They are not visions: Venezuela shares second place in the table with Brazil and Uruguay. Is it because the qualifiers have just started…? Is it luck, coincidence…? Not at all. It has magnificent players (and many of them), a great coach and all the enthusiasm of those fighting from below. It is an unexpected “expected” discovery of qualifications and we are all happy. He deserves to go to the World Cup, he deserves his anonymous promotion and that national euphoria that swept that great piece of the Caribbean. The golden draw achieved in Brazil and the victory over Chile in Maturino in front of the fervor of his crowd made Vinotinto the star of the double day of the World Cup.

* When pre-boarding. With 12 points in just 4 dates and with 6 and a half places to play, it can be said that Argentina have already checked their plane ticket and had a coffee during pre-boarding. The Albiceleste are at an exceptional level, if the World Cup was tomorrow they would be a candidate again. He works like a precision machine and, as Daniel Garnero pointed out a week ago, “if he’s winning, it’s very hard to take the ball away from him.” He starts circling it and the opponent exhausts himself by running without touching him. On top of that, he almost always keeps a clean sheet, his defense is iron. He had no problems with Peru.

* Always Messi. Messi turned 19 in the First League on Monday. And he continues to put on the superhero cape. He came back after injury and scored two great goals for 2:0. He does the most impressive things with incredible naturalness. Nineteen years of giving away genius every week. Football hasn’t seen it yet. They say they give you goals in MLS. Here also…?

* Small goal. Lionel Scaloni’s team offers authentic football festivals, but there is a dark, almost invisible point: they have few goals. Play for 5 to 0, but win minimally. Leo’s goals hide that. Lautaro Martínez scores for Inter, in a bright blue and white jersey, he is in conflict with the net. They are a dog and a cat. And Julián Álvarez provides mobility, help, pressure, but he too is denied to score.

* Evolution. If Ecuador is the football with the greatest progress in recent decades in South America, Venezuela is the second. Until about fifteen years ago, many people calculated and said: “You have to beat them to have a good goal difference.” Now they break the head so they can get the tie out. La Vinotinto beat Chile and the unstoppable Yeferson Soteldo with a much celebrated 3:0. Meter 59 of talent and mischief is Yeferson. Venezuela has only 2 goals against in 4 games. At other times he would have been 14 or 15. Fernando “Bocha” Batista is an irreparable loss for the Argentine national team. He left because Venezuela offered him a better contract and to be commander in chief. He is a magnificent coach and they are already starting to idolize him in the land of Bolívar. “Venezuelan football was like a submarine, no one saw it”, often says doctor Richard Páez, one of the biggest football figures in the country, first as a great football player and then as a successful coach. Now it’s on the surface.

* New face. The one from Uruguay. A young team, disorganized as always, but eager to play good football and attack. With those premises quickly established by Marcelo Bielsa, they beat Brazil 2-0 after 22 years without being able to beat them. Many Uruguayan technicians, angry that they were not chosen for a place in Celeste, criticized Bielsa, but also many fans, for not inviting Suárez and Cavani, but “Thank you, Marcelo” are already appearing. It is a more modern Uruguay, without question.

* Normal. “Every day getting worse” and “The disaster called Brazil” are some of the headlines in the Brazilian media after the fall in Montevideo. They were already critical when they undeservedly beat Peru in stoppage time, and then at home with a draw against Venezuela. Fernando Diniz is the interim coach, however, the background is different: Brazil is full of average players. There are many good ones, but there are no phenomena like those from other times. And, despite all the technical conditions and abilities, Neymar cannot be the leader of the group. Of course, that will be enough to qualify for the World Cup, but something else is required of Brazil, more of a game, to be the regional power that it has always been. “Brazil is living a nightmare”, headlined Placar. And Globo was terse: “Montevideo was the scene of a horror show in which the technician has a great responsibility, but not the only one.”

* Antigoals. If it wasn’t for the karma of the Colombian players with a goal, the Yellows could have finished second, two points behind Argentina. Against Uruguay, they missed six very clear scoring opportunities and ended up tying the score at 2-2. Against Ecuador, their great figure, Luis Díaz, squandered a penalty and the game ended 0-0. Moisés Ramírez had a bad shot and a good save . However, Colombia is a much better expression of Qatar’s qualification. Néstor Lorenzo succeeded. What a coach cannot do is score goals. Lucho Díaz is a significant, likable, brave, skilled player, but he is not good with the national team and it is starting to weigh on him.

* Zero. In the worst historical moment of its football, Bolivia lost again – the fourth defeat in four presentations – and there are already talks about the dismissal of coach Gustavo Costas. But there is no money for fees, and hiring a replacement would also mean a payment. The problem is more fundamental: there are no players. And there are none because neither training nor infrastructure is being worked on. “We are all complaining because we are trying to reverse this situation, former players, coaches, fans, journalists… the only ones who never speak are the leaders, nobody opens their mouths,” Carlos Borja, former captain of the 1994 World Cup team, commented on television.

* Discomfort. “Every day is worse” used by the Brazilian press was also repeated in large numbers by Ecuadorian journalists and fans on social networks, but talking about the poor performance of the Trio and pointing to the Catalan driver Félix Sánchez. Colombia, which Ecuador defeated 6 to 1 in the previous qualifiers, this time won a draw and deservedly won. Ecuador is very likely to reach the 2026 World Cup, it doesn’t seem to be in danger, but people want to see a highly skilled team that plays better, with which something else could be tried. The speed with which the Ecuadorian federation engaged Sánchez after his disastrous performance with Qatar at the last World Cup remains surprising. Gustavo Alfaro was asked to be more daring in the previous cycle, but at least he put together a team from scratch, discovered players and knew what was being played.

* Individuality. Ecuador, with Alfaro, was a team. I might like it more or less. It doesn’t look like that anymore, at this start of the qualification it came down to simply good football players. We also need to lower the decibels of some proper names.

* Open. This is the layout for everyone in the classification. There are still 42 points left to play and exactly two years of competition. Anything can happen. Even Bolivia has options if it reacts in time. There are only four points between last and seventh place. But whoever wants to change the helm should think about it now. Paraguay decided for the second term and already achieved the first victory that can give it a new look. Peru and Bolivia are thinking about it…(OR)