Ecuador and Peru recently met each other in two friendlies in Spain. The size of the immigrant community from both nations ensured big crowds in Madrid and Barcelona.
But South American sides staging their local derbies in Europe is not the only sign of the changing times.
The content of the football has also come a long way from the style of play traditionally seen in Lima, Guayaquil or Quito.
The Pacific rivals used to be exponents of old style South American football - lots of tip tap short passing, with everything going through a number 10 who bossed the attacking play from the centre of midfield.
Two magnificent exponents of the role have only recently left the international stage - Alex Aguinaga of Ecuador and Roberto Palacios of Peru both accumulated more than 100 caps and won admirers wherever they played.
But now when Ecuador and Peru meet there is not an old style number 10 to be found.
Ecuador qualified for their first World Cup in 2002 under the guidance of Colombian coach Hernan Dario Gomez. After his experiences with the national team of his native land, Gomez proclaimed himself 'cured' of the need to select an old style midfield in which three have to run and carry the piano in order that one can sit down and play it.
After the 2004 Copa America he was replaced by his compatriot Luis Fernando Suarez, who had become even more radical in his beliefs.
Nowadays any team can complicate matters by packing the midfield with battlers, he said. A good team is one which attacks and defends well down the flanks.
His approach was reflected in his side in Germany last year. All of Ecuadors goals came from swift breaks down the wing, especially the right.
There has been a slight change since then. Ecuador were playing a strict 4-4-2, with two holding midfielders in the centre, and two talented midfielders pushed wide to link up with the overlapping full backs.
Since then Suarez has been experimenting with a 4-3-2-1, which allows him to pull star player Edison Mendez a few metres in from the right flank, operating behind a lone striker.
But the idea is not so much for Mendez to organise the play as Aguinaga used to do a decade ago. Rather, Mendez is now moved closer to the goal to take full advantage of his excellent long range shooting.
Peru, now that the veteran Palacios is no longer considered, are experimenting with a style of play that has no space for an old fashioned number 10.
Former star Julio Cesar Uribe recently took over for his second spell in charge of the national team. In the matches against Ecuador he picked two strikers, and behind them Jefferson Farfan and promising teenager Damian Ismodes.
The idea seemed to be based on breaking forward on the transitions, those key moments when possession changes hands from one side to the other.
In South American parlance they seem to want to be a vertical team, fast and direct, with no need for the traditional changes of rhythm in midfield.
This, of course, is a reflection of international trends. The physical development of the game, the contemporary emphasis on athleticism, means that teams seek to power their way through the opposing defence rather than playing their way through.
The fact that such ideas have well and truly landed at the likes of Peru and Ecuador just goes to show the strength of the movement in their favour.
Earlier this year former Brazilian great Tostao wrote, "In the past the great difficulty that Brazilian teams had against Europeans was the size and physical condition of their players. Nowadays this problem no longer exists."
Over the past 30 years Brazilian football has put huge emphasis on matching the Europeans in physical terms. When they finally met Germany in a World Cup match, in the 2002 final, Brazil did so at no physical disadvantage.
As Tostao concedes, the old stereotype of the Brazilian player as short, with a low centre of gravity becomes an ever less accurate reflection of contemporary reality.
So the idea that Brazilian football is different, lighter, more attractive, full of dribbles and one-twos, needs to be rethought. Football has globalised in terms of the style of play and the physical structure of the players," he continues.
"In Brazil and the entire world there is a predominance of strong marking and crosses struck into the penalty area. Football today is a sport for tall, strong players.
And the beefed up game they play has little time or space for the traditional number 10 who plays the game from the centre of midfield.
Brazils coaching technocrats have even pointed out that if the move contains more than seven passes then the chances of it culminating in a goal are reduced.
Argentina has rightly acquired a reputation for being the guardians of the flame. That wonderful Esteban Cambiasso goal in the 2006 World Cup match against Serbia & Montenegro was nothing less than a manifesto for the value of traditional passing football - where the hub of the team is the enganche - the link man between midfield and attack, who holds a mythical place in the culture of Argentine football.
But even here the signs are not promising. National team coach Alfio Basile commented with disappointment late last year that the typical 'enganches' are disappearing all over the world.
"Even Brazil surprised us with the way they played, he said, in a reference to the friendly in London last September when Brazil picked Argentina off on the counter attack to win 3-0.
This remark showed Basile somewhat out of touch with Brazilian football.
I like to play with an enganche, but nowadays the reality indicates that only two or three teams in Argentina use this system," Basile explained.
Even more worrying is a recent declaration from Hugo Tocalli, Argentinas youth development supremo. He travels the country in search of talent, and is not impressed with what he is witnessing.
Everyones in so much of a hurry, he said. The kids are told to run and run. Winning is the only aim. Im worried about whats happening at youth levels. The lack of technique is alarming. Everyone is playing without an enganche. Its a species in extinction.
The implications for the future of the game are not positive. Of course, one of the great strengths of football is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways. There is no one right style of play.
But the definitive triumph of the athlete over the artist would take something special away from the sport, which has hypnotised the planet.
