World Cup Round-Up: Part 2 - South America

Brazil became the seventh team to book their place at the World Cup Finals next year with a convincing 3-1 win over Argentina yesterday.

Diego Maradona's team started off the game purposefully, roared on by the fervent Rosario crowd, but Brazil exposed their defensive frailties with two goals in a six-minute spell mid-way through the first half.

The first goal came from an Elano free kick which found Luisao unmarked and in acres of space. It would have been churlish of him not to take advantage of such poor marking in the box, and so he headed in perfectly to give the visitors the lead on 24 minutes.

Shortly after, another free kick gave Luis Fabiano the chance to score from close range as Argentina failed to clear a number of scrambled efforts in front of their goal. Into the second half, Argentina pressed on for a goal and with 66 minutes on the clock they got one courtesy of a superb long-range shot from Napoli's Jesus Datolo, but their joy would be short-lived.

Just two minutes later, Luis Fabiano scored his second and Brazil's third which effectively snuffed out any momentum the tiring Argentineans had gained. Brazil ran out as comfortable winners - surprisingly so in many ways - and became the first team to qualify from South America.

It was only Argentina's second ever home defeat in World Cup qualifying and they remain fourth in the group. (Only the top four are certain of going through to South Africa while fifth place guarantees a play-off against the fourth-best team from the CONCACAF region.) Though it's unlikely that Argentina will miss out on a place in the finals, their poor away form could give them reason to sweat all the way to the bitter end, and Maradona will be more than well aware of that.

Argentina's place looks all the more precarious as they're now five points adrift of Paraguay in third who returned to form with a 1-0 win over lowly Bolivia. Slavador Cabanas' penalty at the end of the first half proved to be the only high point for the home side, but it does mean that a win over Argentina on Wednesday will give Paraguay a golden ticket to the Finals next year too.

Chile remain in second place despite surprisingly failing to beat Venezuela in Santiago yesterday. Having taken the lead after 10 minutes through Bayer Leverkusen's Arturo Vidal, Venezuela hit back with two goals of their own in the closing exchanges of the first half. A left-footed drive from Rodrigo Millar ensured Chile had a share of the points on the night, but they'll be looking to improve when they meet Brazil on Wednesday.

Uruguay's shock 1-0 defeat to bottom-placed Peru means they now slip to seventh after Colombia beat Ecuador 2-0 to go sixth. Both Colombia's goals came in the last ten minutes and means they've now taken six points from the last six. A last ditch run of form may prove enough to catch Ecuador and Uruguay who have both seen their great starts fritter away, however another three points against Chile this week will be the litmus test of whether then can genuinely maintain their current head of steam.

Full results and standings from the South American qualifying zone available here.

World Cup 2010 Qualifying Round-up

South America

Brazil and Paraguay continue to travel in opposite directions following the former's 2-1 win over the latter in Recife yesterday.

With heavy rain pouring down constantly throughout, Salvador Cabanas managed to put the away side in front from a deflected free kick after 25 minutes but Robinho volleyed in an equaliser just before half time. Four minutes into the second half, former Lyon striker Nilmar scrambled in a second and that's the way it ended.

Brazil therefore stay top of the qualifying group by a single point, but Paraguay slip to third after Chile notched up another impressive win, 4-0 at home to Bolivia. A brace from Udinese striker Alexis Sanchez and one each from Jean Beausejour and Marco Estrada mean Marcelo Bielsa's side are now second in the group, two points ahead of the Paraguayans.

And there was a big shock in Quito where Argentina crashed to a 2-0 defeat against Ecuador. "They didn't do anything in the first half," said coach Diego Maradona. "In the second half, they got a couple of rebounds and they scored two goals. If we had scored a goal, it would have finished the game off." The trouble for Argentina was that they didn't - Carlos Tevez had a penalty saved in the first half and Lionel Messi was also guilty of missing some decent chances.

Walter Ayovi, however, was not nearly so wasteful as he struck a brilliant 25-yard effort into the top right-hand corner with 18 minutes remaining. When Pablo Palacios added a second eleven minutes later, it was game over for Argentina.



That win lifts Ecuador up to fifth place above Uruguay who drew 2-2 with Venezuela. Colombia are seventh in the table after a 1-0 win over Peru who suffered their eighth straight defeat in qualifying.

Europe

England made it seven wins out of seven following a comfortable 6-0 defeat of Andorra at Wembley last night. Wayne Rooney and Jermaine Defoe provided two goals each while Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch picked up one apiece to leave England in with a chance of qualifying from Group 6 if they beat Croatia at Wembley in September.

Also in the same group, Ukraine beat Kazakhstan 2-1 thanks to two goals from Sergiy 'Cliff' Nazarenko. Kazakhstan had taken the lead after 19 minutes when Tanat Nusserbayev headed in but the Ukrainians (without star player and captain Andriy Shevchenko) battled back to go level on points with Croatia in third place.

In Group 4, Russia put the pressure back on leaders Germany with a convincing 3-0 win over Finland in Helsinki. With Guus Hiddink now devoid of any Chelsea commitments, his concentration was placed squarely on the Russian national team who are now just a point behind the Germans thanks to two goals from Dynamo Moscow forward Aleksandr Kerzhakov and one from Konstantin Zyrianov.

Elsewhere Sweden got their qualifying campaign back on track with a 4-0 win over Malta in Gothenburg. Kim Kallstrom and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were among the scorers as the Swedes drew level on points with Portugal in Group 1. In addition, the Dutch, who have already qualified from Group 9, reaffirmed their top billing with a 2-0 win at home to Norway while Macedonia beat Iceland 2-0 - both of which will give the Scots a little hope of getting the play-off berth in their group.

North and Central America

Javier Aguirre can finally celebrate a win for his Mexican side after a 2-1 victory at home to Trinidad and Tobago, but they didn't find it easy. Guillermo Franco scored after just one minute for El Tri, but with several chances missed the Soca Warriors equalised through Hayden Tinto at the end of the first half.



Three minutes into the second half, Oscar Rojas regained the lead for Mexico with a long-range effort and hung on uneasily for the win, although a return to third place in the group was prevented by a Honduran victory over El Salvador.

Carlos Pavon, Honduras' all-time leading scorer and star striker, hit the winning goal with a half-volley after just thirteen minutes in a bad tempered game that saw seven players receiving a yellow card. The win, however, means Honduras move up to third place in the hexagonal prior to an altogether more tricky game at home to group leaders Costa Rica in August. Also playing in Gameweek 6 are the United States who travel to Mexico and El Salvador who go to Trinidad and Tobago.

Asia

With three of the four automatic qualification places decided, the main focus in Asia now switches to Group 2 where the race for the remaining automatic spot is hotting up nicely.

While second-placed North Korea sat out yesterday's matches, Saudi Arabia drew level with them on points having fought out a tough 0-0 draw with South Korea. Iran picked up a vital 1-0 win over the UAE, who thus far have managed just one point from the 24 available, but their push for an automatic promotion place may have been left too late.

With North Korea and Saudi Arabia on 11 points and Iran on 10, Iran must beat South Korea in their final match next Wednesday and hope that Saudi Arabia and North Korea draw in order to go through. Anything less than a win for Iran will see their chance of gaining the third place play-off spot severely limited.

In Group 1, Bahrain lost 2-0 to Australia yesterday but remain on course for a play-off after Qatar could only draw 1-1 in Japan. That means Bahrain need only a draw in their final match against bottom-placed Uzbekistan next Wednesday to meet the team finishing third in Group 2.

The two-legged play-off for both of the third-placed teams will take place in early September and the winner of that will go on to play New Zealand in a further play-off nearer the end of the year.

World Cup 2010 Qualifying Report: Rest of the World

Asia

As we've just mentioned in our TV Preview, Asia is awash with three new countries that have qualified for the Finals in South Africa next year.

From Group 1, Australia and Japan are assured of occupying the top two places after the Aussies played out a goalless draw against Qatar and Japan won 1-0 away to Uzbekistan.

In Group 2, South Korea made it seven Finals in a row thanks to a 2-0 win over the United Arab Emirates. North Korea stay second but are now three points behind their near neighbours after a goalless draw at home to Iran who stay in fourth.

In next Wednesday's fixtures, Iran travel to Seoul to play South Korea while Saudi Arabia will be hoping to move up from third in Group 2 when they play host to North Korea.

Africa

It's still early days in the final round of African qualifying, but there's already been some eye-opening results from last weekend's matches.

African champions Egypt are still without a win after two games thanks to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Group C leaders Algeria. All three of the goals for The Desert Foxes came after an hour of play in a 17-minute spell that left Egypt shell-shocked. Al Ahly's Mohamed Aboutrika pulled one back with four minutes remaining, but Egypt will now be looking at their next fixture against Rwanda as a must-win if they're to play in South Africa next year.

Elsewhere Cameroon and Morocco played out a 0-0 draw in Yaounde that will damage both team's chances of progressing in Group A. Gabon, however, beat Togo 3-0 to top the group with two wins out of two leaving both the bookies' favourites in the bottom half of the table.

The other matches around Africa provided fewer shocks - Tunisia maintained their 100% record in Group B with a 2-0 win over Mozambique while Nigeria moved up to second with a 3-0 victory over Kenya that featured two goals from Inter's Victor Obinna.

In Group E, Ivory Coast got their second win of the campaign, 2-1 over Guinea, but they have Burkino Faso for company on six points after they beat Malawi 1-0. Finally in Group D, Ghana predictably maintained their perfect start thanks to a 2-0 win in Mali which gives them a three-point lead over Benin.

South America

After months of dominance in the South American round-robin, Paraguay have finally been knocked off their perch by Brazil who now lead the group table on goal difference.

While Brazil were thumping rivals Uruguay 4-0 in Porto Alegre, Paraguay were struggling to deal with an in-form Chile side who beat them 2-0 in Asuncion. Dunga's side will be delighted with their first win over the Uruguayans since 1976, especially as it comes at a time when Paraguay extend their current run without a win to three. Brazil's goals came from Barcelona's Dani Alves, Juan, Luis Fabiano and Real Madrid's latest signing, Kaka.

For Chile, however, the gap between them and the leaders is now just a single point and a win at home to Bolivia tonight could see them lead the group if other results go in their favour.

In other news, Argentina recovered from their recent 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Bolivians by scrambling to a 1-0 win over Colombia. Daniel Diaz was on hand with a goal after 55 minutes to give Maradona's men a five point gap ahead of fifth-placed Uruguay.

At the bottom, Peru slumped to their eighth defeat in thirteen games, 2-1 at the hands of Ecuador, while Venezuela surprisingly beat Bolivia 1-0 in La Paz to totally make a mockery of Maradona's claims that playing at altitude can seriously harm a team's performance.

Some corner of an English field that is for ever South American

Ever since I was introduced to the idea of the South American football league format of the Apertura and Clausura, I've become increasingly intrigued by the notion.

We've gone into this before on these web pages, albeit briefly. However, for the uninitiated, in a number South American Leagues they have two league competitions in a single season. From August to the end of the year is the Apertura (Opening Championship) and from January to May is the Clausura (Closing Championship). In some countries they have a play off between the Apertura and Clausura winners to determine the overall champions. Both championships are of equal value and I believe that corresponding qualification places for pan continental championships apply to both competitions.

Once I got my head around the idea that I've wondered if it was worth trying in Europe. I guess the only system close to it, that I know of, is the SPL system dubbed by Sp3ktor as the Scottish Clausura but in fact it's not really the same thing.

I happened to be discussing the merits of the system on Monday evening in the pub with Chris and Gary from twofootedtackle after we had the finished recording their podcast. We felt that, while implementing such a structure would be unrealistic in the professional leagues, we did wonder if it would be something the one of the non-leagues could try as a pilot.

Experimenting on non-leagues is a bit dodgy . One doesn't want to denigrate the importance of these leagues by experimenting on them like lab rats because they are not perceived to be important. However, non-leagues do occassionally get used as guinea pigs for suggested rules changes (the Isthmian League once went an ensure season using kick-ins instead of throw-ins back in the 90's) and a spruced up league format may inject some renewed excitement at the lower end of the English semi-professional pyramid.

I had a look down said pyramid to see if I could find a suitable league for this hypothetical situation and arrived at the Kent League which serves the Home Counties and parts of Greater London. This is a league with no relegation and one promotion place to the Isthmian League Division Three. With no relegation issues to resolve, this seem like an ideal league to try out the format. Each club would play each other once in the Apertura and again in the Clausura. The promoted team could be the winner of a play off between both champions. Just think, two title races in one season plus an all or nothing play off at the end of the season. What better way to keep attendances going throughout the season?

As I said, this format would not be popular at the top end of the professional level but it is a system that has proved successful for years in South America and may be just the ticket for non leagues looking to inject extra excitement in what can be a long drawn out season. I know it will never happen, but I definitely think it's worth consideration.

World Cup 2010 Round-up: South America

Well there's really no other place to start than with Bolivia's monumental 6-1 thrashing of Argentina yesterday. One shudders to think what kind of odds you'd have got on that at your local bookmakers before the game, given that Bolivia are and were next to bottom in the table.

It's a scoreline which has sent shockwaves around the world and is a genuinely great achievement on the part of the victors. It's the first time Argentina have lost by five goals since their 5-0 home defeat to Colombia in 1993 and the first time they've let in six since Czechoslovakia beat them 6-1 in the 1958 World Cup Finals.

Bolivia resorted to their oft-used tactic of hitting plenty of long range shots which, when coupled with the altitude and bobbly pitch in the Hernando Silas Stadium, La Paz, can produce all manner of different outcomes. So it turned out to be as Joaquin Botero hit a hat-trick and his team-mates Marcelo Martins, Alex Da Rosa and Didi Torrico all stumped up one each to end Diego Maradona's 100% record as Argentina's coach.

That defeat allowed Chile to overtake them in the group after a 3-1 win over bottom club Peru at the weekend and a goalless draw with Uruguay yesterday. Chile are now undefeated in three but will find it hard to maintain that run when they face group leaders Paraguay in their next match.

The Albirroja found their lead over Brazil halved to just three points after a very poor showing this week. A 2-0 defeat to Uruguay at the weekend was a surprise in itself, but they nearly lost a second away to Ecuador yesterday and were only saved by an Edgar Benitez equaliser three minutes into stoppage time at the end of the game.

With everyone else failing to find any kind of consistency it was down to the Brazilians to capitalise by maintaining their plodding progress of late. At the weekend, however, they were outclassed for much of their game against Ecuador and would have lost were it not for some goalkeeping heroics from Inter Milan's Julio Cesar. A 1-1 draw ensued and was thus followed by a far more comfortable encounter against bottom team Peru that ended in a 3-0 for Dunga's side.

Outside of the top four, Uruguay predictably maintained the play-off spot by picking up four points out of six this week while Colombia did what Argentina couldn't by beating Bolivia 2-0. At the other end of the table, Peru were the only team not to pick up a point in either of their two games and are now five points adrift of the nearest team, Bolivia.

The final part of our round-up takes in the CONCACAF region, Asia and Africa so join us soon for that.

World Cup 2010 Round-up: October 2008

It's been another busy week of World Cup 2010 qualifiers so let's round up all the important information from around the globe, starting off with…

Africa

…and here we have exciting news about the climax to Round 2 and the teams that have battled through to win a place in the last round.

Many of the continent's heavyweights such as Cameroon, Nigeria and Ivory Coast predictably finished top of their groups, but for others there was disappointment.

Angola and Senegal, both recent attendees at the World Cup Finals, failed to make it through to Round 3. Senegal's fate was sealed following a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Gambia which left both teams unable to qualify from Group 6 behind Algeria who finished top. Angola's 3-1 win over Niger proved too little, too late as they finished two points adrift of eventual group winners Benin.

Elsewhere there were smiles all round as Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sudan all made it through to the last round having played formidable opposition in their groups. Joining them will be Togo who were undoubtedly boosted by the return from exile of Emmanuel Adebayor. He bagged four of his side's six goals as they thrashed Swaziland in Accra.

Winner of the award for the most comfortable qualification goes to Nigeria who eventually topped Group 4 by a whopping eleven points. The Super Eagles won all six of their games and conceded only one goal along the way. South Africa, who qualify for the 2010 World Cup as hosts, finished second in the group on goal difference and could only manage two wins throughout the campaign.

The draw for the final round of qualifying in Africa takes place on October 22nd, and here are the teams that will be involved in their seeding groups:

Pot 1 (Seeds)
Cameroon
Egypt
Ghana
Nigeria
Ivory Coast

Pot 2
Guinea
Morocco
Tunisia
Mali
Algeria

Pot 3
Burkina Faso
Gabon
Zambia
Kenya
Benin

Pot 4
Rwanda
Togo
Mozambique
Sudan
Malawi

Europe

Carlos Queiroz's honeymoon period as coach of the Portuguese team appears to have shuddered to an almighty halt after two successive goalless draws in Group 1 this week - one of them against an Albanian side that played with a man down for around half the match.

A 0-0 draw away to Sweden last weekend means Portugal are currently third in the table with only one win from four. Denmark, who beat Portugal 3-2 last month, remain top of the group ahead of Hungary following a 3-0 win over Malta.

Having slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Luxembourg last month, Switzerland bounced right back with two wins on the trot this week. A 2-1 victory over Latvia plus an impressive repeat scoreline against Group 2 leaders Greece means Ottmar Hitzfeld's team are now up to third in the table. Israel are second despite struggling to a 1-1 draw against the Latvians.

For a while it looked like Germany might fail to pick up all three points at home to Wales on Wednesday. Some excellent Welsh defensive play frustrated the Germans for well over an hour until Piotr Trochowski finally grabbed the winner to open up a four point gap at the top of Group 4.

Russia occupy second place in the table having lost 2-1 to Germany last weekend, but a 3-0 win over Finland put their campaign back on track and keeps them level on points with Wales who cruised to a 2-0 win over Liechtenstein last Saturday.

European champions Spain picked up their fourth win in four games to remain top of the group, but they had to come back from 1-0 down against a resurgent Belgian side to eventually pick up all three points in their second match this week. Andres Iniesta had equalised Wesley Sonck's opener for Belgium shortly before half time but it wasn't until David Villa scored two minutes from the end that Spain could finally relax.

Another team with four wins out of four are England who top Group 5 following their 5-1 win over Kazakhstan at the weekend and Wednesday's 3-1 victory away to Belarus. Fabio Capello's side had their unconvincing moments in both matches, but with half the goals coming from Wayne Rooney along with contributions from Rio Ferdinand, Jermaine Defoe and Steven Gerrard, England now have a five-point lead over nearest rivals Croatia. A goalless draw for them against third-placed Ukraine last weekend means they have much to do when the qualifying campaign resumes again next April.

The number of voices calling for the dismissal of French coach Raymond Domenech grow bigger by the day, but the team remain supportive of him following a decent second-half performance against Romania last Saturday. Two goals down at half-time, France looked to be heading for their second loss in the competition but Domenech change his team's tactics and an altogether more fluent team came out to force a 2-2 draw thanks to goals from Franck Ribery and Yoann Gourcuff.

France are now third in Group 7, five points behind their next opponents Lithuania (although they have a game in hand) and Serbia who beat the Lithuanians 3-0 and Austria 3-1 this week.

In Group 8, it was a case of 'as you were' for Italy as they remained top of the table following a goalless draw with Bulgaria and a 2-1 win over Montenegro while Ireland kept in touch with a narrow 1-0 win over Cyprus. Group 9 sees the Dutch go five points clear of nearest challengers Scotland after beating Iceland 2-0 and Norway 1-0. Scotland lost ground by drawing 0-0 with the Norwegians but it could have been oh so different if Chris Iwelumo hadn't missed that sitter at Hampden…

Asia

Just a handful of games took place in Asia on Wednesday, but among them was a convincing 4-0 win for Australia over Qatar. Blackburn Rovers' Brett Emerton scored two for the Socceroos while Everton midfielder Tim Cahill grabbed another to put the Aussies top of Group A by two points. In the other game in the group, Japan were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Uzbekistan.

In Group B, a four-way tie for the lead has emerged with South Korea top of the pile on goal difference. They managed to thrash United Arab Emirates 4-1 with two goals from Lee Keun-Ho.

Like South Korea, Iran also picked up their first win of the round by beating North Korea 2-1. Eintracht Frankfurt's Mehdi Mahdavikia was on hand with the first goal for the home side before Osasuna's Javad Nekonam added a second after 65 minutes.

All of which leaves Saudi Arabia down in third place in the group, but they'll be in action on November 19th when they play host to South Korea while Iran visit the UAE looking to inflict their fourth straight defeat on them.

Also next month, Australia travel to Bahrain in Group A while Qatar are at home to Japan.

South America

Take a leap of faith with us as we proclaim with justified exuberance "Paraguay are the kings of South America." Yes, it's probably the right time to start looking upon Gerardo Martino's side as the best side on the continent as they maintained their excellent start to the South American qualifying competition.

Up to now, Paraguay have only lost one of their ten games (a 4-2 defeat away to Bolivia in June) and this week saw them add another couple of 1-0 wins to their tally against Peru and Colombia. They now head the table on 23 points - three more than they accumulated in the entire 2006 qualifying group, and they still have eight games left to play.

Brazil now occupy second spot thanks to a third straight goalless draw at home against Colombia and a 4-0 away win in Venezuela. The former of those games saw head coach Dunga subjected to the sort of booing that makes the Ashley Cole story seem like a whole load of fuss about nothing.

Luckily for Dunga, Brazil seem to be playing better on the road and are still able to boast just one defeat in ten like Paraguay. It's just a shame they've only won four out of those ten, otherwise they'd probably have qualified for the next World Cup by now.

Freefalling in a big way are Colombia. They're now seventh in the table and have now gone 532 minutes without scoring a goal. Admittedly their last two games were against the might of Brazil and Paraguay (of which they earned a creditable draw against the former, as we've mentioned), but they've now gone six games without a win and have scored just four goals in the whole campaign thus far.

That's good news for Chile, amongst others, who have climbed to fourth following an excellent 1-0 win over Argentina on Thursday night. Fabian Orellana grabbed the vital winner shortly before half-time to put Chile level on points with their opponents.

The impact of that win for Chile - their first over Argentina since 1973 - was monumental insofar as it cost Alfio Basile his job as coach of the Argentinean side. Basile quit his post for personal reasons yesterday after a recent poor run of form and though Argentina picked up a useful 2-1 win over Uruguay last Saturday, the damage, it seems, had already been done. Argentina now lie third in the qualifying table with eight games remaining.

Luckily for the AFA, the search for Basile's successor can now be conducted at a leisurely pace as the South American qualifying campaign goes into hibernation until March 28th 2009 when the competition begins once again.

North and Central America

Costa Rica became the first team to qualify for the final group stage in the CONCACAF region last weekend following their 4-1 away win over Suriname. A 2-0 victory over Haiti four days later secured top spot in Group 3 as El Salvador also booked their place as group runners-up. A 3-0 win over the Surinamese means they'll be in the group of six that battle it out for the three qualifying spots for South Africa when the competition begins in 2009.

Elsewhere, the USA added their names to the list following a comprehensive 6-1 rout of Cuba on Saturday. DaMarcus Beasley scored two and Landon Donovan, Brian Ching, Jozy Altidore and Oguchi Onyewu picked up one each in a victory that did much to boost the fans spirits just days before Trinidad & Tobago inflicted a 2-1 defeat on them to improve their own chances of qualifying.

T&T are now second in Group 1, three points ahead of Guatemala and need just a draw at home to Cuba on November 19th to book their place in the last round. Guatemala travel to the States on the same day hoping that their hosts have the same relaxed mentality that they showed against Trinidad and Tobago this Wednesday.

Finally to Group 2 where Sven's Mexico side suffered a shock 1-0 defeat away to Jamaica last weekend, stalling the Mexicans' chances of securing a place in the next round. Ricardo Fuller's 14th minute strike gave the Jamaicans their first win of the campaign, swiftly followed as it was by their second on Wednesday at home to Honduras, 1-0. Luton Shelton was on hand with the winner this time to force a three-way fight for the two qualifying spots in the group.

Honduras are the meat in the Mexico/Jamaica sandwich, and they retain second spot following a 3-1 win over Canada on Saturday. All of which means the last round of Group 2 fixtures a month from now are crucial in deciding the two teams to go through. The crunch match is undoubtedly the one between Honduras and Mexico where a draw for Eriksson's side will prove enough for them, while Jamaica have the considerably easier job of trying to beat Canada at home.

So have Honduras stumbled at the wrong moment? Will the crack in Mexico's form turn into an irreparable crevasse that sees them fail to qualify for a World Cup for the first time since 1982?

Join us next month to find out…

World Cup 2010 Round-up

We know it's been a week or two since the most recent round of World Cup qualifiers took place, but we never quite got round to summing up all the action from outside Europe, so here's our whistle-stop tour of all you need to know, starting with…

South America
It seems we were a little hasty to cast our judgement on Brazil after the September 6th/7th matches. Brazil's surge up to second spot in the table came to a crashing halt when they could only draw 0-0 with bottom-dwellers Bolivia. With Argentina also drawing against the lower-placed Peru 1-1, Paraguay were able to extend their lead at the top by beating Venezuela 2-0.

Cristian Riveros and Nelson Valdez put the game out of reach before half time in Asuncion to leave the Paraguayans four points clear of Brazil, Argentina and a Chile side that bounced back from their 3-0 drubbing against the Brazilians by beating Colombia 4-0.

That result sees Chile push the faltering Colombians out of the automatic qualification places with Uruguay occupying the play-off spot following their goalless stalemate against Ecuador.

Oh and one other piece of late breaking news: Colombia's head coach Jorge Luis Pinto has been fired after his team's recent run of poor form. His replacement's first game will be next month against Paraguay… nice.

Yes, the CONMEBOL section resumes with another double-header programme between October 11th and 15th where the top three all look to be facing (supposedly) weaker opposition. In this part of the world, however, don't be surprised if the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay all slip up somewhere along the line.

North and Central America
As predicted by us (and probably most of you, to be fair), each of the three Third Round groups in the CONCACAF section are all being led by the strong favourites in each one.

The USA have a 100% record after three games in Group 1, the second of which was the historic meeting with Cuba in Havana on September 6th. Clint Dempsey's first half goal proved to be enough in what was a slightly uninspiring performance in front of a partisan crowd of 8,000, and with a more convincing 3-0 home win over Trinidad and Tobago taking place four days later, the States look almost home and dry already in their group. Guatemala are their nearest challengers some five points behind, and despite beating Cuba 4-1 at home they could only earn a 1-1 draw with the Soca Warriors.

In Group 2, Mexico have a maximum nine points to their name and look totally at ease against all-comers thus far. Earlier this month, they beat Jamaica (who this week announced former England star John Barnes would be their new head coach) 3-0 before a narrow 2-1 win over Canada ensued. Honduras almost matched the Mexicans goal for goal after beating the Jamaicans 2-0 four days after their own 2-1 win away to Canada on September 6th. Honduras are now second in Group 2, three points behind Mexico.

Finally in Group 3, Costa Rica lead the way with three wins out of three. In their pair of games this month they managed to score ten (seven at home to Suriname) and concede just one in their away win in Haiti.

El Salvador are doing their best to stay in touch but find themselves three points behind. They managed to notch up a 5-0 win at home to Haiti along with a 2-0 away win in Suriname.

The next double header's played on October 11th and 15th and sees a reversal of the previous two fixtures taking place. That means Cuba go to the USA looking for their first win, Mexico go to Canada hoping to avoid another scare and Costa Rica look to inflate their +10 goal difference tally with a repeat performance against Haiti and Suriname.

Africa
We've much to get through here as there's just one fixture remaining for most teams in each of the twelve groups. That means if you're not one of the countries still in with a chance of finishing top, you're probably stand a fair chance of getting one of the eight best runners-up places which also guarantees entry to Round 3.

A few months ago, we told you that Nigeria had become the first team to confirm their place in the next stage of the African qualifying competition, and this month three more managed to join them - Cameroon and Benin.

In Group 1, Cameroon got the vital win they needed by beating the Cape Verde Islands 2-1 but the islanders could yet grab one of those valuable second place finishes if they can get at least a draw against Tanzania next month.

In Group 3, Benin beat nearest challengers Angola 3-2 this month leaving the Angolans and Uganda to fight over the runners-up spot. The final round of games in the group see Uganda play at home against the already qualified Benin while Angola are at home to bottom-placed Niger. An intriguing finish to that group looks to be on the cards.

In the other groups, there are more permutations surrounding who could go through than there are English words in Juande Ramos' vocabulary. In Group 10, any of the four teams involved could yet progress, although leaders on goal difference Mali had to suffer a recent defeat against second-placed Congo. They'll be grateful to face bottom-of-the-group Chad next month while a resurgent Sudan play hosts to the Congolese.

Group 12 is almost as tight with the top three all still looking to go through to Round 3 in October. Egypt have a three point lead at the top and should be all set to confirm their place when they play Djibouti next month as their opponents are yet to pick up a point thus far. But it's the teams in second and third place, DR Congo and Malawi that will battle it out to go through when they meet in Blantyre in three weeks' time. DR Congo won 1-0 in their first encounter in June but may be feeling less than confident after their recent defeat by the same score at home to the Egyptians.

Only one point covers the top three in Group 6, so that means Algeria's slender lead of one point may yet prove insufficient as Gambia and Senegal follow on in hot pursuit. As it is, Algeria may be the more relaxed going into the final fixtures on October 11th and 12th as they play the only team in the group that can't go through - Liberia. Senegal play Gambia in Dakar needing to win if they're to reach the Finals again after a six-year absence.

In a tight Group 7, Ivory Coast find themselves leading the way despite drawing three of their five matches so far - the most recent being against Mozambique a fortnight ago. The Ivorians' final game comes at home to their only challengers, Madagascar. A draw will be enough for Ivory Coast to go through, but a win for their opponents by four clear goals will see them swap places. At that point, The Elephants will have to suffer the lottery of the runners-up placing system, but to be honest, we don't think it'll come to that. Both sides drew 0-0 in Antananarivo back in June, and a similar result may yet prevail.

By way of a sum-up, here's the need-to-know on the remaining groups. Libya need just a draw against second-placed Gabon in Group 5 while a slip-up for Gabon could let Ghana through to take one of the top two spots if they can beat lowly Lesotho.

Morocco play host to Mauritania next month looking for the win that will secure their place in Round 3. They currently lie second in Group 8 behind Rwanda, but a win will put the Moroccans top on goal difference. In Group 9, however, Tunisia look as though they'll have to qualify as one of the best runners-up. They're currently three points behind leaders Burkino Faso with a much inferior goal difference. The two sides recently fought out a goalless draw in Burkino Faso leaving the hosts as good as qualified for the next stage.

Finally in Group 2, a draw between Kenya and Guinea will be good enough to see the former go through, and perhaps the latter too if they turn out to be one of the best runners-up while in Group 11, Zambia will be watching on helplessly as Togo play at home to Swaziland. A draw or a win for Togo will see the Zambians make it to the third round while a win for Swaziland will mean they're knocked off the top and entering the runners-up lottery.

Asia
It's still early days here in the fourth and final round so there's not too much in the way of excitement at the moment. In Group 1, Japan got a win in their first and only match so far, 3-2 away to the Bahrainis while Australia also got their campaign underway with a 1-0 away to the Uzbeks. Qatar top the group, though, after beating Uzbekistan 3-0 and drawing 1-1 with Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia are top of Group 2, picking up four points out of their first six with a draw at home to Iran and a win in the United Arab Emirates. North Korea join them on four points following an impressive 2-1 win in the UAE and a 1-1 draw with their South Korean counterparts.

The top two in each group are guaranteed a place in the 2010 Finals while the two teams finishing third play each other in a play-off, the winner of that going on to another play-off with the winner of the Oceania section. If only we knew who that might be...

Oceania
New Zealand are the winners of the Oceania section after a brace of victories over closest challengers New Caledonia. That means with one match left to play against Fiji, the All Whites are assured of a high-profile showdown with one of the Asian elite as well as a place in next year's FIFA Confederations Cup.

Well done to them on a competent qualifying campaign and let's hope they can go one better by reaching South Africa in 2010, if only to silence those people who snigger about the Oceania section being a waste of time.

World Cup 2010 Update: South America

As you'll by now be aware, last weekend was a busy time where the 2010 World Cup qualifiers were concerned. On Sunday we told you about the latest action in Europe - today we fill you in with the major happenings from South America.

And the big news here is that Brazil are back on the war path again. After slipping to fifth in the table, they bounced back on Sunday with a 3-0 win away to Chile. Ronaldinho was on hand to orchestrate the Brazilian fightback after Chile had made most of the early running in the game, but it was his cross that Fabiano headed in to give Brazil the lead after 21 minutes.

That said, Ronaldinho missed the chance to get on the scoresheet himself when his penalty was superbly saved by Claudio Bravo in the opposing goal fourteen minutes later.

But Brazil were not to be beaten as Manchester City's Robinho (and who'd have thought we'd have been saying that a week ago) made it 2-0 just before half time. After that, tempers became fraught and both teams had a man sent off - Kleber for Brazil and Jorge Valdivia for Chile - but the game was to end with a third goal for the Brazilians courtesy of a second for Luis Fabiano.

That win takes Brazil up to second on goal difference thanks to a 1-1 stalemate between the top two (as was), Argentina and Paraguay. Olympic champions Argentina found themselves 1-0 down after just 12 minutes when Gabriel Heinze put the ball past his own keeper in a mix up that left Abbondanzieri needing five stitches in a knee injury.

The Argentine number 1 was replaced by the number 12, Juan Carrizo, but his side were clearly unsettled as Carlos Tevez got himself booked a couple of minutes later and then again for a second time around the half-hour mark. His dismissal left The Albicelestes with a mountain to climb as the depleted Argentineans searched for an equaliser in the hour that remained, but it duly arrived following some good work by Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

Fending off the challenges of four Paraguayan defenders, his long pass found Sergio Aguero of Atletico Madrid who slotted the ball home with just under half an hour remaining. The score remained 1-1, so that means Paraguay stay top of the group while Argentina drop to third.

The rest of the table underwent a reshuffle too, following Sunday's matches. Uruguay climb to fourth after a 1-0 win over a largely ineffective Colombia side. Ecuador move up a place to seventh following a 3-1 victory over Bolivia which saw the latter reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Alejandro Gomez.

Finally Peru, grabbed their first win of the campaign with a 1-0 win over Venezuela despite the absence of three of their best strikers - Claudio Pizarro, Paolo Guerrero and Jefferson Farfan. Despite a late resurgence by the Venezuelans, Peru held on to their narrow lead which leaves Bolivia bottom of the table with five defeats from their seven matches.

The second part of the September double-header continues tonight when Paraguay play at home to Venezuela, while tomorrow night sees the remaining four games taking place, including the top-v-bottom ties between Brazil and Bolivia and Argentina and Peru. Mid-table, Colombia go to Chile looking to inject some life back into their campaign and Uruguay will no doubt be hoping to climb nearer the top of the pile as they take on Ecuador in Montevideo.

For those of you in the UK, the good news is you can watch some of the action from these qualifiers on Sky tomorrow night. For full details, see yesterday's Midweek TV Guide.

World Cup 2010 Qualifying Update (Part 2)

It's now time for Part 2 of our comprehensive update looking at the World Cup qualifiers that which took place during May and June. Having dealt with the African section last week, we now turn our attention to what's happening in…

South America

Overview
Once again, all ten South American teams play each other twice in a single big round robin group. When all the dust has settled, the top four teams go through to South Africa 2010 while the fifth-place team goes into a home-and-away play-off with the 4th placed team in the North and Central America section.

News
During June 2008, the national teams of South America entered battle once again for the first time since November 2007. When play came to a temporary halt seven months previously, the group table looked like this…

As you can see, Paraguay had a narrow lead over the chasing pack of three teams, but what was apparent from this early stage was that none of the ten taking part had managed to keep a 100% record after just four games. Such inconsistency would be a continuing theme throughout the June double header, especially on the part of those three teams trailing Paraguay at the top - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia.

Paraguay showed they meant business with a 2-0 win over Brazil on June 15th, the goals scored by Roque Santa Cruz and Salvador Cabanas. Brazil were sorely lacking the ingenuity and skill of Kaka, was recovering from recent ankle surgery, while Ronaldinho's current lack of form didn't help the five-time world champions either.

Paraguay, on the other hand, seemed much more capable of taking the game to their opponents, although defender Dario Veron nearly jeopardised their position when he got sent off for a second bookable offence after the second goal went in. The home side, however, held on and were no doubt delighted to see their lead at the top of the table grow to three points when Argentina could only draw 1-1 against Ecuador.

Alfio Basile's men almost came a cropper against the Ecuadorians and were it not for Rodrigo Palacio's equaliser four minutes into injury time at the end of the game, Argentina would have suffered their first defeat in a qualifying match since 1993.

As it is, they should have wrapped the game up much earlier. Though lacking any real spark, the Argentineans had plenty of chances to score but failed to hit the back of the net. Ecuador, meanwhile, managed to bide their time well and when Joffre Guerron and Carlos Tenorio linked up skilfully to set up Patricio Urrutia, the away side found themselves 1-0 up.

Sadly for them, Argentina never gave up and Ecuador's goal only served to wake them up when they most needed to. Finally when Ecuador appeared to have done enough to hang on for an historic win, goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri launched a long goal kick which beat their defence and landed neatly for Palacio who promptly scored. Argentina had survived but Paraguay were now further ahead in the group.

Elsewhere on Matchday 5, Colombia leapfrogged Brazil into third place with a 1-1 draw against lowly Peru while Chile beat bottom-placed Bolivia 2-0. Uruguay and Venezuela completed a trio of 1-1 draws in Montevideo to ensure the middle order stayed much as it was.

Three days later, Matchday 6 threw up a few surprises. For a start, Paraguay lost their first match of the campaign against a Bolivian side that had lost four of its first five games. Once more, the issue of altitude came to the fore as Paraguay looked a shadow of the team that had recently beaten Brazil 2-0, but the pitch in La Paz was also a hindrance as Bolivia took control of the game.

Two goals in three minutes from Joaquin Botero and Ronald Garcia meant the home side were nicely settled after half an hour and Paraguay seemed stunned. No reply of any sort came until the 66th minute when Santa Cruz scored for the second successive match, but even then the Bolivians hit back hard with another brace, this time scored in a seven minute spell thanks to Botero (again) and Marcelo Martins.

The Paraguayans scored a consolation goal through Nelson Valdez eight minutes from time, but by that stage they were well and truly beaten. Lucky for them, perhaps, that two of the teams trying to catch them up in the group, Brazil and Argentina could only draw 0-0 in Belo Horizonte.

Though Argentina played the better football, they were forced to settle for a second draw on-the-trot while Brazil also suffered a second consecutive game without a win - a fact not appreciated by their home fans who jeered throughout the contest and even applauded Lionel Messi when he was substituted late on.

That result meant Chile were able to take fourth place in the group above Brazil thanks to a 3-2 away win against Venezuela. A ding-dong battle resulted in all five goals being scored in the last 35 minutes, the first of which went to Chile's Humberto Suazo from the penalty spot before Venezuela's Giancarlo Maldonaldo equalised five minutes later.

Gonzalo Jara got on the end of a Chilean free kick to put his side back in the lead with 17 minutes remaining, but Juan Arango squeezed home another equaliser seven minutes later. Venezuela pressed hard for a goal to give them the lead late on, but it was Suazo again who claimed all three points for Chile two minutes into stoppage time with a low, accurate shot.

So, Chile now find themselves level on points with third-placed Colombia who could only manage a 0-0 draw away to Ecuador. Brazil are also now feeling the heat from Uruguay, whose 6-0 home thrashing of Peru means they're just a point behind the 2002 world champions, too.

What next for Brazil, then? Ah yes - a nice trip to Santiago on September 7th to play in-form Chile. That should be nice… A day before that, the top two are in action as Argentina play host to Paraguay while Uruguay hope to catch the Brazilians by beating Colombia in a tough match in Bogota.

We'll have all the news on that in about six weeks time, but we'll be back with our next continental round-up of all the recent World Cup qualifiers in a few days time as we turn our attention to the North and Central American Zone.