Can Paraguay Cement First Place?
South America's Mammoth Route to South Africa 2010 Recommences
From June 14 - 19 South Americans may pry themselves from the ongoing European Cup in Austria and Switzerland to don their national team jerseys and holler in support as their nations take part in two further World Cup Qualifying games for the chance to play in South Africa in 2010.
Presently the South American qualifying table is headed by the stubborn guarani of Paraguay (10 points) with Argentina one point behind in second and predictably Brazil nipping at their heels in third. See here for a summary of the first four games that took place through October and November 2007
What makes this next batch of games most intriguing are the twists and turns that have been taking place over the past seven months. The domestic leagues in Europe are over and South American European-based players are back home supposedly resting from the trials of a gruelling season.
The Next Matches
14 June - Montevideo - Uruguay vs Venezuela
14 June - Lima - Peru vs Colombia
15 June - Asuncion - Paraguay vs Brazil
15 June - Buenos Aires - Argentina vs Ecuador
15 June - La Paz - Bolivia vs Chile
17 June - Montevideo - Uruguay vs Peru
18 June - La Paz - Bolivia vs Paraguay
18 June - Quito - Ecuador vs Colombia
18 June - Belo Horizonte - Brazil vs Argentina
19 June - Puerto de la Cruz - Venezuela vs Chile
Recent Friendly MatchesIn truth there is not a great deal that can be drawn from recently friendly games, played in preparation for the upcoming world cup qualifiers, that is not already clear.
Venezuela notched up a significant friendly win over Brazil (2-0) in a game that saw Brazil's first choice defensive pairing benched and charts further growth in the vinotinto's growth as a footballing nation. Had this been a competitive game there is very little doubt that the outcome would have been different. However, we can see that the Venezuelans are keen on getting the practice in for the upcoming games and aside from their game against Brazil also have marked a draw (1-1) with Honduras - one of Central America's most exciting teams - and organized a more diplomatic game with the Netherlands Antilles.
Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay all played games against France with not one of the South American nations scoring a goal. Colombia fell (1-0), Ecuador (2-0) and Paraguay managed a draw (0-0).
Brazil's warm ups really do not tell us too much, the aforementioned loss to Venezuela and a 3-2 win over minnows Canada. There will be continues mumblings of discontent in Brazil with coach Dunga's style.
Uruguay have made their intentions of moving up the qualifying fairly telling by scoring 5 goals in two games. They beat Turkey 3-2 and then drew 2-2 with Norway.
Argentina and Chile both enjoyed victories that will instill confidence and some discipine against Mexico (4-1) and Guatemala (1-0) respectively while Peru fell to Spain (2-1).
Possible Outcomes of June's Qualifying Matches
Given that the Uruguayans and the Bolivians are the only teams to have their two games at home one would expect both nations to mark up some good points. But, as we have seen through past qualifying rounds home advantage can only take you so far. Bolivia have only played one match at home so far and this fact reflects significantly in their standing and points tally (10th with 1 point).
Colombia and Chile will be hoping that they can rob some invaluable away points on the road given that they are both playing away from home this June.
There is no room for error even at this early stage in the qualifying process and pundits are pointing to this next round of games to be particularly significant. Given recent form and the always very real possibilty of some upsets as well as taking into consideration that Brazil are playing both Paraguay and Argentina, here is how the table could stand after six games and going into long hiatus until September 2008.
1 - Paraguay - 14 points
2 - Argentina - 13 points
3 - Colombia - 12 points
4 - Uruguay - 10 points
5 - Brazil - 9 points
6 - Venezuela - 9 points
7 - Chile - 5 points
8 - Ecuador - 4 points
9 - Bolivia - 3 points
10 - Peru - 2 points
Who Qualifies for 2010?
Keep in mind that the top four teams qualify automatically for the World Cup Finals and the fifth place team has a two leg play off versus home and away contest versus the fourth best team in the Concacaf region (North, Central America and the Caribbean).
