Buenos Aires - Argentina were held to a tricky 1-1 home draw Saturday by Paraguay, who remain the lone leaders of the South American qualifiers towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In the second game of a busy day in the region, Ecuador defeated lowly Bolivia 3-1 to brace its efforts and recover from a very poor start in the qualifiers.
On a cold, rainy afternoon in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Paraguay played what Argentine coach Alfio Basile described as "a strange game."
Paraguay's coach Gerardo Martino - an Argentine - explained the result by noting that his men "were afraid to win" the match.
Argentina had the first clear chance in the game, when a free kick executed by expert Juan Roman Riquelme hit the crossbar in the 8th minute.
However, a gross mistake in the 13th minute by defender Gabriel Heinze dramatically changed the course of the game. Heinze failed to header the ball clear, collided with Argentine keeper Roberto Abbondanzieri and finally scored an own goal. Abbondanzieri, with a knee injury, had to be replaced by Juan Pablo Carrizo.
To make matters worse, Argentina - who now have not won a game in the last four rounds of the qualifiers - were down to 10 men by the 31st minute, after Carlos Tevez was shown the red card for a violent foul on Dario Veron.
In a press conference after the match, Basile was realistic in his analysis.
"Of course we wanted to win, but it turned out like this. We had started very well, a lot better than Paraguay. But they found the goal, Abbondanzieri was injured and then soon afterwards Tevez was sent off. It was too many things," the coach said.
A very orderly Paraguay controlled play until the break. However, Basile fielded substitute striker Sergio Aguero, who was very active throughout the second half and changed the trend in the match.
Aguero capitalized on a great pass from Lionel Messi in the 62nd minute to make it 1-1, and he even had at least two good chances to put Argentina ahead, although he could not increase his count.
"The draw is good, because with 10 men it was very difficult to beat them," Aguero said after the game.
Paraguayan striker Nelson Haedo Valdez was also happy with the result. "The draw is more use to us than it is to Argentina," he said.
"We were one step away from making history, we had never won in Argentina," he said with some disappointment.
Martino too saw room for improvement in his men's attitude despite the valuable point obtained against a strong rival. The coach said that Paraguay "have to learn to win this kind of game," with an extra man on the field, and it should also "get used to playing and beating Argentina, Brazil and the European powers."
"The result seems fair to me," he concluded.
After seven rounds in the South American qualifiers, Paraguay tops the table with 14 points, while Argentina remains second with 12 points.
Later, Ecuador defeated Bolivia in Quito. Striker Felipe Caicedo put the home side ahead in the 20th minute, while Joaquin Botero restored the draw six minutes before half-time. Edison Mendez and Cristian Benitez definitively gave Ecuador the lead in the 50th and 72nd minutes.
The games Colombia-Uruguay and Peru-Venezuela were set to be played later Saturday, with Chile hosting Brazil on Sunday.
Next week, Paraguay will host Venezuela on Tuesday, while Wednesday is set to feature the following games: Uruguay-Ecuador, Chile-Colombia, Brazil-Bolivia and Peru-Argentina.
In South America's 10-team World Cup qualifiers, each side plays at home and away with each of the other nine. The top four win a place in the World Cup, with the fifth-place team facing a representative of the North, Central American and Caribbean region in a playoff.
