, something that doesn't surprise us either because we always rely on him. The '1' used his hands and even his face to prevent the goal, he was the one who demanded the most and suffered the most in the 90 minutes.

But football is like that and the disaster in the game was already evident. Without ideas or combinations, Peru resisted as much as it could, even with the changes that Reynoso made to change what seemed to be an inevitable fate. Marcos López entered at the beginning of the second half; then Wilder Cartagena, André Carrillo, and Anderson Santamaría came on. However, the game was the same. Nothing changed and Chile continued to insist, until they got rewarded: they quickly took a corner kick in the confusion of the national team and Diego Valdes beat Gallese.

Only then did Reynoso react, when Peru was behind in the score. And it was Reyna who insisted the most, whom he preferred to replace with an inconsequential Andy Polo and in a different position from the one he plays at 'U'. But beyond that disaster, what caused the pain and subsequent disappointment was the second Chilean goal. Alexander Aravena easily pushed Anderson Santamaría with his body, sent the cross to the far post, and López, in a careless action, scored an own goal that sealed the defeat. Everything was done.

Losing in that way hurts and disappoints because there are no arguments to make us think that the situation can change. It gives the impression that Peru has regressed instead of advancing or at least maintaining a playing style that already had an idea. Within the shortcomings and the needs, the national team had found an identity to hold onto. That same identity gave hope of achieving good results, but what we have now is a team that can't connect or shoot at goal. And that makes it difficult to get good results. We walk towards hopelessness, always playing not to lose instead of to win.

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