South American Qualifying Results October 2008

Paraguay stay top as both Brazil and Argentina falter again!

Oct 16, 2008

In this long road to the football World Cup in South Africa 2010, October's South American qualifying games have thrown some intriguing ties into the mix.

Paraguay Clear in First with Two More Wins

Paraguay, having won their last four games by a margin of 1-0 continued their fine run even with the absence of their key target man, the Blackburn Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz sidelined through injury. Paraguay took the game to a resilient Colombia in Bogota – eager not to suffer their third straight loss in these qualifying games – and benefitted from the Colombia goalkeeper Agustin Julio’s absolute howler in dealing with what could only resemble a near post cross from the Paraguayan danger man Salvador Cabanas. Cabanas who needs no introduction in this continent remains a prolific scorer for Mexican club side America in the Copa Libertadores and the Colombian side under new boss Eduardo Lara will rue the day that they decided to let this bullish player into space on the right wing, his cross resulting in a goal. In their second game at home in Asuncion against the struggling Peru, they left it late until achieving yet another 1-0 win.

Brazil Smash Venezuela Yet Disappoint at Home

Brazil coach Dunga will not have silenced any of his critics at home with an expected albeit well-received 4-0 thrashing of Venezuela. But the scoreline does not do the game justice as Brazil should have conceivably put a further 3 or 4 goals into the net. Robinho was the player to watch as the boys from Brazil went 3-0 up in the first 20 minutes. But the most striking result was their no score draw versus Colombia in Rio’s famed Maracana. Booed from the pitch after their disappointing game versus Bolivia in the last round in the same venue, Brazil failed to impress and Colombia could have conceivably taken all three points if they had an out and out striker.

Argentina Struggle Against Their Neighbours

Beating Uruguay 2-1 in a tricky fixture that at times looked little better than a bad tempered feud, the albiceleste were happy to bag all three points and claim that business continues as usual in the Argentine camp for the under pressure coach Alfio Basile. But perhaps the most exciting and key game of this international break was the fixture in Santiago versus Chile. Much has been said of Chile’s talented and precocious youth but under Marcelo Bielsa they are showing a maturity beyond their years and if they continue in their current vein could be real contenders for the World Cup in 2014, and should they qualify for South Africa could cause problems for even the strongest most confident sides. In 35 years the Chile team has never beaten Argentina in a World Cup qualifying game and on October 15 2008 this hex was broken as they took the game 1-0 dominating in all areas of the field and taking full advantage of the absence of Riquelme.

Chile Pull Neck and Neck with Argentina While Uruguay and Colombia Slide

As previously mentioned, Chile are the team to watch and appear to have made 4th place their own, and will be eying up 3rd. Uruguay will be disappointed with their loss to Argentina and then letting a two goal lead slip against Bolivia in the altitude of La Paz ending the game 2-2.

Colombia, with 1 point in four games will go into this break until March 2009 taking a long hard look at their team and what they lack. Ecuador can beat any team on their day as they demonstrated in Quito beating Chile 1-0 but then contrived t lose 3-1 away in Venezuela. Even Bolivia feel within a shout for the fifth place playoff spot after thrashing Peru 3-0 and then coming from two goals down to draw with Uruguay while Peru look set to finish last on this recent showing.

With a long 5 months until the next rounds in March 2009 this is how the table stands.

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