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FOXBORO (Massachusetts) Oct 8: The United States reached next year’s World Cup finals on Sunday after a 2-1 defeat of Jamaica in their CONCACAF region World Cup qualifier.
The result ended Jamaica’s hopes of reaching the finals in Japan and South Korea.
The U.S. are now certain of grabbing one of the top three spots in the group which secure qualification for the finals after Honduras surprisingly lost 1-0 at home to Trinidad and Costa Rica drew 0-0 with Mexico.
Costa Rica top the group with 20 points ahead of the U.S. in second with 16. Honduras and Mexico both have 14 points.
Since Honduras and Mexico play each other in the last round of matches next month, only one of the two teams can overtake the U.S..
The U.S. sealed victory with two goals from Joe-Max Moore in the fourth and 81st minutes. His second strike came from the penalty spot.
Jamaica replied with a 14th minute effort from James Lawrence. They reached the finals for the first time in 1998.
The match kicked off after the United States began air strikes in Afghanistan and was the first fixture for an American team on home soil since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The Americans opened the scoring in the fourth minute when an unmarked Moore headed in a Claudio Reyna direct kick from seven metres.
Jamaica equalised 10 minutes later. A throw-in by Robert Scarlett was chested down by Lawrence who was able to turn uncontested inside the American area and slot into the right side of the U.S. net.
The winner came after Landon Donovan was taken down in the area by Tyrone Marshall. Moore coolly converted the spot kick for his 24th international goal.
CURITIBA (Brazil): Brazil revived their chances of qualifying for next year’s World Cup after struggling to a 2-0 win over Chile in a tense qualifier on Sunday.
Second-half goals from Edilson and Rivaldo gave the four- times champions three priceless points after they had struggled to break down a massed Chilean defence.
Brazil, in danger of losing their record as the only country to have played at every World Cup, remained in fourth place in the South American group with 27 points. The top four teams qualify and the fifth play off against Oceania winners Australia.
The Brazilians were given a helping hand when Uruguay, level on points with them at the start of the day, drew 1-1 at home against Colombia.
They have two games left, away to Bolivia at high altitude in La Paz and at home to modest Venezuela.
Brazil came to life after winger Denilson came on as a halftime substitute. Edilson opened the scoring eight minutes into the second half and Rivaldo added the second in the 67th minute.
Chile, already eliminated and with Jorge Garces making his debut as their third coach of the qualifying competition, stayed bottom of the group as they completed eight games without a win.
Fielding a young and experimental team, they seemed happy to sit back and soak up the pressure.
Brazil, once again disjointed and lacking ideas in midfield, were restricted to two long-range efforts from Rivaldo in the first half.
The first, from a free kick, was well saved by Chile goalkeeper Carlos Toro, making his international debut, and the second shaved Toro’s left post.
Earlier, Roberto Carlos tested the Chile goalkeeper with a low free kick but the Real Madrid player otherwise had a wretched first half as he failed to produce a single decent cross.
Marcelo Salas wasted Chile’s best chance when he mis-cued after being left alone in the penalty area by a sleepy Brazil defence.
Brazil finally broke through when Vampeta found Edilson with a diagonal pass through the midfield, the Flamengo player slipped past Jorge Vargas and placed the ball under Toro.
The second goal came when Cafu crossed from the right and Rivaldo scored an opportunist goal, sticking out a foot to divert the ball past Toro.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Paraguay, despite an encounter with the “Hand of God”, and Brazil moved closer to next year’s World Cup on Sunday while Uruguay appeared to be headed for a play-off with Australia.
Paraguay’s 2-2 draw with Argentina, for whom Mauricio Pochettino appeared to emulate Diego Maradona’s infamous goal against England at the 1986 World Cup, kept them firmly on course for their second successive World Cup.
Sunday’s results also boosted Ecuador’s chances of reaching their first World Cup following Saturday’s 5-1 mauling of Bolivia in La Paz.
Ecuador need only to draw at home to Uruguay next month to book their place.
With two matches each to play, Argentina continue as runaway leaders of the South American group with 39 points, followed by Paraguay (30), Ecuador (29), Brazil (27), Uruguay (25) and Colombia (21).
Peru, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia are out of the running.
The top four qualify and the fifth plays off against Oceania winners Australia. Argentina have already qualified and made sure of first place with Sunday’s draw.
Collated results:
Group four
Macedonia 0 Slovakia 5
Sweden 3 Azerbaijan 0
Played on Saturday
Moldova 0 Turkey 3
Group seven
Bosnia 5 Liechtenstein 0
Group three
Group six
Croatia 1 Belgium 0
Scotland 2 Latvia 1
Group four
Macedonia 0 Slovakia 5
Group seven
Bosnia 5 Liechtenstein 0
South America
Brazil 2 Chile 0
Uruguay 1 Colombia 1
Paraguay 2 Argentina 2
CONCACAF
Costa Rica 0 Mexico 0
Honduras 0 Trinidad and Tobago 1
United States 2 Jamaica 1
—Reuters
