The road to Brazil

The preliminary qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup got underway in Asia and the Caribbean islands. Bahamas sailed past Turks & Caicos picking up a 10-0 aggregate win while St Lucia needed a penalty shootout at home after suffering a 4-2 defeat away to Aruba and in the battle of the Virgin Islands the U.S. got the better of the British winning 2-1 away and 2-0 at home.

In Asia Mongolia shocked Myanmar with a single goal in Ulaan Baatar though they were sunk by a double in the return match and Philippines enjoyed a 4-0 win at home to Sri Lanka while Malaysia had to rely on away goals after losing 3-2 in Taiwan. Afghanistan held their Palestinian hosts to a 1-1 draw but lost 2-0 at home while Laos reversed their 4-2 defeat in Cambodia and scored 2 more in extra-time to eliminate their Cambodian visitors. In the final round Nepal who had already been annihilated 9-0 in their away match held Jordan to a 1-1 draw in Kathmandu while Bangladesh rallied to a 2-0 win over Lebanon only halving the deficit from the first leg and Qatar lost 2-1 in Vietnam but progressed thanks to a 3-0 win in their home tie.

Brazil themselves took part in Copa America hosted by Argentina and won by Uruguay who moved into 2^nd place in the rankings. The Brazilians began with a goalless match against Venezuela and were eliminated in the next round on penalties as were Argentina who were held to a 1-1 draw by Bolivia in their first match. Venezuela put Chile out 2-1 and eventually finished 4^th losing 4-1 to Peru who had struck twice in extra-time to eliminate Colombia.

Earlier the Gold Cup was hosted by U.S.A. who were humiliated 2-1 by Panama, but reached the final where they were outclassed 4-2 by the Mexicans.