South America World Cup Qualifying

Brazil Held 0-0 by Colombia in Soccer World Cup Qualifying
By Dan Baynes

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Brazil started its bid for a record- extending sixth World Cup soccer title with a 0-0 draw away to Colombia on the opening weekend of South American qualifying for the 2010 tournament.

Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela all won yesterday, while Peru and Paraguay also played to a scoreless draw.

The matches were the first of 18 games for the 10 teams in the region, which failed to produce a semifinalist at last year’s World Cup in Germany. The top four after home-and-away matches advance to the 2010 edition in South Africa with the fifth-placed team playing off against the fourth-ranked nation from the North, Central American and Caribbean Zone.

Juan Roman Riquelme, playing his first match in three months, curled two first-half free-kicks into the top right-hand corner to give Argentina a 2-0 victory over Chile in Buenos Aires. Luis Suarez, Diego Forlan, Sebastian Abreu, Vicente Sanchez and Carlos Bueno all scored as Uruguay routed Bolivia 5- 0 in Montevideo.

In Quito, Jose Manuel Rey got the only goal as Venezuela became the first visiting team to win a World Cup qualifier at Ecuador’s Atahualpa Stadium in more than six years.

Venezuela and Argentina open the next round of matches in two days. The eight other teams play the following day, when Colombia visits Bolivia, Chile hosts Peru, Paraguay plays Uruguay and Brazil faces Ecuador