Peru is set to open its friendly against the United States on Saturday in Orlando with Oliver Sonne in line to start after recovering fully, and Mano Menezes has already narrowed the team’s shape to what amounts to a near-final XI. The match is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Peru time, and the last training session on Friday offered the clearest sign yet that the lineup is all but settled.
The projected starting group is built on experience. Pedro Gallese is expected in goal, with Oliver Sonne, Miguel Araujo, Renzo Garcés and Marcos López across the back. Wilder Cartagena, Yoshimar Yotún and Jairo Vélez are projected in midfield, while Piero Magallanes, Jhonny Vidales and Gianluca Lapadula would lead the attack. That XI carries an average age of 31 years, a figure that underlines why Menezes is leaning away from a younger mix for a match of this profile.
That preference fits the week Peru has had. The team trained on Thursday and Friday with the same probable starting side, and Friday’s work at Disney Springs came in sessions kept to no more than 1.5 hours because of the intense heat in Florida. By the time the squad finished, the sense was that Menezes wanted players who could absorb the conditions and keep the structure intact rather than spend the first half adjusting on the field.
There was still one wrinkle in the preparation. Erick Noriega worked Friday as a central defender, even though he has also been used in midfield during this process, a reminder that the coach is still sorting roles behind a lineup that otherwise looks close to fixed. Menezes also gave minutes to Alex Valera, Marco Huamán and Jairo Concha, suggesting he has not completely shut the door on changes, even if the first-choice shape appears set.
Peru now heads into a short stretch of matches after Orlando, traveling to New Jersey to face Mexico on September 29 before meeting Canada in Montreal on October 2 and Colombia in Miami on October 6. The immediate question is not whether Menezes has experience at the center of his plan. It is whether he keeps the same veteran-heavy lineup when kickoff arrives on Saturday, or uses the final hours to make one last adjustment.
