World Cup Qualifers: A tale of two coaches

A slate of soccer World Cup qualifiers took place over the weekend. We’ll highlight two matches in particular.

As a player, Diego Maradona was a magician on the field and undoubtedly one of the best soccer player’s ever. His prowess on the field has not translated itself to the bench, however. The doubts over his hiring as Argentina’s head coach have grown after several embarrassing losses including a 6-1 drubbing in Bolivia.

Saturday’s match against bitter regional rivals Brazil should have served as a shot in the arm for Argentina and Maradona. Instead it was Brazil who emerged on top as they became the first country in the Americas to directly qualify for next year’s World Cup:

In other scores:

• Paraguay 1- Bolivia 0 (Paraguay inched closer to joining Brazil in South Africa)
• Chile 2- Venezuela 2 (Both teams shared the spoils in Santiago)
• Colombia 2- Ecuador 0 (Colombia’s victory was marred by violence after the game)
• Peru 1- Uruguay 0 (A last minute goal by last place Peru shocked Uruguay)
  

Javier “El Vasco” Aguirre was reappointed last April to head Mexico after the disappoint Sven-Goran Eriksson era in Mexico. Since then he has proved to be the right man for the job after drubbing the U.S. in the Gold Cup and beating them again in a key qualifier in Mexico City. Aguirre has righted a leaking ship especially after Saturday’s 3-0 shutout of Costa Rica in San Jose:

In other scores:

• U.S.2- El Salvador 1 (Two goals in five minutes helped the U.S. avoid being upset)
• Honduras 4- Trinidad and Tobago 1 (Honduras is one of four teams vying for three direct qualifying places after their easy win)
  

Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, USA TODAY, Canadian Press, YouTube, Reuters, AP, Living in Peru