Colombia climbed into fourth place in South American qualifying for the 2002
World Cup, beating visiting Bolivia 2-0 Tuesday night on a pair of goals by
Juan Pablo Angel.
At Bogota, Angel scored in the 52nd and 72nd minutes, the first off a pass
from Faustino Asprilla and the latter on a penalty kick following a push by
Gerardo Bedoya.
At Lima, Peru beat Chile 3-1 to overtake the visitors in the standings.
Flavio Maestri put the home team ahead in the 53rd, only to have Reinaldo Navia
tie it seven minutes later. Andres Mendoza gave Peru a 2-1 lead in the 71st and
Claudio Pizarro scored in the 80th.
Chile played a man down following the ejection of Miguel Ramirez in the
81st.
Colombia (5-3-3) has 18 points, seven behind Argentina (8-1-1) and two
behind Brazil and Paraguay (each 6-2-2).
Ecuador (5-4-1) is fifth with 16, followed Uruguay (4-3-3) with 15, Peru
(3-6-2) with 11, Chile (3-7-1) with 10, Bolivia (2-6-3) with nine and Venezuela
(1-9) with three.
The top four teams qualify for the 2002 World Cup, and the fifth-place team
goes to a playoff with the Oceania champion.
On Wednesday, Brazil is at Ecuador, Paraguay at Uruguay and Venezuela at
Argentina.
In North and Central America and the Caribbean, the United States (1-0) is
at Honduras (0-0-1) on Wednesday night and Trinidad and Tobago (0-1) is at
Costa Rica (0-0-1).
European qualifying, in which only the group winners are guaranteed berths,
reaches the midway point Wednesday with 21 games, and three-time champions
Germany and Italy can come very close to clinching with victories.
Group Nine leader Germany goes to Greece with big questions about captain
Oliver Bierhoff, who's without a goal since June.
"He's not in the right state of mind to be a starter," coach Rudi Voeller
said. "You can see that he lacks self-confidence, that he's afraid of making
mistakes."
Second-place England faces Albania.
Group Eight leader Italy plays Lithuania at home, and Francesco Totti
returns to strengthen the Italian lineup after being suspended for Saturday's
2-0 win at Romania.
Netherlands is third in Group Two behind Portugal and Ireland. The Dutch,
semifinalists at last year's European Championship, will fall farther out of
contention if they lose at Portugal and Ireland wins at Andorra. Cyprus and
Estonia also meet.
In Group Five, Norway is last heading into its game at third-place Belarus.
First-place Poland plays Armenia at home.
The top two teams in Group Three meet each other, with the Czech Republic
holding a two-point advantage over Denmark. Bulgaria, another point behind,
plays Northern Ireland.
Turkey, Slovakia and Sweden are even atop Group Four. Turkey plays at
Macedonia, where the game goes ahead amid tight security because of ethnic
violence, Slovakia hosts Azerbaijan, and Sweden visits Moldova.
Belgium and Scotland lead Group Six after their 2-2 tie Saturday. Scotland
should take the lead by beating visiting San Marino, while Belgium is idle.
In Group Seven, Israel can move within one point of idle leader Spain by
winning at third-place Austria.
Only three points separate leader Russia and fifth-place Faeroe Islands in
Group One; they play in Russia on Wednesday. Slovenia plays Yugoslavia, while
Switzerland faces Luxembourg.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
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