CONMEBOL
Other regions:
Africa
Asia
Europe
N/C America
Oceania
South America
|
Preview: CONMEBOL qualifiers, Round 16
by Felipe Santos
The incredible rollercoaster which will select four (maybe five, because we canīt forget
Oceania) South American teams to be playing at Germany next year is coming closer and closer to its end. Only
three more games, and itīs over. We saw some squads which have already guaranteed their place
at German lands, like Argentina did. We are seeing some teams which are one step from joining Argentina, like
Brazil. We are seeing some other nations who are still on the hard battle, like Ecuador and Paraguay (both with a
bright horizon in front of them), Uruguay, Colombia and Chile (these three will probably take the play-off place).
And there are some other countries which have already said goodbye to their chances (Peru, Venezuela and
Bolivia). This round, Brazil has a golden chance to guarantee definitely its place at Germany 2006 and football
lovers will probably become more sure about which are the other two nations who will join Argentina and,
probably, Brazil and the other team which will have to suffer a little bit more with the play-offs against the best
team at Oceania.
Argentina ? Oh, Pekermanīs boys have no much more work to deal with at these Qualifiers.
Of course itīs very important to beat Paraguay, in Asuncion, on September 3, and enlarge the advantage on
the top of the table, but, as the team is already qualified, the next games will be useful only to help the
Argentinian coach more and more in choosing a good team to enter 2006 as good as it gets. A friendly game
against Hungary, on August 17, proved Pekerman is doing good. Argentina won 3-1 and the Argentinians saw, for
the first time, their new wonder-boy, the striker Lionel Messi, from Barcelona (and playing with Hungary, the
same squad which saw, at 1977, the debut of a guy called...Diego Maradona). Lionel, unfortunately, did rubbish.
He was sent off only 44 seconds after his entrance, by hitting with his elbow the defender Vilmos Vanczak. But
he was called-up by Pekerman to face Paraguay. Iīll put him on the spotlight on one of my next columns.
Out-of-this, the same players; the goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri - who will play for his team, Boca Juniors,
just three days before wearing Argentina's shirt, for the South America Super Cup final, against the Colombian Once
Caldas (Pekerman could take this opportunity and test more the immediate substitute, German Lux, who played
at Confederations Cup, couldnīt he ?) -, Juan Pablo Sorín, Juan Riquelme, Hernán Crespo.
And Paraguay ? Well, La Albirroja is too close to comfort. They can become a little bit near
to catch one of the four places to World Cup. And, of course, they will fight with teeth and nails for this. Anibal
Ruiz, the Paraguayan coach, said in an interwiew that his team will try to create dangerous situations to
Argentina and attack all the time. And he has his guns. Roque Santa Cruz could be out of this hard challenge,
but he recovered himself from an injury while playing for Bayern Münich and will be on the field. Jose Cardozo,
the other striker in Ruiz base-team, hadnīt the same luck his colleague had, but will be in the squad to prove
moral support. There is also the surprise of the presence of Roberto Acuņa, who was at 1998 and 2002 WC
squads, but was not playing for his nation for three years. And, of course, the support of all that rooters who
will flood Defensores Del Chaco. Another advantages resides in the fact that Paraguay has a well-set team,
where each player know what his team-mates can do. It will be a decisive game, but, in the case of winning,
Gamarra and his mates would have walked a big step to be in Germany.
Brazil is 99 percent confirmed at the World Cup. In spite of having a dull performance at a
friendly game with Croatia, in August 17, at Split (1-1, and the Croatian goal came from a spectacular fail of
Dida and Juan in deciding who would take possession of the ball), almost nobody doubt Canarinho will beat
Chile, in Brasilia, at September 4. And the circumstances indicate for a bright Sunday in which Brazilians will
celebrate the maintenance of their record as the only country which was present to all the World Cups. Carlos
Alberto Parreira will have his old friend Zagallo back on the bench. After his duoden surgery, a little bit
thinner, the "Old Wolf" is there again. Of course itīs good to control the euphoria, since Chileans were always
hard enemies to Brazil in Qualifiers. Since the controversial case of Roberto Rojas and his false injury at the last
game of 1990 WCQ, games between these two squads were never easy. But Brazil remember 2002 WCQ,
winning La Roja by 2-0 and starting the go-ahead phase which only ended at Yokohama, when Cafu lifted the
trophy for the fifth time to Brazil. Now, Brazil has a much more set team (in spite of the defense, where Lucio
and Juan continue to fright the more-exigent-than-everything Brazilian support), and that gleeful attack, with
Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldinho... But Robinho is there. Now playing for Real Madrid, being aside Ronaldo at the
strike place, he can take the managerīs attention and definitely get a place between the 11. Well, I do believe
Brazil will probably enter in the "Qualified Hall" on this round.
But Chile is there, and a victory against Brazil is difficult, but not impossible. And, to tell the
truth, beating Brazil would be perfect to Nelson Acosta's team. La Roja is in the fight to get the play-off spot and will
have two very hard battles, against Brazil and its direct opponent to the place, Colombia. And the team is very
experienced. Thereīs Nelson Tapia, the 38-year goalkeeper who played for Santos in 2004 and knows Robinho a
little bit. Thereīs Claudio Maldonado, the midfielder who plays in Brazil, for Cruzeiro, and can tell his team-mates
how is to play under the pressure of Brazilian supporters. And, finally, Marcelo Salas and Rodrigo Pinilla, the latter
coming back to play in a Chilean team (he has just transfered from River Plate to Universidad de Chile) and the
former came back from a knee injury and is ready. There are some other news, like the absence of the midfielder
Jorge Valdivia, substituted by Matias Fernandez, from Colo Colo. For sure, Chile can really be a tough enemy to
Brazil. They are still in the fight and will battle for this game.
If there is a team desperate to play in this round, this team is Colombia. Los Cafeteros came back
in the fight to get the play-off place, or even guarantee a place in the plane headed to Germany, by doing very
well winning Peru and Ecuador on the last rounds. Now, they will face a really breath-taking challenge, that kind
of game which prove if a team is definitely ready to go and play a World Cup: Reinaldo Ruedaīs squad will face
Uruguay, at Montevideo, on September 4. However, Rueda has luck by his side. The only absence in the team
will be the defender Mario Yepes, suspended. Out of this, the same players: Mondragón, Bedoya, Ivan Cordoba,
Luis Perea, Juan Pablo Angel, Tressor Moreno...but, despite the good attack part, the coach know for sure
Uruguay team is dangerous. So, heīll probably put again his guys to play in a defensive style, with until five
defenders, to avoid the terrible Uruguayan headers, decision based on what he saw during his tour around
Europe, in which he saw the Uruguay-Spain game. If having success in this mission, and having luck enough to
win the game, Colombia will have the chance to, depending on another results, decides one place to Germany
2006 at home, against Chile. And, letīs talk, itīs not that hard to win at Barranquilla. Now, the yellow-blue-red
team need only to work.
If this round can be decisive to Colombia, so it does to Uruguay. And even more, as La Celeste
Olimpica made a not so good job on the last rounds, drawing its two games and falling to a uncomfortable
seventh place on the table. But nothing is so bad that canīt become worse. Jorge Fossati, Uruguayan
manager, went to an hospital at Montevideo on August 25, suffering with angina (fortunately it wasnīt serious,
he has not heart problems and will be at the bench against Colombia). Sebastian Viera, who was establishing
himself as the owner of the goalkeeper place at the 11-squad, was supposed to sign with Arsenal, but Highbury
team refused to, because the doctors found what could be a tumor. With this, Viera lost his place in the squad,
at least on this round, to Fabian Carini, the goalkeeper at Korea/Japan 2002. And Uruguay lost a friendly game
with Spain, at August 17 (2-0), maintaining a tough tabu: Uruguay never won Spain. However, a team which has
players like Spanish-League-main-striker Diego Forlán, Alvaro Recoba and Paolo Montero (the former Juventus
defender, now at San Lorenzo, from Argentina) can return to the fight. And all the rooters will support Uruguay
in that exciting environment called Estadio Centenario at Montevideo. In all this scenario, Colombia-Uruguay
promises to be the best game in this round. Letīs see.
Ecuador ? Well, the team trained by Luis Fernando Suarez can be a little bit near to guarantee the
third spot on Germany. And the task is not so difficult: win Bolivia, the worst team at Conmebol 2006 WCQ, at
September 3. Of course the task will be a little bit more difficult, as the game will take place at La Paz. But even
this factor is not so frightening, nowadays. Besides this, Ecuador is in the same situation of Paraguay: Suarez is
doing a good job, taking advantage of the support of the crazy Ecuadorian rooters, at the home legs, and
playing in a safe style, knowing exactly what to do, in the away. Continuing these style, and winning Bolivia, La
Tricolor will probably be the next team to be near Germany, if Brazil become qualified in this round.
Bolivia...oh, what can I say about a team which donīt see anything but the bottom position at
the table and a dark future ? Itīs difficult, very difficult...but I need. At least, Ovidio Messa, the Bolivian coach,
decided to invest at some new names in the call-up to the game against Ecuador, who will be helped by the
more experienced, like the defender Ronald Raldes. But even Messa is finding a hard situation, since some
managers of Bolivian teams are claiming about the absence of the players of their teams and the pressure of
Bolivian supporters is being in a level upper than the acceptable. Letīs talk: itīs not very fair what Messa is
suffering, since he is trying to take the sad situation into a brighter future. He should work in peace.
Other hard task is to talk about Peru-Venezuela, the only game of this round which involves two
squads that donīt have chance to qualify into the main competition of world football. Both coaches, the
Peruvian Freddy Ternero and the Venezuelan Richard Paez have their main players among their squads. At Peruīs
side, Jefferson Farfan and Paolo Guerrero are present, apart the possible absence of the goalkeeper Leao Butron,
due to a injury. For La Vinotinto, Juan Arango, Rafael Dudamel and company will try to maintain the honor in
Venezuelaīs finished dream.
And thatīs it. I believe this round will set some more things. At the top of the table, Brazil will
probably join Argentina as a team which will set the luggage to German, during the 2006 summer, to play the
World Cup. At the bottom, Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia are only interested at ending with a good impression their
work at the Qualifiers. From this moment, the interest comes from the middle of the table. Which teams will get
the two direct spots and the place to face the best Oceania team ? Ecuador ? Paraguay ? Colombia ? Chile ?
Uruguay ? I recommend you who read this watch these teams. They will battle more and more excitingly for a
place in the sun.
|
[HOME]
BACKGROUND
Info on how
the World Cup was founded and about the trophy as well. |
THE
WORLD CUPS
Detailed info
on every match in every tournament from 1930 until 2006 plus more. |
COLUMNISTS
Interesting columns about the past, present and future of the World Cup. |
THE
NATIONS
Every nation
with appearances in the World Cup. Detailed info on every country. |
LEGENDS
Player profiles
of many of the most influential players in history. |
A-Z STORIES
An A-Z collection
of strange and different stories in World Cup history. |
STATISTICS
A big collection
of various statistics and records. |
MASCOTS
Every mascot
since it was introduced in 1966. |
QUIZ
Test your
knowledge about the WC. Three different levels. No prizes, just for fun. |
TOP
10 RANKINGS
Rankings of
lots of stuff. For instance Best Goals, Best Players and Best Matches. |
LINKS
Our collection
of links to other soccer sites with World Cup connection. |
LINK
TO
Some banners
and buttons for you to link to us if you want. |
ABOUT
US
A little information
on who keeps this site available. |
|
