Oct 10th, 2009 was a crazy day in CONMEBOL

Martín Palermo celebrates his game winner

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CONMEBOL was absolutely crazy yesterday.

Going into the day, 8 out of the 10 teams still had a chance to qualify. All 4 games last night were significant. The only pairing this weekend that didn’t matter was/is Brazil v Bolivia and that’s being played tonight.

Paraguay knocked out Venezuela IN Venezuela 2-1. After taking a 2-0 lead, Venezuela had a penalty stuffed by the Paraguayan keeper and then scored a little later, but couldn’t finish the task.

Venezuela is now out.

Colombia scored first on Chile, before going down 1-2 at home. Then they tied it up, but Chile scored two late goals to win 2-4 on the road. It appeared that the guy who scored Chile’s last goal was doing all kinds of dancing over the ball around the 90th minute before a Colombian guy just decked him. A fight nearly broke out and the CHILEAN guy was red carded.

Colombia is now out.

Ecuador, which has been amazing at home, took a 1-0 lead on Uruguay, which has been playing well. The game should have been a forgone conclusion in the altitude in Quito, but then Uruguay tied it up and then got a penalty for the win in the 90th minute. Ecuador could have clinched at least 5th (but been in 4th) with a win, but now they have to WIN in Chile (not very likely) to have any hope at South Africa.

A win gives Ecuador 5th place and they will most likely play Honduras for the right to go to South Africa. Win and they go to a playoff no matter what happens in Montevideo.

Uruguay could advance to a playoff with a loss or get eliminated with a tie.  It depends on Ecuador if they don’t beat Argentina in Montevideo.

Argentina vs the crappiest team in South America… Peru. Throughout this entire game Argentina looked like the better team. In fact, Peru was downright horrible at times. But it wasn’t until the 2nd half that Gonzalo Higuaín was able to slot home a Pablo Aimar pass. These two guys were playing their first games for the national team since Diego took over. (Diego is absolutely dreadful by the way.)

Anyway, this is Gonzalo’s first game period for the albiceleste and he scored. Nice.

Boca hero Martín Palermo came on in the second half and he provides a different target than anything that Argentina has had in recent years. He just knows where to be and how to get there. He got a bloody nose by trying to lower his head to a ball that someone was kicking, but I don’t think that this was the first time that this has happened.

It started raining… then harder, then it was POURING!!!

With 16 seconds, I said SECONDS (89:44), Peru scored to tie the game. This was awful for Argentina, but a win in Montevideo (where they don’t play well) would still allow them to go through. And it continued to pour with horrible wind and low visibility… which might contribute to the line judge completely missing that Martín Palermo was offsides for the goal that he scored in ~93′ or 94′.

There was a mad scramble around the goal and the goalie had come off the line. There was a defender behind him (and ultimately between Palermo and the goal line), but the goalie wasn’t back there and Palermo was behind the second defender. The ref was right there, but I don’t think that he looks for offsides. He’s watching for fouls and so when Palermo (from an offsides position) slotted home the goal, the referee blew the whistle and signaled goal. It was the line judge’s responsibility to see through the muck and to call the infraction. He didn’t. And Argentina sighed a huge sigh of relief.

Diego started running and sliding on his belly on the sidelines.  He looked like an orca at SeaWorld coming out of the water and sliding onto the deck to get his fish.  What a fat fuck  Arguably the greatest player to play the game… (Only Pelé, who was surrounded by talent, and Zizou, who is France’s answer to Michael Jordan, will be allowed in this discussion.)… is more of a mascot than a DT (or manager or head coach… whatever they call it in your country).  Just a boludo on the sidelines.  A national embarrassment who is untouchable in the public realm.  But I digress…

Now, if Argentina wins, they’re #4.
If they tie, they are #4 or #5.
If they lose, they are #5 or OUT.

Wednesday is going to be CRAZY!!! Uruguay plays well at home. Uruguay is playing well. Argentina doesn’t play well in Montevideo. Argentina isn’t playing well. But…

For the first time in about a year, Argentina was moving around the field. Messi didn’t need to do everything on his own. Aimar really improved the movement in the middle and Higuaín knows how to time runs. The complaint down here is that Riquelme is pecho frio. Messi, when he plays for Argentina, is pecho frio. The entire team recently has been pecho frio. They play with a “cold heart”. (About the biggest infraction you could ever make in Argentina.

What I saw last night was anything but pecho frio. And THAT is a good sign for Argentina. Wednesday is going to be crazy. Just crazy. (I’ll be wearing mi remera de la albiceleste.)