As most of the soccer world waits for the Preliminary Draw Ceremony in Durban, South Africa to find out their qualifying ties and groups for the 2010 World Cup, powerhouses Brazil and Argentina as well as the other eight South American nations have already started their quest for a spot at the final tournament in South Africa. South American qualification tournament is said to be one of the toughest and most competetive qualifying competiiton in the world after Europe. South America's competition is played in a single round with all ten teams playing in a single group. Every team plays each other team twice. The teams finishing in th etop four automatically qualify for the 2010 finals. The fifth place side plays a two-legged playoff against the fourth place team in the final round of the CONCACAF (Confederation of North/Central American/Carribean Associations of Football) qualifiers. Last year, the four teams to qualify were Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador (placed in that order). The fifth place team wasn Uruguay who missed out on th e2006 World Cup after a disspointing loss again Australia who at the time was playing in the Oceanian Federation.
Even though Argentina currently holds the highest rank of all South American countries (#2) in FIFA's official world ranking, it is their biggest rival Brazil (#3) that is the favorite to end the qualifcation tournament in first place after successfully defending their Copa America (South America's official national team cup) title this summer.
Brazil started their qualifying campaign slower than usual with a frustrating scoreless tie against Colombia that saw both teams playing equally well, but the Brazilians were right back to their normal selves after crushing Ecuador 5-0. Brazil's Kaka (arguably the best young player in the world today) was the star of the match scoring two goals from far out.
Argentina, on the other hand, has a perfect record after their first two games beating Chile 2-0 and Venezeula 2-0.
So far, Ecuador has failed to impress fans in their opening game as they lost both of their first two games: 5-0 to Brazil and a disspointing 1-0 loss to Venezuela. Ecuador is currently the only team wihtout atleast a point in the standings right now and is therefore in last place. In th 2006 World Cup, Ecuador surprised the world by qualifying after defeating Brazil 1-0 in the captial of Quito. However, many Brazilian fans have blamed Ecuador's good performance in home games at the fact that their home stadium is located at a higher elevation than other South American nations, a condition that they got used to. Many even went as far as saying that their qualifying was a fluke, but Ecuador proved critics wrong by successfully making it out of the first round of the final tournament in 2006 in Germany. However, Ecuador's successes have been spiraling downward lately after a bad performance at this summer's Copa America and a dissapointing South American Qualifying opening match against Venezuela.
For news, standings, and other information regarding the world's quest to South Africa 2010, check out the official website.
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