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| Brazilian striker Ronaldo (C) fights for the ball
with Bolivia's Sanchez Oscar (R) and Raldes Ronald during their World
Cup qualifying match at the Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo,
September 5, 2004. (Reuters) |
Reigning champions Brazil turned on the style
to beat outclassed Bolivia 3-1 to stay firmly on course for the
2006 World Cup finals.
Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Adriano all found the net in the first half
with only some inspired goalkeeping from Leonardo Fernandez preventing
Brazil from racking up a
hatful of goals.
The three points also put Brazil back on top of the South American
qualifying table with 16 points from eight matches while Argentina, who
had gone top on Saturday after beating Peru 3-1, are second, just a point
behind.
Despite missing the collective talents of Cafu, Kaka, Dida, Lucio and
Ze Roberto, who were all dropped for missing last month's friendly in Haiti, Brazil made sure the
match was as good as over by the 13th minute as they raced into a 2-0
lead.
Ronaldo gave Carlos Alberto Parreira's side the perfect start when he
opened the scoring after just a minute on the clock.
Arsenal midfielder Edu met a corner from the right with a powerful
downward header which fell to the unmarked Ronaldo and the Real Madrid
star scored easily from six yards to register his seventh goal of the
qualifying campaign.
It was 2-0 after 13 minutes when Roque Junior, picking up a Roberto
Carlos free-kick, was chopped down in the penalty area and Ronaldinho
coolly slotted the penalty into the corner of Leonardo Fernandez's goal.
Ronaldinho almost made it 3-0 after 29 minutes when he played a neat
one-two with Juninho before hitting a sweet, right-footed chip which
Fernandez tipped smartly over the bar.
 One minute before half-time, and with the capacity crowd greeting
every Brazilian pass, the third goal arrived.
Ronaldinho played a wonderfully-flighted ball into the area where Inter
Milan's Adriano nipped in between two defenders as well as Fernandez to
head into an empty net.
Bolivia, who had struggled throughout the first half to make any
impression, surprisingly found themselves back in the match three minutes
after the break when Edmilson diverted Luis Cristaldo's shot into his own
net.
Despite that setback, Brazil continued to pour forward and Adriano was
unlucky to see a shot saved by Fernandez while the Bolivia goalkeeper was
again alert to stop Ronaldo at point-blank range in the 74th minute from a
Roberto Carlos cross.
Two minutes later, Fernandez was again flinging himself across the goal
to deny Alex, who had replaced Ronaldinho, from scoring with a curling
free-kick.
Ronaldo then burst away from two defenders but instead of crossing to
an unmarked Adriano, he opted to go for glory but lost control of the
ball.
Two minutes from the final whistle, only some desperate defending from
Bolivia managed to keep the Real Madrid striker out.
Gilberto Silva did have the ball in the net in injury time
, heading in from a corner, but the goal was ruled
out for a foul by Roque Junior.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-09-06 10:46