Bolivia 4 - Paraguay 2; other two South American qualifiers are scoreless

First-place Paraguay visited the high-altitude city of La Paz to take on the last-place Bolivians. Paraguay suffered their first loss of qualifying in a shocker. Bolivia had a 2-0 lead at the half, but may have felt their momentum turning after Paraguay made it 2-1 in the second half. Regardless, Bolivia answered quickly with two more goals to make it 4-1. Paraguay scored once more, but it was too little, too late, and Bolivia won 4-2 to move out of last-place and ahead of Perú. Much of the blame may lie with Paraguayan backup goaltender Aldo Bobadilla, who did not perform well in place of Justo Villar.

Colombia went to visit Ecuador in rain-drenched Quito. The sloppy weather added to some sloppy tackling, resulting in three yellows for Colombia and two for Ecuador. The game ended in a scoreless draw, but for the second time in a week, Ecuador tied a game it should have won. Once, a Colombian own goal was saved by the crossbar, and in the last minute of play, Luis Bolanos lifted a shot too high over an open net. The tie combined with Paraguay’s loss leave Colombia as the only South American side yet to lose through six games.

Jamaica visited Bahamas with a 7-0 aggregate lead in hand. Still, Jamaica once again poured it on their opponents, scoring five goals in the first half and one in the second before finally turning off the jets. The 6-0 win eliminates the Bahamas and moves Jamaica into Round Three with a 13-0 aggregate win.

Argentina visited a Kaká-less Brazil in Belo Horizonte, but neither team in a particularly good mood after the scoreless draw. Argentina drew four yellows and Brazil took two, but that was to be expected when the world’s biggest rivals square off. The crowd began to turn on the Brazilians by the end of the game, and they actually Argentina’s Lionel Messi when he was substituted out of the game late in the match.

The Brazilian players were clearly not pleased with the result nor their home fans. “It was a bad result at home,” lamented Brazilian forward Robinho. Defender Gilberto was critical of the crowd. "The Brazilian supporters need to give encouragement, but Argentina come to play in Brazil and the Brazilian supporters applaud Messi; when Messi went off there were 40,000 people applauding him."

Juan Roman Riquelme spoke after the draw on behalf of Argentina. "We are not happy with a draw because we came here to win and I think we deserved to do so. It's a pleasure to play in a team like this, though, to be able to come to Brazil and play the way we did. That's one thing we should be happy about."

Goal scorers:
Bolivia: Botero 23, 70; García 25; Martins 76

Paraguay: Santa Cruz 66; Valdéz 82

Jamaica: Burton 29, 55; Shelto 35, 37 PK, 42; Marshall 39