Expert Blogs

And so there is only one South American side left standing as the World Cup moves into its closing week. And that team through to the last four is Uruguay, which finished fifth in South America's qualification campaign.

Meanwhile Brazil and Argentina are left to lick their wounds. Chile have nothing to reproach themselves for, and nor, emphatically, do Paraguay, after reaching the quarter-finals for the first time before bowing out 1-0 to Spain.

There's been a palpable sense of joy about Argentina's first two games in the World Cup.

Argentina coach Diego Maradona wasn't keen on the friendly against Canada that formed part of the celebrations of his country's bicentenary.

He was worried that it might put an unnecessary strain on his players. The injury picked up by Maxi Rodriguez justified his concerns. But in all other aspects his team came away with plenty of positives from the comfortable 5-0 win.

Watching last week's epic struggle between Barcelona and Inter Milan made me worried about the coming World Cup.

I'm not concerned about the group phase. In this first stage of the competition a draw is often a disappointing result. Teams are chasing three points to ensure their presence in the knockout rounds.

One of the world's more bizarre crimes took place last week in Santo Andre, Brazil, where thieves broke in to a distribution point and made off with 135,000 packets of World Cup stickers. 

Either these packets are going to make their way to the street via the informal market, or someone was very keen to complete their collection.

Panini, the company who produce the stickers, declared themselves surprised by the strength of the demand, and based on my thoroughly unscientific methods of market research, I am inclined to agree with them.

World Cups only come round every four years. Playing in one is the highlight of many a career.  Missing one through injury is heartbreak, especially if the chance may not come again.

Perhaps Salvador Cabanas should be happy merely to be alive. He suffered much more than a sporting injury. The stocky Paraguayan striker took a bullet in the head in Mexico City nearly three months ago, and was fighting for his life.

Last week my adopted city of Rio de Janeiro could feel a bond with Chile.

The rain lashed down on Brazil's former capital, killing over 200, especially in mudslides that took out houses on the hillsides. The heartbreaking pictures of lifeless bodies being pulled out of destroyed buildings were reminiscent of those from Chile just a few weeks ago, when a massive earthquake struck.

A few years ago it was common to hear the view that international football was dead, replaced by the club game as the sport's be all and end all. World Cup fever proves that this prediction was well wide of the mark.

The analysis was based on a crude form of economic determinism. The nation state was becoming less important in world affairs, and therefore the same would inevitably happen in sports as well.

In the last few weeks before World Cup squads are named, coaches will be feverishly hoping that key players avoid injuries, and worrying away about the last few places on the plane.

The vast majority of them will already have around 16 of their final 23 locked in - but what about the other seven or so? What should the criteria be for the remaining places?

There are perhaps ten or so countries that can travel to the World Cup in South Africa carrying the thought that, if things go their way, they might just come back with the trophy.

The number of players who might come back with the Golden Boot (awarded to the tournament's top scorer) is far greater. History tells us that the winner can come from nowhere - such as 1990, when Italy's Toto Schillaci went from reserve to national hero inside a month.

Back in November, in one of the first articles I wrote for CBCSports.ca, I speculated on whether Ronaldinho might be recalled to the Brazil squad for the World Cup.

Milan's crushing Champions League elimination at the hands of Manchester United makes that less likely. On the big night at Old Trafford, the supreme test of his continued ability to tip the balance at the highest level, Ronaldinho did not do enough.

I was delighted to see Jeff Bridges win an Oscar for best actor. But I did wish that the award could be given retrospectively. Instead of his performance in a movie about country music (which, to be fair, I haven't seen), I would prefer to see him honoured for his contribution to 'The Big Lebowski,' a decade old Coen Brothers comedy.

Bridges plays 'The Dude,' a befuddled left over from the days of student radicalism stumbling amiably around early 90s Los Angeles. Undoubtedly lazy - any more laid back and he'd be horizontal - his slacker act is carried off with a cool charm that makes him one of the most endearing heroes of cinema history. I can't get enough of him.

This week is the last FIFA date for international friendlies before the end of the season. In their preparation for the World Cup, most of the leading nations have taken one of two courses in terms of choosing their opponents.

Either they have sought out sparring partners with similar characteristics to rivals they will meet in South Africa - England, for example, are taking on Egypt as a way of preparing to face Algeria in Cape Town on June 18th. Or they pick high profile opposition - as Germany and Argentina are doing this week, re-enacting the World Cup finals of 1986 and 1990.
 
Brazil has decided on neither of these options. With all due respect, Ireland (who they meet in London on Tuesday) do not qualify as high profile opponents, and nor is their style similar to that of any of Brazil's group rivals in South Africa.

A coach, it is sometimes said, should always pick his eleven best players. But what if two of them are goalkeepers?

An extreme example, perhaps. So here's another one, culled from the England team that won the 1966 World Cup.

Juste Fontaine was a little known player who wasn't even expected to be in the team when France travelled to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

But then the first choice striker, Rene Bliard, was injured, Fontaine came into the starting line up and the rest is history. Fontaine scored 13 times in a single World Cup, a record that may never be broken.

His side lost in the semifinals to the Brazil of Pele and Garrincha, two players who did not start the competition in the first team but ended it as legends.

After Africa's first World Cup, the tournament returns to South America for the first time since 1978 when Brazil hosts in 2014. And after waiting 36 years for the circus to come back to town, perhaps South America will not have to show so much patience until its next turn.

Support is growing for the idea of a joint Uruguay-Argentina World Cup in 2030. The tournament would be a celebration of the World Cup's centenary.

When the teams came out for the 1994 World Cup final I got one of the biggest shocks football has ever given me. Franco Baresi was there, leading out Italy as if nothing had happened. How could this be possible?

Italy's captain and centre back had suffered a knee injury in his team's second game, against Norway on June 23rd. He had an operation on his knee. And there he was, thrown into the deep end on July 17th. There had been very little time to recuperate, and no time at all to play his way into form. He was straight out there for the World Cup final, trying to contain Brazil, Romario, Bebeto and all. This was surely asking too much.

The first South American national team out of the blocks in 2010 is Chile, who has been in training since the turn of the year in preparation for an exhibition match against Panama next week.

The squad is almost exclusively composed of home-based players, and bears little relation to the first choice team that last year ensured Chile's World Cup qualification for the first time since 1998. Almost all the senior players are based abroad, and have club commitments that make them unavailable for this fixture.

The January transfer window has opened and with it the temptation for players to go looking for an upgrade. But for those who are hoping to shine in this year's World Cup, here's a cautionary tale.

Just under four years ago I made a quick trip to Paraguay to speak to Anibal Ruiz, the Uruguayan-born coach who was then in charge of the national team. His side started well in qualification, but then hit a sticky patch in the middle before coming good towards the end of the campaign with the introduction of some new blood, especially playmaker Julio Dos Santos.

Alex Ferguson says that for a professional footballer, every game is a statement of his worth. It's an inspiring thought. But all games are not of equal importance. Some are bigger than others - one of the hallmarks of the truly great player is that he tips the balance in the really big matches.

Of the hundreds of thousands of games played, there are a few that resonate for decades, showering the victors with glory and covering the losers with scars that last a lifetime. Perhaps the outstanding example is the final game of the 1950 World Cup.

The undoubted highlight of working as a football journalist in South America is the opportunity to get a sneak preview at the stars of tomorrow.

Every time I go to a game I'm always thrilled by the idea that there might be a little known young player out there taking his first steps on the way to global stardom. And in all the time I've been doing it, the stand out is a little guy from Argentina via FC Barcelona by the name of Lionel Messi.

Last week Dunga addressed a conference of coaches in Rio de Janeiro. His theme in the run up to the 2010 World Cup was how he has gone about things since taking over the Brazil national team following the disappointment of Germany '06.

The squad that was eliminated by France in the quarter-finals had included a number of players who were present in France '98 when Dunga was captain - and even a couple from USA '94. So it was time for the new coach to carry out a process of renewal.

Last week's World Cup draw left the planet gripped by an event that will not get underway for another seven months.

Meanwhile, the FIFA Club World Cup is just about to kick off and the globe keeps spinning on its axis without missing a beat. Many football fans are not even aware that the event is taking place, let alone that this year it has been switched from Japan to Abu Dhabi.

It seems funny, or perhaps sad to think about it now, but four years ago, in the build up to the World Cup in Germany, the Brazilian press was full of claims that Ronaldinho would use the tournament to show that he was even better than Pele.

At the time it didn't seem so far fetched. Going into the World Cup he was the number one star with the winners of the Champions League, FC Barcelona. He had been the junior member of the World Cup winning attack in Japan and South Korea in 2002, and at 26, he appeared to be at exactly the right age to stamp his influence all over the action in Germany.

And so the last went to the first. In Montevideo's Centenario Stadium, the venue where they won the inaugural World Cup back in 1930, Uruguay drew 1-1 with Costa Rica to win 2-1 on aggregate and claim the 32nd spot in South Africa next year.