Peru escape capital

By Tim Vickery

Colombia reach last eight

Peru captain Claudio Pizarro has been ruled out of the rest of the Copa America with a head injury.

But the hosts have gained some respite from Lima and they now move north for their final group game, and their quarter-final will almost certainly be in the same region.

Heading out of the capital to Trujillo will surely come as a relief for the beleaguered hosts.

Not even Friday's 3-1 win over Venezuela has proved enough to mend the fences between the team and the local press, which came to a head when Peruvian journalists staged a walk-out of the post-match press conference.

The Peruvian press has a more tabloid approach to football coverage than is usually the case in South America.

GROUP A Colombia: 6 points Peru: 4 points Bolivia: 1 point Venezuela: 0 points

Peru's players have a reputation for lacking professional dedication and the papers enjoy digging up the dirt about nightclub incidents.

Early in the week it was reported that Peru's experienced centre-back Miguel Rebossio had slipped out of the team hotel for a drinking session.

It was not a news item that left Rebossio in the best of humour and he responded by swearing at a group of journalists.

On the day of the Venezuela game, Rebossio issued a press statement in which he apologised for his actions - but only to the foreign press.

It was this that provoked the news conference withdrawal of the Peruvian journalists.

The clash between players and press is a heightened version of the tension that exists between the Lima public and the Peruvian national team.

Mexico stun Argentina

Not since 1982 have Peru been to the World Cup and the crowd in the National Stadium have built up their hopes before only to see them dashed.

They are not an easy crowd to please, their nerves and excitement all too readily giving way to despair and disappointment.

The Peru team could well perform better without the pressures of the capital city bearing down on them.

The much smaller cities of the north have never seen their national team play matches of such importance and the provincial public will probably be quicker to get behind the team - and slower to turn against them.

It certainly worked for Argentina when they hosted the 1978 World Cup.

Their campaign only really picked up when they moved out of Buenos Aires to play the second stage in Rosario.

Pizarro is out for the rest of the tournament with a head injury

It also worked for Brazil in the last set of World Cup qualifiers when they grew so tired of being insulted by the fans in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro that they decided they would rather play anywhere else.

Now maybe it will work for Peru, although they will have to do it without their senior striker.

In the absence of Pizarro, they will hope that the northen air proves inspirational for the likes of Jefferson Farfan, Andres Mendoza and Flavio Maestri.