{"id":11424,"date":"2016-10-04T16:55:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T15:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colossusbets.com\/?p=11424"},"modified":"2019-04-15T16:26:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:26:48","slug":"south-american-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/south-american-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"SOUTH AMERICAN QUALIFYING"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>International breaks are generally seen as something of an inconvenience for football fans in many\u00a0of Europe\u2019s major nations, an unwelcome disruption to the bread-and-butter business that is their\u00a0own domestic top-flight competition.<\/p>\n<p>It is a different story in South America, home to the most competitive World Cup qualifying process\u00a0on the planet. International breaks provide a chance for many of the 10 countries\u2019 stars to return\u00a0home from Europe, where the economic reality of the modern game dictates they ply their trade at\u00a0club level. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/new-euros-format-enlivened-qualification\/\">qualification format<\/a> also lends itself to excitement: there is just a single group\u00a0featuring every South American nation, with teams playing each other home and away across a two-\u00a0year period.<\/p>\n<p>The next set of games take place in Quito, Montevideo, Asuncion, Natal and Lima on Thursday,\u00a0before another round of matches next Tuesday. South American sides\u2019 bid to reach the 2018 World\u00a0Cup will therefore pass the midway point in the current international break, with nine of the 10\u00a0nations still in contention for an automatic qualification spot (the top four will advance straight to\u00a0Russia, while the fifth-placed team will face the country that finishes top of the Oceania section,\u00a0likely New Zealand).<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela, bottom of the table with just two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/seven-days-seven-points-9sept\/\">points<\/a> to their name, are realistically out of the picture.\u00a0Above them on seven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/seven-days-seven-points-3\/\">points<\/a>, Peru and Bolivia have their work cut out to climb into the top four,\u00a0while Chile, Paraguay and Ecuador are closer but also outside. Uruguay currently lead the way with\u00a016 points, but Brazil, Argentina and Colombia are all within just a single <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/guide-next-1000000-1x2-pick15-7\/\">victory<\/a> of overtaking or\u00a0drawing level with them.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar Tabarez\u2019s charges have won five and drawn one of their eight matches so far, and a home tie\u00a0against Venezuela this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/previewing-millionaire-28jan\/\">week<\/a> provides them with an excellent opportunity to either maintain or\u00a0extend their lead at the summit. Brazil, now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/arsenal-must-learn-manager-mistakes\/\">managed<\/a> by Tite following the dismissal of Dunga earlier\u00a0this year \u2013 the Selecao\u2019s elimination in the group stage of the Copa America Centenario was the final\u00a0straw for the former World Cup winning captain \u2013 should also be able to pick up maximum points at\u00a0home to Bolivia.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina will be unable to call upon the services of Lionel Messi against Peru; the Barcelona\u00a0forward may have reversed his decision to retire from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/international-rescue\/\">international<\/a> game following the\u00a0aforementioned Copa in June, but an injury sustained in a recent clash with Atletico Madrid means\u00a0he will play no part in his country\u2019s next two fixtures. Argentina should still have more than enough\u00a0quality to defeat the Peruvians, although they should be mindful that Ricardo Gareca\u2019s men have\u00a0only lost one of their four qualifiers at home in the current campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Chile may have triumphed at the last two Copas America in 2015 and 2016 but they have struggled\u00a0in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/world-cup-qualifying\/\">World Cup qualifying<\/a> of late, a 0-0 draw at home to Bolivia in September seeing them drop down\u00a0to seventh spot. While there is plenty of time for La Roja to turn things around, they will be\u00a0desperate to get back on track in Ecuador \u2013 who are also going through a bad run after a strong start\u00a0\u2013 on Thursday. The other encounter pits Paraguay against Colombia, two teams who will be\u00a0relatively happy with their respective positions in the table.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, it promises to be another exciting and entertaining week in the South American segment of\u00a0World Cup qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International breaks are generally seen as something of an inconvenience for football fans in many\u00a0of Europe\u2019s major nations, an unwelcome disruption to the bread-and-butter business that is their\u00a0own domestic top-flight competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[643],"tags":[174,177],"class_list":["post-11424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-news","tag-ticker"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SOUTH AMERICAN QUALIFYING - Colossus Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South America, home to the most competitive World Cup qualifying process. 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