Brazil held in Peru
RIO DE JANEIRO: Kaka produced another superb strike to help Brazil draw 1-1 away to Peru in Sunday's World Cup qualifiers, while Marcelo Salas scored his first international goals in more than two years in Chile's 2-2 away draw to Uruguay.
Kaka scored with a 30-metre shot which dipped and swerved away from Peru goalkeeper Diego Penny to give the five-time world champion a halftime lead in Lima before Juan Vargas equalized in the second half.
Salas, Chile's all-time leading scorer who was recalled to the squad in August, took his international tally to 37 goals after scoring twice in 11 minutes in Montevideo.
The former Lazio and Juventus striker stopped playing altogether for the first half of the year after failing to negotiate a new contract with Universidad de Chile but rejoined the Santiago club in July to resume his career.
Uruguay, who had taken the lead through Luis Suarez, snatched a point thanks to a late equalizer from Sebastian Abreu.
Argentina, 3-0 winner over Bolivia on Saturday, is the only team with maximum points after three of the 18 rounds of games in the single South American group.
It is followed by Paraguay (7 points), Brazil and Colombia (5), Uruguay and Chile (4), Venezuela (3), Bolivia and Peru (2), and Ecuador (0).
The top four teams qualify directly for the 2010 finals in South Africa and the fifth plays off against the fourth-placed team from the CONCACAF region.
Brazil could have secured all three points with the last move of the game but Juan's header from a Ronaldinho free kick crashed against the crossbar.
Peru mounted an early barrage on Julio Cesar's goal but Brazil weathered the storm and went ahead with Kaka's third goal of the qualifiers five minutes before halftime. The AC Milan player nearly scored again with a clever chip two minutes later but Peru goalkeeper Diego Penny tipped the ball over.
Peru came back into the game and Vargas equalized with a deflected 25-meter shot in the 71st minute, the first scored by his team and conceded by Brazil in the group.
"Our performance was very good in the first half but we dropped off in the second, when we lost a lot of balls in the midfield and they were able to hit us on the break," said Brazil coach Dunga.
Agencies
(China Daily 11/20/2007 page24)
