Peru at the Copa América

This is a record of Peru's results at the Copa América. Ever since their first Copa América, Peru has had good showings. It is often remembered by fans that Peru was the 4th team (After Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil) that won the South American cup. Even though in 1939 Peru played against only 5 of the South American nations (With no participation from Argentina or Brazil), in 1975 Peru won the cup once more (This time with all the CONMEBOL teams participating).

Recently, Peru has only been able to get only as far as the semifinals of the tournament which holds its own prestige as being the oldest tournament of international football; along with having Argentina and Brazil (the 2 teams usually considered among the top 5 in the football world), which have also recently been dominating the tournament. Nevertheless, all the South American nations get to show-off their skills and characteristic play in the Copa América, and Peru is no exception. The team's colorful history in the Copa América tournaments for the least seems to hold that true.

At this point Peru is the 7th nation to join the competition, and in 1927 the games are decided to be played there. Although only 3 teams came to the tournament, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia; the participating federations decided that the 1st and 2nd places of the competition would represent South America for the Olympic Games to be played at Amsterdam in 1928. The other federations (Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay) did not participate because of economic and sport problems. Peru gained third place after only beating Bolivia.

This tournament is characterized by the Argentine and Uruguayan conflict that rooted from the 1930 World Cup. The winners here were going to once more represent South America for the Olympic Games, this time to be played at Berlin. Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay had withdrawn from the tournament. Peru's first game resulted at a 1–0 loss, with a goal scored by a Uruguayan player at the 80th minute. The second one was not much better, and Peru lost 4–1 against Argentina. The last game was won by Peru 1–0 against Chile. The tournament gave Peru the third spot, and helped it train and improve for the 1936 Summer Olympics.

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