An incredibly dramatic night in the South American matches this weekend trims the field of contenders but ratchets up the tension heading into Wednesday's final set of matches. Chile defeated Colombia 4-2 in Medellín to confirm their qualification to the finals and eliminate Colombia in the process. Paraguay scored an away win in Venezuela to all but eliminate the Vinotinto. Just to contend for the playoff position, the Venezuelans will have to beat the Brazilians by an unthinkable amount of goals. On the road.
So now we're down to three contenders for the automatic qualification and playoff places: Argentina, Ecuador, and Uruguay. All three already had heart-stopping matches this weekend. Uruguay beat Ecuador 2-1 in Quito, thanks to a Diego Forlán penalty deep into stoppage time (90+5'). In Buenos Aires, Argentina led 1-0 through most of the second half, but gave up a goal to Peru's Hernán Rengifo in the 90th minute. With Argentina desperate for the winning goal, and the public on the verge of total despair, Martín Palermo converted the winner in the second minute of stoppage time. Shades of 1985 all over again, when Argentina needed a bundled goal by Daniel Passarella in the late stages to get the required point to secure qualification.
Here's the situation. Argentina have 25 points, Uruguay 24, and Ecuador 23. Argentina travel across the river to play Uruguay in Montevideo, while Ecuador travel to Santiago to play Chile. A definite result in the Argentina-Uruguay match will put the winner in the World Cup finals; the winner has to hope that Ecuador does not win. A draw in the Argentina-Uruguay match opens the door for Ecuador to overtake Uruguay for the playoff spot, but only if they beat Chile. (With a -3 goal differential, the Ecuadorians would lose the goal difference tiebreakers against Argentina and Uruguay.)
In effect, both matches are must-win situations for all three teams.
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