Sunday 14 October 2007

High-five for Uruguay, Riquelme double for Argentina and more, as 2010 Qualifying kicks off

Despite having not played competitively since the summer's Copa America, Juan Riquelme was in fine form for Argentina, scoring two spectacular first half free kicks in their 2-0 win over Chile. The Argentine's were always in control of the match, but failed to add a third goal in the second half, despite the dismissal of Cristian Alvarez after 55 minutes for the Chileans.

Uruguay got their campaign off to a flier with a 5-0 thrashing of Bolivia in Montevideo. Amazingly, they had five different goalscorers, with first half strikes from Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan added to in the second half by goals from Sebastien Abreu, Vicente Sanchez and Carlos Bueno.

Venezuela provided the first surprise result of the group by winning 1-0 away from home against Ecuador. A well struck free kick from defender Juan Manual Rey in the 67th minute was enough to defeat a lacklustre Ecuador side, for whom Cristian Benitez should have done better with two first half efforts.

In the final game played yesterday, Peru and Paraguay played out a bore draw as they drew 0-0 in Lima.

Tonight, Colombia play Brazil in the final game of this round, with the Colombians looking to make amends for their disappointing Copa America campaign and Brazil hoping to continue their success from that competition into the qualifying tournament.

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