South American Wc Qualifiers Round-up

The South American World Cup table still remains as tight as ever after a series of draws, although the top two nations, Argentina and Brazil, again showed their supremacy with hard fought victories.

The South American World Cup table still remains as tight as ever after a series of draws, although the top two nations, Argentina and Brazil, again showed their supremacy with hard fought victories.

Argentina came from behind at the high altitude of La Paz, to win 2-1 against Bolivia, who languish at the foot of the table and looking less likely to be a chance of qualifying for the finals. Brazil meanwhile was made to work hard for its 1-0 home win over Peru.

Jose Castillo had given the home fans some belief that Bolivia may still be able to stay alive in the qualifying race when he scored five minutes after the break. However within 13 minutes, Figueroa and Galletti had scored for Argentina and the win puts Argentina on top of the group with 25 points.

Brazil is just two points behind, after getting home thanks a 74th minute Kaka goal. Peru remains second last of the 10 teams, but is still only two points in arrears of fifth place.

Ecuador came from two goals down to thrash Paraguay 5-2 in Quito and take over third spot from their opponent-s. It looked like it would be anything but a victory for the home side, after Cardozo (penalty) and Cabanas had Paraguay 2-0 after just 15 minutes.

Valencia pulled a goal back in the 32nd minute, but the turning point of the match came just prior to half time when Mendez levelled the game up at the break.

The home side came out with confidence in the second half and within five minutes, Mendez and Valencia had each grabbed a second goal to put them 4-2 up. Ayovi completed the rout with a 76th minute penalty.

The final two matches could have gone a long way to deciding which teams could grab an advantage in the tight race for the final two automatic qualifying spots, with Argentina and Brazil, already virtually guaranteed spots. However both matches ended in draws leaving the battle for third, fourth and fifth (play-off place) still very tight.

Venezuela, the only South American country yet to play at a World Cup finals, missed a golden opportunity to jump clear of Colombia and they had to settle for a 0-0 draw.

Colombia-s goalkeeper Calero proved the hero for the visitors with several marvellous saves to deny the Venezuelan-s. Both teams are on 14 points with six games remaining.

Australia nemesis from the last World Cup play-off, Uruguay, remains in fifth spot after a 1-1 with Chile in Santiago.

Uruguay got out the blocks quickly with a goal from Regueiro after just 4 minutes, but Milosevic evened it up in even quicker fashion at the start of the second half.

South American qualifying group table Argentina - 25 pts Brazil - 22 Ecuador - 19 Paraguay - 16 Uruguay - 15 Colombia - 14 Chile - 14 Venezuela - 14 Peru - 13 Bolivia - 10

The next round of matches are on Tuesday and Wednesday, with all games having a significant bearing on how things could turn out by the end of the 18 matches.

Round 13 matches March 29 - Bolivia v Venezuela March 30 - Uruguay v Brazil March 30 - Peru v Ecuador March 30 - Argentina v Colombia March 30 - Paraguay v Chile