Slip (Argentina) and Slide (Brazil)

By: Lugo | June 15th, 2008

To the average North American and European fan, South American soccer is little more beyond what these two giants have to offer and the most arrogant ones quickly dismiss the rest of us as if we were talking about the minions of Oceania or the tiny islands of the Caribbean. And they might be right in the sense that the historical dominance of these two historical powerhouses cannot be contested. Nevertheless, this weekend’s fixtures of the south american qualifiers have shown us a very different reality: At this time, (6:04 PM Here in Colombia) Argentina is five minutes short of a historical home loss to Ecuador being their second defeat in a row after their away loss to Colombia. Meanwhile, Brazil continued their erratic path after a friendly loss to Venezuela by (you guessed correctly) losing 2-0 at the Defensores del Chaco, home of the leaders of the World Cup Qualifyiers Paraguay. A team that, in my humble opinion, I already see as world class and fighting side by side along with the powerhouses. Nowadays, I believe Paraguay could dispose of a lot of European sides without much suffering. Behind Paraguay and the giants, I see four teams that i call The strugglers: Uruguay, with their great history behind them, Chile with an interesting group of players but not so interesting results, Ecuador who reasserts itself with this victory altough the table only shows 6 points for them so far and my beloved Colombia who despite a not-so-great performance against Perú lies today confortable in third place with 9 points. Behind them a feisty Venezuela who is giving its all forn the dream of finally making it to the world cup. And I see two new minions in Bolivia and Peru despite the peruvians having so many players in Europe and a rich history.

So to those arrogant fans my message is clear: Wake up. If you ever wondered why 50% of this confederation has a chance of going to the world cup with only 10 teams, make an effort to start watching most of this teams and you’ll see the reason. Argentina and Brazil will be at the world cup, make no mistake about it. But you better believe they’ll be earning it. Because it’s neve been a cakewalk for them and it never will.

Here are the standings to back up what i’m saying.

Update: Argentina managed to get a 1-1 last minute draw. But that’s nothing for them to be proud of so my point still stands.