Ecuador, Colombia, or Uruguay? 9/10 Bolivia - Ecuador Uruguay - Colombia 10/10 Ecuador - Uruguay Colombia - Chile 10/13 Chile - Ecuador Uruguay - Argentina Paraguay - Colombia On paper, Ecuador should get 4 points, Uruguay should get 4 points, and Colombia should get 3 points. But Colombia may be playing against Chile and Paraguay already qualified. Uruguay may be playing against Argentina fighting for its life. We also don't know what Argentina will bring to the last match. Will they be qualified yet? If not, it means a very different picture for Uruguay.
Ecuador has the easiest schedule for the next game if Argentina loses their next game in Paraguay...Colombia loses in Uruguay... Ecuador can take the 4th spot with a win in Bolivia Next games are as follows Teams in bold are favorites: Bolivia Ecuador Uruguay Colombia Paraguay Argentina Brazil Chile Venezuela Peru 9 points up for grabs!!! P W D L F A PTS Brazil 15 7 6 1 28 7 30 Paraguay 15 7 3 4 21 13 27 Chile 15 8 2 4 23 14 27 Argentina 15 6 4 4 20 18 22 gol diff +2 Colombia 15 5 5 5 9 11 20 gol diff - 2 Ecuador 15 5 5 5 18 22 20 gol diff -4 Uruguay 15 4 6 5 23 17 18 gol diff + 6 Venezuela 15 6 2 7 19 26 18 gol diff - 7
we gotta hope for a peruvian resurgence yet again, hopefully they can restore honor with another win. we need a slew of results to stay alive in a positive manner.
manolo, very good post (as always) i think next wednesday will be crucial because Ecuador playing against a weaker team - we can get back to 5th place. COL will not win - unless they have huge luck - because their tactics will be defending. so the only way Ecuador can keep things in his own hands is getting more points against bolivia than COL in uruguay. (so an empate can be enough if COL lose) after that: Uruguay home, Chile home (the same difficulty) Paraguay away, Chile away (the same difficulty, because i think both will be qualified by that time) it seems that 25 points will be enough for the repechaje (against Costa Rica, as it now looks) Argentina very poor now but they'll get at least 26. i don't think 4th place is realistic
honestly,after those last ten minute mess ups yesterday,if ecuador does not score in the first half or first few minutes of the second half were as good as done,because in the last ten minutes ecuador older defenders...hurtado,espinoza..tend to get more tired and let forwards pass through them!!
Venezuela can definitely beat Peru at home. If Colombia and Ecuador don't step up, they can leap-frog right over us to 5th place.
Agreed, this is definetly not a 3-way horse race. Venezuela is very much in the running now that Ecuador, Uruguay and Argentina failed to take three points from their opponents to move up and away from the rest of the pack. It is these three loses yesterday that increased both Colobia AND Venezuela's chances. If Ecuador, Uruguay or Arnetina had one, the remaining spot is would have been the 5th. I still think 4th and 5th are still very much both up for grabs after the weekend results.
AGREED. but Ecuador has to go in knowing that we NEED points badly...desperation in a good way, though. we got to be focused, and lethal...I expect Benitez, Lara, and Rojas to have breakout games in La Paz, its our only chance to win.
Ecuador has a very winnable game against a weak Bolivian side with an altitude that has no effect on us... pero ojo! they can surprise us peru style! Then we have Uruguay playing in Quito, and the odds are tremendously in Ecuador's favor, but not as past qual's... because look at the Venezuela's miraculous win, Brazil's, Paraguay's, and Colombia's draws there. Against Chile, we will be playing an already qualified Chile in Santiago. It can go either way, they can remember that beside having their passports already, they are our historical friends and not give us a hard time. OR they might not want to lose a home game anyway and try and pay us back for their loss in Quito.
I agree I think our schedule is the least difficult (nothing is easy). I respect the other teams but I have to say I like our odds the best. Colombia - have 2 very difficult away matches. They couldn't score on us while we had 11 players on the field, and I saw very little potency in their attack. Everyone saw we outplayed them for much of the match and they only created 3 or 4 really good opportunities against us. They will have a terrible time scoring in those away matches. Uruguay - started off great, but have been less than impressive in the past several matches. The loss against Peru shows they are not in good shape coming into these last rounds. That was their easiest match remaining on the schedule. Venezuela - while they still are in the fight, they are not yet a strong or consistent team. 12 of their 18 points have been against Bolivia and their best friends Ecuador. They pull off some surprises, but they rarely do damage against the stronger teams, and they lack discipline to manage games like they should have against Chile.