RIO DE JANEIRO, 29 March 2005 — Brazil scraped a 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Peru with a performance which their own coach said lacked inspiration while sharp-shooting Ecuador thumped Paraguay 5-2 on Sunday.

Antonio Valencia, 19, playing his first competitive international, and Edison Mendez scored twice apiece, all from long range, as Ecuador came from two goals down in Quito.

Argentina (25 points from 12 games) and world champions Brazil (23) pulled further away from the pack in the 10-nation South American qualifying group this weekend.

Ecuador (19) also put daylight between themselves and the other teams while only three points separate fourth-placed Paraguay (16) and ninth-placed Peru.

Uruguay (15), Colombia, Chile and Venezuela (all 14) are squeezed in between while bottom-placed Bolivia (10) appear to be out of the running.

The top four nations qualify directly for next year’s finals in Germany and the fifth playoff against the Oceania winners for another place.

Brazil striker Ronaldo said before the match in Goiania that club and country were separate matters and he would put his unhappy Real Madrid form behind him against Peru.

The lethargic-looking number nine, jeered at one stage by the 50,000 crowd, squandered his side’s two best first-half chances and blamed the heat for his display.

Ronaldo missed his kick altogether when he only needed to flick Cafu’s cross into an empty net and shot weakly at Oscar Ibanez after being sent clear by Roberto Carlos.

The Brazil striker atoned in the 74th minute when he slipped a pass through for Kaka to score the winner with his fifth goal of the qualifiers.

Brazil had not scored in their two previous qualifiers against Colombia and Ecuador. The goal was their first in four hours 29 minutes of competitive football.

Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, in a rare criticism of his team, said they should have been more creative against defensive opponents.

“The team lacked happiness and inspiration,” said Parreira. “Given the quality of Brazil’s players, we should have created a lot more scoring chances.

Mexico Maintain Mastery

of US Visitors

In Mexico City, Mexico continued a home-field mastery of arch rival United States Sunday, taking a 2-1 victory that snapped a 16-match US unbeaten streak.

Jared Borghetti headed home a goal in the 30th minute and Antonio Naelson Sinha added another in the 32nd minute for Mexico.

Eddie Lewis scored the lone US goal in the 58th minute, the first US goal in Mexico since 1984, but it was not enough to rescue the Americans.

The Mexicans improved to 22-0 with one drawn in home matches over 71 years against the US men, taking a measure of revenge for a round of 16 loss to the US squad at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea.

“We took the field strong and used our superiority to win,” Borghetti said.

The US team had not lost in 13 months since dropping a 1-0 road decision to the Dutch. The US squad saw the end of a 31-match unbeaten streak against North American rivals dating to 2001 World Cup qualifying.

“We can draw a lot of positives from this game,” US veteran Claudio Reyna said. “I don’t think any (qualifying) team is going to come here and win.”

High altitude and smog as well as a passionate crowd of 115,000 Mexican supporters at Azteca Stadium made life tough for the visitors. US coach Bruce Arena said the thin air proved crucial.

“Any way you look at it, altitude was a big factor,” US coach Bruce Arena said. “I believe our players shut down in the last 15 minutes of the first half and it cost us the game.”

Before a passionate crowd of more than 115,000 people at Azteca Stadium, the Mexicans rose to the top of the North American 2006 World Cup qualifying table at 2-0. The United States shared third with Costa Rica at 1-1.

“We were the only team in this competition that had their first two games on the road,” Arena said. “If you had asked if I would be happy that we had three points after two games, I would say yes.”