- by Adam Huntington, writing from Dundee, Scotland
The game started at a furious pace; the Peruvian Yotun was booked within a minute for a rash challenge, plenty of rushed clearances and hurried final balls. Suarez went down under a couple of tackles and made it very clear for everyone watching exactly what he though of the officials for not awarding him his freekick. There's no doubting the Uruguayan's talent, but his attitude can be so frustrating to watch. The first ten minutes were a little scrappy; Peru looked as if they would try and pounce on set-pieces, despite their deliveries being poor, and Uruguay asserting themselves as the team with a lot more options in attack. Indeed Uruguay's first attack came from an unlikely source in Walter Gargano, threading Maxi Pereira through the Peruvian defence but his cut back wasn't picked up on by Suarez. It should have signified to Peru just how dangerous their opponents were, in particular Maxi Pereira and Luiz Suarez, who both looked very sharp in the opening exchanges.
With Suarez still complaining at every tackle he received, it seemed fair to assume that when he was harshly booked, an early bath could follow. However quite the opposite happened; refreshingly, he stopped his play acting, got his head down and showed his quality. He linked well with right back Maxi Pereira, who was equally impressive last night, popping up all over the pitch and picking out some key passes early on. Gonzalez, the Uruguayan winger, tended to drop off a lot, which created these huge spaces for M. Pereira to run into. This movement and pace caused Peru countless problems, who looked much more content with a slow tempo to the game, building to their attack after a number of careful passes.
The rest of the first half, as expected, belonged to Uruguay. A very poor penalty shout from Lugano from a Uruguay corner was waved away correctly and Peru continued to defend. Forlan showed glimpses of his World Cup form with some neat touches and passes but there was nothing definitive. He also whipped in a lovely corner which left the Peruvian keeper Fernandez flapping in the La Plata air, fortunately for him, nothing came of his mistake. Soon after this, Uruguay had the ball in the back of the net, but thanks to an offside Alvaro Pereira goal. Forlan was again involved, curling an excellent ball in from a free kick on the left, Lugano then rose highest to flick it on to A. Pereira who then bundled it in. A lovely move unluckily coming to nothing, but it simply illustrated another way in which Uruguay could score. As the first half came to a close, Peru had simply not used Vargas enough and were visibly short on creativity up front, something which needed rectifying in the second half if they were to get anything from the game.
Maxi and Alvaro Pereira carried their class through into the second half, as Uruguay started as if there hadn't been a break. The all important breakthrough came just seven minutes after the restart, and it was Suarez who secured it. Picking the ball up from deep on the right, Forlan turned inside and launched a speculative 35 yard shot towards Fernandez, which he palmed out into the path of Suarez, who tucked the finish away. Replays show that Forlan's shot was going wide, and it was widely thought that Fernandez should have known this, however that does not take anything away from Suarez. His sublime anticipation, run and determination created the goal from practically nothing. At only 1-0 down Peru's task already seemed monumental, and things very quickly got worse.
No later than five minutes after the opening goal Uruguay, and Suarez, had another. Alvaro Pereira won the ball back, breaking down a Peru attack, played a nice one-two with Forlan just shy of the half way line, then launched a beautiful through ball into Suarez's feet. Still about 25 yards out, Suarez would have had a lot to do if Fernandez hadn't rushed out and lunged in at his feet. The Uruguayan simply rounded the flailing 'keeper and calmly pushed the ball into the empty net. Suarez was now the first player to score a brace in a Copa America semi-final since the great Romario in 1997. Even when two goals to the good, Uruguay's pressure was unrelenting; spreading the ball more confidently than their opponents and further frustrating them. This frustration boiled, erupted and, in the 69th minute Peru's self destruction was complete.
Vargas received a straight red card for inexplicably throwing his elbow into Sebastian Coates' face, right in front of the referee. A very stupid action from the captain instantaneously turned Peru's task from a difficult won into a practically impossible one. Cleverly, Tabarez seen that tempers were flaring, and quickly took off the yellow-carded Suarez and Gargano, replacing them with Abel Hernandez and Sebastian Eguren respectively. Hernandez looked very comfortable when he came on, exhibiting some lovely first touches and blistering bursts of pace. He seemed in much the same vein as Forlan, giving Uruguayans much to look forward to if Tabarez can competently fit the attacking trio of Suarez, Cavani and Hernandez together. With the game coming to an end, Peru mounted a number of attacks including a long range effort that Muslera managed to spill, but catch before the ball trickled over the line.
It was all too little too late for Peru, who only really came to life when their captain was sent off. The game finished two-nil to Uruguay, their resolute performance easily answered the small number of questions asked of them by Peru. A poor of work rate had been a criticism of Peru, but striker Paolo Guerrero fended off critics after the game, claiming; "Peru gave everything in every single game of the Copa America". It's just unfortunate that their everything wasn't enough to match the strength of Uruguay, who now look very likely to win their record breaking 15th Copa America.
