Brazil in danger of missing the cut

In 1950, the unexpected happened when the invincible Brazilians, in front of their own fans, lost a World Cup decider to Uruguay.

Despite having captured the first World Cup in 1930, Uruguay, a country of 3.5million people, were huge underdogs in a game played in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium.

A partisan 200,000 Brazilian crowd were stunned into silence as their South American neighbours scraped a 2-1 win to secure the Jules Rimet trophy for a second time.

The stakes were not as high in Montevideo yesterday morning, but Uruguay raised further questions about Brazil's standing as a force in the world game.

A jinking, mazy run past four defenders by Alvaro Recoba before a foul in the area led to Uruguay's game-winning penalty kick and a 1-0 win that moved them level on points with Brazil in CONMEBOL qualifying.

Brazil coach Luis Felipe Scolari accused the hosts of having played with nine men behind the ball and deserved no better than a scoreless draw.

But Gustavo Mendez, the experienced full-back, insisted: "We were the better side, there's no doubt about that."

Uruguay's captain, Juve centre-back Paolo Montero, said: "We still have a lot to do and we must focus on that."

Their next game is in San Cristobal against Venezuela, followed by a difficult trip to Lima to face Peru.

Difficult games ensue against Colombia, who are two points adrift, third-top Ecuador and CONMEBOL leaders Argentina.

Malaga midfielder Gonzalo De los Santos said: "There is still a long way to go. I think that if we can beat Venezuela then we can get the ball rolling and the World Cup dream will become closer to reality."

Recoba, `El Chino', who shaved his head before the game, warned: "There is no need to go mad, we must not all go out to celebrate July 18th (a Uruguayan national holiday). We have to keep our feet on the ground.

"We have taken an important step forward and given ourselves the opportunity to have qualification in our own hands, nothing more."

New Brazil coach Phil Scolari remains upbeat even though the four-times World Cup winners might fail to qualify for the finals of the competition for the first time.

The country which gave the world Pele, Zico and Ronaldo have five games remaining to secure their place in the Japan and South Korea showdown. Four teams qualify automatically and they currently lie fourth after picking up only one point out of the last nine.

The team which finishes fifth goes into a play-off against Oceania winners Australia.

Scolari said: "When I took the job, I knew that I was running the risk of being the first coach to leave Brazil out of a World Cup, but I am not afraid of that. Don't worry, that is not going to happen now.

"Our participation in the World Cup doesn't depend on other people's results.

"The mathematicians say that we need 30 points to get into the top four places and of the 15 possible points we have nine at home, thus the outlook is not great but neither is it too bad."