Lléo
2024-09-11 03:05:37 UTC
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Permalinktonight, as four of the five games yield results not seen in a while in
these parts. Overall, Argentina, Brasil and Uruguay struggled; Colombia
"avenged" its Copa America final loss and earned an important victory;
Ecuador did its homework, Venezuela could have done better; Chile and
Peru remain adrift at the bottom; and Paraguay and Bolivia have the
biggest smile of the world on their faces right now.
Colombia 2-1 Argentina
Colombia breaks a five year drought and beats Argentina at Estadio
Metropolitano de Barranquilla. James Rodriguez was involved in all
goals. First he assisted Yerson Mosquera, crossing from the left wing
for the latter's header in the 25th minute, his first goal for Colombia
on his 4th cap. Early in the second half, though, he misplaced a pass to
Mosquera, which Nico Gonzalez pounced upon to face the keeper
mano-a-mano and fire it in. And finally, a VAR spotted penalty by
Otamendi over Muñoz, in which James made no mistake.
This is Colombia's first win over Argentina since Copa America 2019, in
Salvador. Before that, it had been one in 2007, a WCQ in Bogotá.
Colombia remains unbeaten in this WCQ cycle and jumps to second place.
Argentina still leads.
Ecuador 1-0 Peru
Ecuador too breaks a five-year drought as they beat Peru at Estadio Casa
Blanca, in Quito. A header by Enner Valencia, in the 54th minute,
separated the two teams. Peru pushed on near the end of the game, but
Ecuador held on until final whistle.
This is Ecuador's first win over Peru since a friendly between these two
teams in 2019. In competition games the drought goes further back, last
win having been a WCQ win in 2011 at Estadio Atahualpa, in Quito. Peru
remains winless in this WCQ cycle.
Chile 1-2 Bolivia
It has happened, the Great Wait is over. At Estadio Nacional, in
Santiago, Bolivia finally wins again as visitor in a South American
competition game. And a game with its share of controversy it was.
Carmelo Algarañaz scored first for the visitors in the 12th minute,
making the most out of a quick conter attack down the left wing. Chile
pushed back and, in the 39th minute, drew level on a controversial play.
A free kick for Bolivia, near the midfield line, was backpassed all the
way to Lampe, and Eduardo Vargas charged towards the Bolivian keeper. As
Lampe touched the ball he felt something on his left foot and
immediately dropped to the ground. It was not a foul, as Vargas was
still some ground away from Lampe when it happened, and the Chilean
forward did not care much: he took the ball, rounded the fallen keeper
and ran with it over the line for the equalizer.
The Bolivians were infuriated by Vargas's supposed lack of fair play,
and it took a while for Paraguayan referee Juan Gabriel Benítez to calm
down everyone's nerves and resume the game. Lampe, for his part, was
immediately substituted by Viscarra, so it seems his injury was actually
serious, and not an attempt to playact over a blunder to try to save
some face. But immediately upon restart, Bolivia struck back, again on a
play down their left wing, this time finished by "Miguelito" Terceros.
In the second half, Chile took control of the game and Bolivia had their
backs against the wall. But once again the Chilean toothlessness showed.
Between missed chances and Viscarra's saves, Chile was even awarded a
wrongful penalty, a situation soon corrected by VAR robots. In the
pre-VAR days, Bolivia would probably still be waiting.
A couple of rounds ago we talked about unbeaten runs. This round brings
the opposite. It's been 11,378 days since Bolivia's 1-7 win over
Venezuela in San Cristóbal, on July 17th, 1993. Since then and until
this one, they played 64 away WCQ games, with 8 draws and 56 losses,
having scored 37 goals and conceded 174 over these 31 years. A winless
run that was as long as Brasil's recently broken unbeaten home one.
Well, it is all laid to rest now.
(before that 1-7, Bolivia had a couple of away wins: one in 1977 over
Venezuela and another in 1989 over Peru. But Conmebol qualifiers were a
lot shorter, so I don't think they have previous winless runs worth
mentioning. Other teams might have something, though...)
Venezuela 0-0 Uruguay
A goalless draw at a rain-soaked Estadio Monumental de Maturin.
Venezuela dominated actions and created several chances against a rather
understrength Uruguayan side. The hosts even had a goal called back for
offside, on a play that generated doubts since the ball hit an Uruguayan
defender before reaching Salomon Rondon, but it was ruled accidental by
the referee, a decision ratified by VAR robots. Sergio Rochet had to put
out a man of the match performance to save the visitors a valuable away
point.
Venezuela will rue on this one for a while, given how Uruguay was
missing several key players. But they're still inside the automatic
qualifying zone. Uruguay is on a solid 3rd position.
Paraguay 1-0 Brasil
Brave performance and deserved victory for Paraguay at Estadio
Defensores del Chaco, in Asunción, with an 18th minute goal by Diego
Gomez. Brasil played very poorly in the first half and tried to push on
in the second, but were as uninspiring and disjointed as they have been
for a while. Paraguay defended well and had a number of chances to add a
further goal or two.
This was Paraguay's first win over Brasil since 2008, which was another
WCQ one in the same venue. They stay in the playoff zone, outqualifying
Bolivia on GD. Whileas, with four losses in eight games, Brasil ends
this round in 5th place.
Table [points, games, w-d-l, gs-gc, gd, (mi = media inglese)]
1 Argentina 18 8 6 0 2 12-4 8+ (mi = +2)
2 Colombia 16 8 4 4 0 9-5 4+ (mi = 0)
3 Uruguay 15 8 4 3 1 13-5 8+ (mi = -1)
4 Ecuador 11 8 4 2 2 6-4 2+ (mi = -2) (-3 points penalty)
5 Brasil 10 8 3 1 4 9-8 1+ (mi = -6)
6 Venezuela 10 8 2 4 2 6-7 1- (mi = -6)
----------------------------------------------
7 Paraguay 9 8 2 3 3 2-3 1- (mi = -7)
----------------------------------------------
8 Bolivia 9 8 3 0 5 10-15 5- (mi = -7)
9 Chile 5 8 1 2 5 4-12 8- (mi =-11)
10 Peru 3 8 0 3 5 2-10 8- (mi =-13)
Next round to be played on October 10th. In brackets below, the results
of these games in the WCQ cycles of 2022/2018/2014/2010/2006/2002/1998
(all the round robin ones so far)
Peru - Uruguay (1-1, 2-1, 1-2, 1-0, 0-0, 0-2, 2-1)
Peru has been the poorest team in this cycle. At home they might try to
make things tight for Uruguay, but La Celeste is the much better team
between these two. I'd call a close win for Uruguay, say 0-1. In
soph-terms, Peru 0.25, draw 0.35, Uruguay 0.40.
Venezuela - Argentina (1-3, 2-2, 1-0, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 2-5)
Even at home this should be a tough one for Venezuela. Not hard to see
Argentina taking this one. I'll call VEN 0-2 ARG (in soph terms:
Venezuela 0.15, draw 0.15, Argentina 0.70).
Bolivia - Colombia (1-1, 2-3, 1-2, 0-0, 4-0, 1-1, 2-2)
Bolivia seems to be on a bit of a roll and, at Estadio Hernando Siles,
in La Paz, it's conceivable that they could find their third WCQ win in
a row, something that doesn't happen since their successful qualifying
run of 1993. It won't be easy, though, as Colombia is a much better side
and comes from a morale boosting win over Argentina. I'll call this one
a draw, say, 1-1 (in soph-terms: Bolivia 0.30, draw 0.30, Colombia 0.40).
Chile - Brasil (0-1, 2-0, n/a, 0-3, 1-1, 3-0, n/a)
A match between an uninspiring team versus a toothless one. Chile has
been very poor, but Brasil lost three out of four away thus far. I think
Brasil has the edge, but as things have been going it is smaller than
one would expect it to be. I'll call an away win, Chile 1-2 Brasil (in
soph-terms: Chile 0.25, draw 0.35, Brasil 0.40).
Ecuador - Paraguay (2-0, 2-2, 4-1, 1-1, 5-2, 2-1, 2-1)
Paraguay emerges from these last two rounds with high morale, having
earned 4 points where one could reasonably expect them to find 0 or 1.
Ecuador, however, is the better side, and could have been in a much more
comfortable position if not for the points penalty. In Ecuador, the
hosts are the favorites. I'd say Ecuador wins 2-1. In soph-terms:
Ecuador 0.55, draw 0.25, Paraguay 0.20.
Best regards,
Lléo