The worst Brazilian sent Bolivia into the playoffs, Argentina s new No. 10 breaks the old horse record

Nandu News reporter Tao Xinlei On the morning of September 10, the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup South American qualifiers ushered in the final match. Bolivia defeated Brazil at home and grabbed the playoff spot. Argentina, which has already secured the top spot, lost to Ecuador away, achieving the latter's impressive record. On September 8, Brazilian coach Ancelotti led the team to train. Xinhua News Agency reported that the worst Brazil achievement in history Bolivia

Due to the last round of World Cup qualifiers, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay locked in 6 direct quotas, and the biggest highlight of the final game is the ownership of the cross-continental play-off qualification.

Before this round, Venezuela ranked 7th and Bolivia ranked 8th by 1 point.

In this round, facing Colombia, Venezuela once held a good game of 1-0 and 2-1, but was eventually defeated and lost 3-6 at home.

At the 4150-meter plateau home court, Bolivia completely suppressed the Brazilian team, which made many adjustments, and finally defeated Ancelotti 1-0 with a penalty kick and took over as the head coach of the Brazilian team. Bolivia also made a counterattack and overtook Venezuela to advance into the playoffs.

Rafinia was very aggrieved in an interview after the game: "When a team deliberately chose to compete at an altitude of 4,000 meters to win, I think this is indeed unfair to other teams. In addition, the referee awarded a penalty in a match that was originally close, which made the game even more difficult."

This loss also made Brazil finally ranked fifth in South America with 28 points. Since the South American region adopted a 10-team double round-robin match in the World Cup, 28 points have also created the worst result for Brazil. Their previous worst result was 30 points in the 2002 World Cup, but the Samba Army eventually won the World Cup in 2002.

Argentina's new No. 10 set a new Maradona record

Because it has long been locked in the top spot in South America, Argentina did not allow Messi to go to Ecuador to participate in the final round of the event. In this game, Real Madrid midfielder Mastantono was wearing Argentina's No. 10 jersey, who came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute. According to statistics, Mastantono, who was 18 years old and 23 days, became the youngest No. 10 player in Argentina's history, surpassing the record set by Maradona in 1979 (18 years old, 9 months and 3 days).

In the last round of World War qualifiers, Mastantono appeared in the 21st. Xinhua News Agency reported that when Mastantono came on the court, both teams only faced with 10 people. In the first half, Otamendi was sent off. In the 50th minute, Kesedo was sent off, and Ecuador led 1-0 with a penalty kick. Both of them will also miss the first match of next year's World Cup. Ecuador kept the score 1-0 until the end. Argentina scored 0 shots in the whole game, but it still didn't prevent them from leading the standings with 38 points.

Ecuador's performance is also worthy of praise. Ecuador started with a three-point deduction in the last World Cup due to a false birth certificate used by a player in the last World Cup. But in this case, they still finished second in the South American region, with 8 wins, 8 draws and 2 losses, and were the team with the least losses (only lost to Argentina and Brazil). Ecuador has average offensive firepower, but it is strong in defense. They conceded only 5 goals in 18 World Cup qualifiers, while Argentina and Paraguay, which tied for the second best defense, conceded twice as many goals as Ecuador.