Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay Win In 2010 World Cup Qualifiers

Brazil were lucky to overcome an impressive Uruguay performance to win 2-1 in the Morumbi stadium.

Uruguay had the better of the first-half chances, taking the lead through Sebastian Abreu after eight minutes and continuing to push on for the rest of the half. Cristian Rodriguez twice saw decent efforts just miss the target, amongst a flurry of opportunities for the away side.

Despite being on the back-foot for the majority of the first half, Brazil sneaked an equaliser just before half time with former Sao Paulo favourite Luis Fabiano firing home from Maicon's thorugh ball.

The equalising goal was not enough to appease the Morumbi crowd, who made their feelings clear as the half-time whistle blew and then went on to boo Ronaldinho and Robinho when the two players were substituted in the second half.

Brazil did improve after the break and despite Uruguay having some more decent attacks, it was Fabiano who proved to be the difference between the sides, adding his second after sixty-four minutes to seal a somewhat fortuitous victory for Brazil.

In the first game of the day, Ecuador brushed aside Peru, recording their first win of the qualifying campaign with a 5-1 victory under the stewardship of their temporary manager Sixto Vizuete.

Double strikes from Walter Avoyi and Edison Mendez, along with a single strike from Ivan Kaviedes gave Ecuador a commanding 5-0 lead, with a late Andres Mendoza goal the only consolation for a Peru side who had held Brazil in their previous game.

Paraguay continued their excellent start to the qualifying campaign, defeating Chile 3-0 in a high tempo match in Santiago. Salvador Cabanas gave Paraguay the lead after twenty-six minutes, with Paulo da Silva adding a second in first half stoppage time. Da Silva got his second of the night, ten minutes into the second half and Paraguay comfortably held out for a well deserved victory.

The result means that Paraguay now lead the group on ten points from four games, with Argentina one point behind on nine, and Brazil and Colombia a further point behind on eight. Bolivia prop up the group with only one point and are one of two teams yet to record a victory, alongside Peru.

There is now a large break before the next round of qualifiers, which will take place in June 2008.

Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia Win in 2010 Qualifiers

Argentina continued their one hundred percent start to the World Cup 2010 Qualifiers, defeating Bolivia 3-0 at El Monumental, while Paraguay and Colombia also celebrated victories in round 3 of the Qualifying schedule.

Sergio Aguero marked his first competitive international start with his first goal for Argentina, heading in from a yard out after Martin Demichelis headed the ball back across goal from a Carlos Tevez cross. Argentina controlled the first half, with Lionel Messi is scintillating form, but were only able to get the one goal, going in 1-0 up at half time.

Bolivia were slightly more adventurous in the second half, but still rarely threatened the Argentina goal as the hosts started to turn on the style. Early in the half, Juan Riquelme saw a free-kick tipped over by Carlos Arias in the Bolivian goal, but returned moments later to send a dead-ball curling in off the inside of the post, leaving Arias with no chance.

Riquelme got his second and Argentina's third with quarter of an hour to go, after a brilliant run from the half way line by Lionel Messi, who put the ball on a plate for Riquelme to calmly curl home and secure the victory.

Paraguay turned on the style, defeating Ecuador 5-1 to continue their impressive start to the qualifying tournament. A double strike from Christian Riveros, along with single goals from Haedo Valdez, Roque Santa Cruz and Nestor Ayala gave them a comfortable victory, with Ivan Kaviedes getting Ecuador's scant consolation effort. Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez resigned after the game.

In the final game of the day, Colombia left it late to defeat Venezuela in Bogota, with a Ruben Dario Bustas strike, ten minutes from time, enough to give them victory in a tightly-contested match.

Kaka Silences Boo Boys, Chile and Paraguay Win

Brazil put in another lacklustre performance for seventy minutes against Ecuador before coming to life in the last twenty, adding four goals to record a 5-0 victory.

Vagner Love gave Brazil the lead after eighteen minutes, tapping in after Maicon had burst into the box and layed the chance on a plate for the CSKA Moscow striker. Brazil struggled to break through the Ecuador defence for the rest of the first half and the majority of the second, looking slack in possession and lacking any sort of cutting edge up front.

The Maracana crowd were becoming increasingly frustrated, especially with the performance of Kaka, starting to boo the AC Milan player every time he received the ball. Kaka provided the perfect response by firing a long range effort which was deflected into the net by Ronaldinho. Minutes later Kaka got on the score-sheet himself, sending a curling effort into the top right hand corner past the despairing dive of Daniel Viteri in the Ecuador goal.

With the Ecuador defence starting to open up on every attack, Brazil added another two goals in the remaining ten minutes. Robinho showed some silky skills to beat Ulises De La Cruz on the byline and his cross deflected to the substitute Elano, who half-volleyed home from inside the area. Kaka then added his second with a weak shot from the edge of the area which Viteri somehow let slip through his grasp.

The final scoreline did flatter Brazil, who for large periods of the game looked a shell of their normal selves. However, no-one will complain at a 5-0 victory and they will be satisfied with four points from their opening two qualifiers.

Chile got their campaign back on track, defeating Peru 2-0 in Santiago. Goals from Humberto Suazo in the first half and Matias Fernandez in the second allowed Chile to cruise to a comfortable victory.

Paraguay beat Uruguay 1-0 thanks to a strike on fifteen minutes by Nelson Valdez, and Bolivia and Colombia drew 0-0 in the last game of the round.

The next two rounds of qualifying games will take place on the 17th and 20th of November.

Second round of 2010 qualifiers in South America, Argentina and Brazil live on Sky Sports

The next set of games in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers will be played over the next two days, with a couple of games being shown live by Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

The fixtures are as follows:


16/10
Venezuela vs Argentina (live on Sky Sports 1 from 1:30am tonight/Wednesday morning)

17/10
Bolivia vs Colombia
Paraguay vs Uruguay
Chile vs Peru
Brazil vs Ecuador (live on Sky Sports 1 from 12:50am Wednesday night/Thursday morning)

FIFA.com will also provide live updates on the scores for the Brazil and Argentina games for those who are unable to get television coverage for their games.

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.

South Africa 2010 Qualifiers kick off in South America

The qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Cup starts today for the ten South American teams hoping to make their way to South Africa.

Each of the ten teams plays each other twice during the competition, with the top four teams automatically qualifying. The fifth placed team will face a two leg playoff against the fourth placed team in the North American region for a place in the finals.

The tie between Argentina and Chile is the highlight of the opening set of games, with former Argentine national manager Marcelo Bielsa taking his new charges into a competitive game for the first time since taking over this summer.

All of the teams will be looking to get their campaign's off to a good start, but with eighteen games to be played until the end of qualifying, their is still plenty of time to get back on track if the first game doesn't go as planned.

The full first round fixtures are as follows:

Uruguay vs Bolivia
Argentina vs Chile
Ecuador vs Venezuela
Peru vs Paraguay
Colombia vs Brazil (Sunday)

International Friendly Roundup

Various Latin American teams were involved in friendly matches over the weekend.

Marcelo Bielsa's reign as Chile boss endured a disappointing start as they lost 2-1 to Switzerland. A solitary strike from Alexis Sanchez not enough to get a result against the Euro 2008 co-hosts.

Brazil overcame a valiant effort from the USA to win 4-2. The Americans took the lead before an own goal from Onyewu and a Lucio strike gave them a 2-1 lead. The game wasn't over though, as the USA equalised with seventeen minutes remaining, before Ronaldinho and Elano finally settled the match in Brazil's favour with two goals in the last thirteen minutes.

Ecuador thrashed El Salvador 5-1, Venezuela beat Paraguay 3-2, Peru drew 2-2 with Colombia, and Costa Rica and Honduras played out a 0-0 draw in the remaining games.

Copa America Quarter Finals Day 2

Mexico and Argentina both comfortably despatched their quarter final opponents last night, to setup an intriguing semi-final clash for Wednesday.

Mexico opened the evening's action with a 6-0 demolition of Paraguay. The writing was on the wall for the Paraguayans within five minutes of the kickoff, after Mexico striker Nero Castillo was upended in the penalty area by Aldo Bobadilla, resulting in a red card for the Paraguay keeper. Castillo converted the resulting spot kick to begin the rout.

Further goals from Gerrardo Torrado and a second for Castillo made it 3-0 at half time. The Mexicans did not let up in the second half, with Fernando Arce, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Omar Bravo adding a further three goals to compound Paraguay's misery.

Argentina took longer to get into gear in the second quarter final of the night. Peru defended well throughout the first half, holding the Argentines to a goalless draw at the interval. Argentina manager Alfio Basile responded by substituting the largely ineffective Diego Milito, replacing him with Carlos Tevez for the second half.

Argentine, and more specifically Juan Riquelme, sprung to life with the introduction of Tevez, scoring four goals in a second half of absolutely sublime football. Riquelme opened the scoring with a left foot strike from the edge of the area, before providing an equisite pass for Lionel Messi to make it two. Javier Mascherano followed up a saved Messi effort for the third, before Tevez laid on a fourth for Riquelme to calmly slot home and clinch a semi-final place for the tournament favourites.

The semi-finals start on Tuesday with Brazil versus Uruguay, with the Argentina-Mexico semi following the next day. If they are anything like as exciting as the quarter finals then we are in for an absolute treat.

Copa America Day 9

Only two goals scored last night as the Copa America group stages came to a close.

Argentina maintained their 100% record by defeating Paraguay 1-0 thanks to a second half strike from subsitute Javier Mascherano. The win leaves the Argentines facing Peru in the quarter finals, with Paraguay to play Mexico.

Colombia compounded further misery on the USA's Copa America campaign after a Jaime Castrillon strike gave them a 1-0 victory over the Americans. Plane journeys home now await both sides.

The quarter finals stage kicks off on Saturday as Venezuela play Uruguay and Chile face off against Brazil.

Copa America Day 6

Another ten goals last night as the Copa America goalfest shows no signs of slowing up.

Paraguay progressed to the knockout stages after defeating the USA 3-1 thanks to goals from Edgar Barreto, Oscar Cardozo and Salvadar Cabanas. Ricardo Clark scored USA's solitary goal.

Paraguay will be joined in the quarter finals by Argentina, who came from behind to defeat Colombia 4-2 in the second game of the night. Colombia took an early lead through Edixon Perea, before a penalty from Hernan Crespo and two goals from Juan Riquelme put Argentina in charge. The Colombians reduced the deficit to one when Jaime Castrillion struck quarter of an hour from time, but a late Diego Milito goals secured the win a deserved win for Argentina. The only disappointment of the night for the Argentines was an injury picked up by Hernan Crespo when converting the penalty that brought about his goal. He is expected to miss the rest of the tournament.

The USA and Colombia will just be left to play for pride when they meet in their final group game, with only a minor miracle allowing either of them to progress as a best third place finisher.

Copa America Day 3

The Copa America goalfest continued last night with ten goals between the two games, bringing the tournament average up to four a game.

Paraguay opened the evenings proceedings with a 5-0 demolition of Colombia, whose defensive inadequacies were there for all to see. Bayern Munich striker Roque Santa Cruz scored a hat-trick, with subsitute Salvador Cabanas adding another two late on to compound the Colombian's misery.

Tournament favourites Argentina got off to a perfect start, thrashing the USA 4-1. A Hernan Crespo double along with second half goals from subsitutes Pablo Aimar and Carlos Tevez cancelled out an early penalty from Eddie Pope to give Argentina victory. Both Juan Riquelme and Juan Sebastian Veron started for Argentina having been recalled to the national squad for the tournament and their creative input played a large part in their side's triumph, Riquelme being involved in three of their four goals.

Argentina and Paraguay are now clear favourties to progress to the knockout stages, whereas Colombia and the USA will be left scrambling for one of the two best third place finishes.