RIO DE JANEIRO/JEDDAH, 16 November — Saudi Arabian supporters of four-time world champions Brazil heaved a big sigh of relief as they defeated 10-man Venezuela 3-0 in South America’s final round of qualifiers on Wednesday to finally secure their spot in next year’s World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
Many of the fans stayed awake till early morning watching the match on TV as Luizao celebrated his 26th birthday with two goals in the first 20 minutes and Rivaldo settled things in the 34th minute.
“We suffered for 17 games and I thank the Brazilians who suffered with us,” said full-back Roberto Carlos.
Brazil finished third on the 10-team South American standings, joining group winners Argentina as well as Ecuador and Paraguay in the 2002 World Cup. Ecuador will be making their debut at the world’s top sporting event.
Brazil, who had only lost one qualifier before the 2002 session, went through four coaches and suffered six defeats in the long, agonizing qualification campaign.
“Finally, the nightmare is over,” screamed the Internet edition of the daily Estado after the Venezuela match.
Cries of “Brasil! Brasil!” came throughout the Sao Luiz crowd and the streets of Brazil were full of delirious football fans.
“Brazil finally played the offensive football which Brazilians play best,” said former star and current television commentator Falcao.
Brazil just narrowly avoided the fifth-placed spot in the South American table, which went to Uruguay, who now face a two-leg play- off with Australia for the 32nd and final World Cup bid.
Uruguay travel to Australia on Nov. 20 for the first leg after they secured one point — their 27th — with a 1-1 draw against Argentina on Wednesday. The return play-off leg is in Uruguay on Nov. 25.
In Montevideo, Dario Silva put Uruguay ahead 1-0 in 17th minute and Claudio Lopez equalized for the Argentinians just before the break.
Colombia also finished with 27 points after Victor Hugo Aristizabal scored two goals in their 4-0 pasting of Paraguay, but Uruguay’s goal difference was one better than the Colombians’.
The other South American qualifiers saw Ecuador draw 0-0 in Chile, and Bolivia draw 1-1 in Peru.
The final standings have Ecuador second, Brazil third, Paraguay dropping to fourth from second after the Colombia loss.
The Colombians finished sixth and miss the World Cup, as do Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela and Chile.
Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who took over in June after Emerson Leao was sacked, made five changes from the lineup which lost last week 3-1 to Bolivia.
Among the new players was Luizao who has only just recovered from a seven-month knee injury lay-off. Luizao rounded Rafael Dudamel to score in the 12th minute and then received a feed from Edilson seven minutes later to double the lead.
“I took the pressure away from the team,” the Corinthians striker Luizao said.
Rivaldo scored from a narrow angle on the 34th minute before Venezuelan captain Luis Vera was sent off in the 48th minute for elbowing Juninho Paulista.
Brazil’s victory sent waves of relief through the South American giant, who were in danger of missing the World Cup for the first time ever - the only team to play at every event.
But captain Emerson Ferreira warned: “We still have to improve a lot, we are aware of it. Now we have to work.”
Ireland beaten 1-0 butqualify for World Cup
In Tehran, Ireland buried their playoff jinx by qualifying for the 2002 World Cup finals despite losing the second leg 1-0 to Iran yesterday.
Iran scored in injury time with a header from Yahya Golmohammadi but it was too little, too late and Ireland, who won the first leg 2-0 on Saturday, will be traveling to South Korea and Japan next year. Ireland are the 31st of the 32 teams to qualify for the finals. They will be playing in their third World Cup after 1990 and 1994.
“The hard man’s gone soft, but what do you expect — we’ve waited a long time,” said Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, close to tears, after the game. “They deserve it.”
Ireland, knocked out three times in the 1990s in playoffs for major tournaments, kept Iran in check for most of the first half, except for a chance in the 34th minute.
Ali Karimi met a bouncing ball about eight meters out and headed just wide of the right hand post, but the home fans in the estimated 85,000 crowd repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the wasteful crossing of the Iranians.
Iran came into the game more in the second half, which was played mostly in the Irish half. A flowing move saw Karimi set up Karim Bagheri in the 52nd minute but he shot wide from just outside the penalty area.
