Brazil and Argentina will seek to close in on top spot this weekend in Latin American World Cup qualifiers with the samba stars travelling to Venezuela while the albiceleste host neighboring Uruguay.
The two giants, who between them have won seven World Cups, both stand four points behind surprise package Paraguay after eight matches but Brazil will expect to reduce the margin by claiming three points in San Cristobal tomorrow.
Argentina will have, on paper at least, a harder task to make short work of a Uruguayan side which, while not comparing to the World Cup-winning vintages of 1930 and 1950, nonetheless stands only a point behind their hosts.
PHOTO: AP
A Uruguayan win would vault them to provisional second in the table and, having already dropped home points to the Paraguayans, Argentina — as well as, more alarmingly, to Ecuador — cannot take their visitors lightly as they seek to end a six-match run of draws.
Argentina coach Alfio Basile is, if local media reports are to be believed, set to play three up front — Carlos Tevez, Leo Messi and Sergio Aguero — but leave Juan Roman Riquelme benched.
That is likely to be more a tactical choice than one of a personal nature — Boca Juniors star Riquelme was earlier this week described by Paraguayan clubmate Julio Cesar Caceres as being a “complicated person who is difficult to get on with.”
Former Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze is set to feature alongside Nicolas Burdisso and Martin Demichelis despite an own goal against Paraguay, after which he was dropped.
Liverpool’s midfield hardman Javier Mascherano will boss the engine room.
Brazil, having seen Argentina hold them to a goalless draw on home soil in June and then suffered the same result at home to modest Bolivia, have blown hot and cold in their matches but have managed to stay in touch.
Coach Dunga has to overcome injuries to Chelsea’s Alex and Julio Baptista of Roma — their replacements are Hamburg defender Silva and Porto Alegre winger Alex — but should benefit from the return of star midfielder Kaka.
The AC Milan star’s last qualifier was against Uruguay last November prior to a knee injury which required surgery.
Porto Alegre’s Alex said he was delighted to have made the squad.
“This is a childhood dream,” the Brazilian Football Confederation quoted him as saying and explaining how his father predicted when he was just four that “one day you’ll play for Brazil.”
Only two of the Brazilians are home-based whereas five are playing in the English Premiership — midfielders Lucas of Liverpool, Anderson of Manchester United and Manchester City’s Elano and City strikers Jo and Robinho.
Dunga has left out Kaka clubmate Ronaldinho, explaining that “Ronaldinho has not had enough time to improve with his new club. He is missing rhythm.”
Dunga is expected to send out an attacking line-up with Kaka supporting Robinho and Inter Milan’s Adriano.
Venezuela are in the bottom three and are five points off the fifth place which would mean a playoff against the fourth-placed team in the CONCACAF zone for a backdoor World Cup finals berth in South Africa.
Paraguay’s quest to hold on to their top spot has been hit by injury to Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz, who misses today’s trip to Colombia with a pulled leg muscle.
Eduardo Lara will be out to make a winning start as coach of the Colombians having replaced sacked Jorge Luis Pinto.
Colombia are presently sixth in the table after eight matches, three points adrift of the fourth and last automatic qualifying spot for the finals.
In a bottom of the table encounter today, Bolivia will make Peru clamber up to high altitude at La Paz while Chile, level on points with Argentina and Brazil, will travel to an Ecuador side still in contention.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier