From the perspective of just a few years ago, the South Americans seem to be the favorites when it comes to the World Cup finals.
It's time to go back to 2006 After Australia qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 32 years, there was joy for the present and the future. The team did well in Germany, making it out of Group F over Japan and Croatia before falling to Italy in the round of 16. The A-League was up and running, a generation of kids in a sports-mad country would surely be inspired, and the move from the confederation of Oceania to Asia would mean more competitive games.
2006 was a good year. Australia has made it to the World Cup every time. Their last win was in 2010 Four years ago, the last game was a 2-0 loss toPeru. The evidence seems to show that Australia has gone backwards.
In 2006 it was not possible for Peru to make it to the world cup. They finished ninth out of 10 teams. They did worse in 2010 than in the previous year. Seventh out of nine was the best in the year.
90 minutes away from a World Cup appearance. There has been a resurgence in the quality of football in the country. It's absolutely not.
For the ninth year in a row, no team fromPeru made it to the knockout stages of the Libertadores. This year was particularly bad. The country's representatives played 16 games. There was only one victory and three defeats. There is not a single high-profile Peruvian player in top-class European football. The side that finished ahead of the other side was fromPeru.
It is clear that coaches make a difference. For the last few years, Peru have been coached by a man who stopped them from going to the 1986 World Cup when he played for Argentina. He took over a side that had lost 16 of its 17 away games and drawn the other.
The players he has at his disposal are not much better than the team as a whole. Four years after winning the World Cup, some of the France's players commented that their win over Peru was one of the toughest games of the tournament. The winner of Monday's match will join Tunisia and France in the next round of group play.
Gareca will place his faith in the organisation of his team, which will lead to confidence. The previousPeru sides would collapse as soon as they conceded the first goal. They trust each other in possession, they can hold the ball and change rhythm with diagonal switches, and they can make moves which start on the right side and end on the left side.
It's easy to show the role of the coach. The time spent on the training ground was of great benefit to the team in the two campaigns. The start of the road to Russia was bad, but the team regrouped in the month they were together. They were bottom of the table a year ago, but after a disastrous start to the road to Qatar, they were able to get back on track. They won seven of their last 13 games with a single point.
They are in-form. They aren't great goal scorers, but they can come up with flashes which will worry Australia. Lapadula is the main threat. He played for the land of his birth, but only in friendly matches, a choice he made once it became clear that he didn't have a future.
He was accepted into the team because he brings so much to the attack: cunning and competitive spirit, rather than pure talent, and he works away dangerously on the shoulder of the last defender.
Christian Cueva could be the key man on the other flank because he will run powerfully at the defence down the right. Cueva will try to cut in from the left side of the field, where the Australian defence looked particularly vulnerable in Tuesday's win.
The game is likely to be close on Monday. Australia may not be great, but they are definitely fit. The game on Tuesday was well balanced, with the UAE shading the first hour, but Australia ran away with it in the last 20 minutes.
Australia have had more time to get used to being in Spain, where they lost to New Zealand in a warm-up game. If the Arabs pushed Australia hard, they will expect to do it harder and win the World Cup.
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