Brazil and Paraguay Make South Africa 2010

Maradona’s Argentina Slide Away

Sep 14, 2009

The Football World Cup finals in South Africa have become a reality for both Brazil and Paraguay who are the first nations from Conmebol to qualify.

With three games to spare, Dunga’s organised and stubborn Brazil side, moved into the World Cup finals with certain ease. By tonking Argentina in Rosario (Argentine starlet Lionel Messi’s hometown) 3-1 with goals from Luisao and a brace from Luis Fabiano, Brazil had qualified even before taking to the pitch against Chile in Salvador de Bahia. Taking nothing for granted the boys from Brazil hammered Marcelo Bielsa’s hard-to-play Chile 4-2 with Nilmar scoring a hat-trick. The Brazilian public are understandably confident of their team’s chances for next summer on the back of such a confident qualifying campaign.

Paraguay Qualify in Second Place

The Guarani’s had struggled in recent games after having led the group in the early phases but saw fit to notch up two hard fought victories at home in the Defensores del Chaco stadium in Asuncion versus Bolivia 1-0 and then against Argentina 1-0. Paraguay have qualified four times straight for the World Cup finals and for anyone with one eye on the beautiful game south of the equator they will know that these players in red and white are bullish and have managed the majority of their campaign without the often injured Manchester City striker (formerly of Blackburn Rovers) Roque Santa Cruz.

Chile Just Three Points Adrift

The much improved and precocious Chile moved one point closer to qualifying but all but managed it. A 2-2 draw with Venezuela in Santiago did not please the home support that saw this as three points in the bag. Then, a couple of days later the Chile side were put to the sword by an already-qualified Brazil side basking in confidence. It seems likely that this nation will qualify but they can take nothing for granted in their final two games as there is still everything to play for as there are five teams below them who still believe that qualification is possible.

The Best of the Rest

Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia can all mathematically still qualify for South Africa and will be fighting to the last in their remaining games. Nothing is clear cut from here on in since all the teams are so closely matched. Even the perennial powerhouse of Argentina cannot sleep easy. They are due to play at home in Argentina against the already eliminated Peru and then away to Uruguay clearly a match designed to reignite local rivalries across the River Plate. At this stage there is no way of predicting who will be the next two nations to qualify diirectly and which side will go into a two-legged playoff versus a Concacaf side.

Remaining games

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