Casting a glance at South America

The South American qualifying competition for South Africa 2010 is a quarter complete, and there some teams are in a better position than others.  Of interest to CONCACAF supporters is the fifth-place team, who will eventually play the fourth-placed Hexagonal team in a two-match playoff.  As 2007 comes to a close, Venezuela occupies fifth place with six points from four matches.  Uruguay and Chile are close behind on four points, and Ecuador might come back into the race if they can fix their leaky defense.  Peru and Bolivia are already off the pace and have a lot of work to do.

I think that fifth place will eventually be decided by Venezuela, Uruguay, and Chile, and Colombia might be drawn into that fight as well.  Of course, there is a very long way to go, and the CONMEBOL tournament won't resume until June.