Chile Gets Breathtaking Win Over Bolivia in La Paz

Results of S.American 2010 World Cup Qualifiers


On June 15, the Chilean national football team took a positive step forward in its attempt to qualify for the FIFA World Cup to be held in 2010 in South Africa. The preparation process designed by coach Marcelo Bielsa (that includes banning all press reporters from training sessions) paid off as Chile scored another three points with a 2-0 victory over Bolivia. Due to the altitude of La Paz, (the world’s highest capital city at 3600 meters), Bielsa traveled two-weeks ago with the team of young players with an average age of 23 to the city of Calama in Chile´s northern desert area. Calama is located at an altitude of 2.500 meters and helped the players get used to running with less oxygen and also to the longer distances covered by the ball due to the lighter atmosphere. The Chilean delegation took the flight to La Paz only four hours before the match in order to reduce the effects of “La Puna” (a local term used for the side effects of the altitude such as dizziness and difficulties in breathing). As the match began, the Chilean team surprised fans from both countries at the Hernando Siles Stadium by immediately taking the initiative and had its first clear chances of scoring in the 15th and 17th minutes by means of striker Alexis Sanchez (River Plate, Argentina).
Ten minutes later it would be a defender, Gary “Pitbull” Medel that would open up the scoreboard with a spectacular overhead kick after a shot by Pedro Morales hit the crossbar. By now many Chilean players were showing the effects of the altitude but were able to end the first half with the one goal lead. In the second half Bolivia reacted and took control of the match but was unable to equalize. Gary Medel became the hero of the evening since during a counterattack in the 75th minute the defender scored yet again with a close range low shot after connecting with the ball from a corner on the right wing.
After the match the Chilean players celebrated on the pitch and captain Claudio Bravo sent a televised message to some teammates that had not shown much interest in playing for the national team due to Bielsa´s harsh discipline. “Instead of going to discotheques or being at home with your family you guys should be here playing for your country,” said Bravo. Will Chile will be able to repeat this performance next Thursday in Puerto la Cruz against Venezuela?. The local team has improved tremendously and is not the pushover team it once used to be and also got a good result as it managed to draw 1-1 with Uruguay on June 14 at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo. Apart from this result, Venezuela defeated Brazil for the first time in its history during a friendly match played two weeks ago in Boston, U.S.A, so the local players are in a confident mood and have promised to defeat Chile.


In the other matches played on June 15, Ecuador was only seconds from getting a historic result in Buenos Aires against two time world champions Argentina. With only three minutes remaining Ecuador was winning one nil when local coach Alfio Basile made a desperate move and put on striker Rodrigo Palacio that managed to equalize with only seconds of the match remaining. Meanwhile in Asuncion, Paraguay, the home team proved that its good form is no lucky streak as it defeated Brazil by 2-0. Paraguay is now the leader in the points table with 13, followed by Argentina with 10 points, Colombia 9, Brazil 8,Venezuela and Chile with 7, while Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia are out of the race with 5, 4, 3 and 1 points respectively.

The next fixtures are as follows:

June 17-18, 2008

Brazil-Argentina

Bolivia-Paraguay

Ecuador-Colombia

Venezuela-Chile

Uruguay-Peru

Manchester United Holds Barcelona to Goalless Draw at Nou Camp

English club near to playing final of UEFA Champions League

Barcelona and Manchester United played the second semifinal of the UEFA Champions league on April 23 at the Nou Camp Stadium in front of 98,700 spectators. The other was played the day before in Liverpool where the home team drew 1-1 with Chelsea. Manchester United had not played at this stadium since 1999 when it won that year’s edition of the UEFA Champions League after defeating Bayern Munich of Germany. This was the English club’s second time to win the European competition, the first being in 1968. Barcelona have also won this trophy twice (1992 and 2006) and the local fans are certainly eager to win it a third time. The match could have begun disastrously for Barcelona if Cristiano Ronaldo had scored the penalty that was awarded to him in the second minute of play. The Portuguese national team player and currently the player with the highest transfer fee in world football headed the ball towards the Barcelona goal but Gabriel Milito blocked it with his hands and referee Massimo Bussaca pointed to the penalty spot. Amazingly, Cristiano Ronaldo’s shot missed the goal completely and also squandered a great opportunity for his team to go ahead in the scoreboard. This missed chance lifted the spirits of the Barcelona players that headed by Argentine star Lionel Messi began to constantly attack the Man.Utd goal. However, Messi and his teammates were unable to finalize the many chances they created for themselves, while Man.Utd were satisfied to stay in its own half and prevent Barcelona from scoring. Apart from Messi, there were two other Argentineans on the field, Carlos Tevez (Man. Utd) and the before mentioned Milito. There were no goals scored in the first half and the only clear chance for Barcelona occurred in the 51st minute when Messi and Samuel Etoo made a good combination of passes that the Cameroon striker was unable to convert from close range. In the 61st minute the Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard realized that Messi had tried all his tricks against Man.Utd and so substituted him with Bojan Krcic. The final twenty minutes continued that usual trend as Manchester United´s disciplined defenders kept the locals at bay and obtained its objective of getting a goalless draw. After this result, Man.Utd has to beat Barcelona by a one-goal difference at Old Trafford in order to advance to the final. In theory that match will be played on May 21 in Moscow but the Russian Football Federation has declared that if two English teams qualify, it will renounce to staging the final of the 2008 UEFA Champions league.

Roma F.C Stuns Real Madrid in UEFA Champions League

Italian Club reaches quarterfinals of European football tournament


Roma F.C achieved its most important result in history after defeating Real Madrid in its own stadium, and progressing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, a tournament it has never won. Will this be the year that Roma finally wins it? Like Real Madrid, its squad is full of South American players such as David Pizarro (Chile) , Doni, Juan, Cicinho and Taddei, all from Brazil. The match was played on March 5 at the mythical Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and as well as the before mentioned players also included two Argentines (Gabriel Heinze and Fernando Gago) and three Brazilians (Robinho, Pepe and Julio Baptista). It was Baptista that became the most dangerous player for Real Madrid as he nearly opened up the score board in the 16th minute with a free kick that was well saved by Doni. Two minutes later Alberto Aquilani replied for Roma as his long-range shot struck the right post of the goal defended by Iker Casillas.
After three minutes of the second half Baptista yet again nearly scored from a free kick but this time the ball hit the right top angle of Doni´s goalpost.
Real Madrid’s coach Berndt Schuster tried to reinforce his team’s attack trying to get the goal that would equalize the aggregate score since Roma had won the first match by 2-1. Schuster replaced Mohammed Diarra with Rayston Drenthe and Michel Salgado with Miguel Torres while Mirko Vucinic replaced Mancini in Roma F.C. Only five minutes later Vucinic would be another player that would send the ball crashing against the crossbar and back onto the pitch to be cleared by a Real madrid defender.
The match became even more difficult for Real since in the 70th minute Pepe was sent off after fouling a Roma player.
Roma began to attack and its reward came only two minutes later as Taddei headed in the ball after a cross from the left wing.
Raul raised the hopes of the Real fans as he equalized in the 74th minute. In the 75th minute Chilean midfielder David Pizarro replaced Simone Perrotta and Roma began to have even more ball possession. The final score would increase in the 92nd minute as Vucinic finishes off a Roma counterattack with a good header.

Starting Lineups:

Real Madrid (1) : Iker Casillas (gk),M.Salgado, G.Heinze, F.Gago, Cannavaro, Pepe, M.Diarra, Guti, J.Baptista, Robinho.

Roma F.C. (2) : Doni (gk), Mexes, M.Tonetto, Juan, De Rossi, Cicinho, Taddei, S.Perrotta, A.Aquilani, Totti, Mancini,

Other results: Chelsea 3 - Olimpiakos 0
Porto 1- Schalke 0 (Schalke advances after penalties)

Great Start for Chile in U20 World Cup

On the same day as the adult team was crushed 3-0 by Brazil at Copa America, Chile's U20 players raised the spirits of the fans as it demolished Canada in the Toronto National Stadium.

It was the first match of Group A and the South Americans showed no respect for the host nation as it controlled the run of play from the first minute to the last. Chile attacked constantly pinning Canada in its own half. Canada's players could only resist with hard tackling and many fouls that were strangely overlooked by the referee.

Mathias Vidangossy became the playmaker for Chile and his dangerous dribbling caused havoc in the Canadian area. Chile's ground level passing and constant pressure paid off as Nicholas Medina capitalized on a mistake by a Canadian defender and scored the first goal in the 25th minute.

The match continued as usual for most of the first half and it was only thanks to the many saves of the Canadian goalkeeper that Chile did not increase its lead.

In the second half, the Canadian coach made several replacements and did improve its play, at least finally managing to get near the Chilean area.

Canada's resistance ended in the 53rd minute as captain Carlos Carmona headed in Chile's second goal. The final result was sealed in the 81st minute with another header by Jaime Grondona, who had replaced Nicholas Medina only two minutes before.

After the match, midfielder Arturo Vidal, recently hired by Bayer Leverkusen of the German Bundesliga, declared, "If we keep playing like this no one can beat us." Most Chilean fans hope the U20 players can continue showing this form and keep their promise of winning the 2007 FIFA U20 World Cup.

The other South American teams did not do so well, since Brazil lost on June 30 to Poland by 1-0, Argentina drew with the Czech Republic by 0-0 and Uruguay drew with Spain 2-2.

Chile's next match is on Thursday against Congo Republic, current African U20 champions