Peru looking to emerge from dark years - coach

Peru's national football team head coach Pablo Bengoechea attends a training session in Santiago October 7, 2014. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A new generation of Peruvian football players can benefit from the country’s economic progress this century to end decades of underachievement, according to coach Pablo Bengoechea.

Peru have failed to reach the World Cup finals since 1982 and have not won the Copa America since 1975, something Uruguayan Bengoechea blames on the country’s social unrest and economic woes in the latter years of the 20th century.