Brazil and Argentina were held to draws by lesser opponents Wednesday and Chile climbed to fourth place in the standings in the latest South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. Brazil was booed off the pitch after being held to a scoreless home draw by 10-man Bolivia, while Argentina conceded an equalizer in the final seconds to draw 1-1 at Peru. Chile crushed Colombia 4-0 while Uruguay was held 0-0 at home by Ecuador. After eight of the 18 rounds in the marathon qualifying campaign, Wednesday's results left Brazil, Argentina and Chile all on 13 points, behind leader Paraguay on 17. With the top four to qualify directly for the 2010 World Cup and the fifth team to go into a further playoff against a CONCACAF team, Uruguay is fifth on 12 points, two ahead of Colombia and Ecuador a further point back. Peru and Bolivia's impressive draws Wednesday were not enough to lift them from the bottom two rungs of the standings. Brazil failed to improve even after Bolivia defender Ignacio Garcia was harshly sent off in the 57th minute. Peru scored in stoppage time to secure a dramatic 1-1 home draw against Argentina, extending the visitors' winless streak in qualifying to five games. In the next round of matches on Oct. 11 and 12, leaders Paraguay visit Colombia, Brazil travels to Venezuela, Argentina hosts Uruguay, Chile is away at Ecuador and Bolivia entertains Peru. Jamaica, Trinidad suffer Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago's chances of another World Cup appearance were severely dented by comprehensive defeats in CONCACAF qualifiers on Wednesday. Jamaica lost 2-0 to a David Suazo-inspired Honduras in San Pedro Sula. Jamaica, under Brazilian Rene Simoes, slumped to the bottom of third stage Group Two with one point after being outplayed by the Central Americans. Trinidad lost 3-0 to the United States in Chicago, falling 2-0 behind in only 18 minutes to goals from Michael Bradley, son of US coach Bob, and Clint Dempsey. Brian Ching added the third in the 57th minute. Trinidad, under former Colombia coach Francisco Maturana, dropped to third place Group One, behind Guatemala on goal difference. Guatemala boosted its hopes by coming from behind to beat visiting Cuba 4-1. Mexico beat Canada 2-1 in Tuxtla Gutierrez in Group Two and Costa Rica beat Haiti 3-1, helped by two goals from Belgian-based striker Bryan Ruiz. Veteran striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco played his 100th and last match for Mexico in the 3-0 win Wednesday. Blanco played the last seven minutes and was carried off by his teammates as he waved goodbye to the 25,000 fans at Victor Manuel Reyna Stadium. “It was my own decision, I've always said that you have to retire on time, and I'm leaving with the love from the fans,” Blanco said. “I made this decision and I'm not changing it.”
