South American national teams started World Cup this international break with several of the leading South American players ineligible through either suspension or injury.
Obviously the most-missed is Lionel Messi, who injured his left knee in La Liga and will almost certainly will not play in any of the remaining qualifiers for Argentina in 2015. Messi has scored 49 goals in 105 games for his country.
Messi's teammate at Barcelona, Neymar, is also not be in action at the start of qualifying. Brazilian forward must serve a two game suspension after being red-carded in the Copa America. Neymar missed Brazil's loss to Chile and will miss the game against Venezuela.
Uruguay will miss two important players, both due to suspension. Luis Suarez is still suspended for his biting incident at the 2014 World Cup and Edinson Cavani is suspended for his run-in with Gonzalo Jara against Chile in the Copa America.
James Rodriguez has not yet recovered from injury, and joins Pablo Armero and Macnelly Torres as the absent players for Colombia.
Skillful soccer player Juan Vargas right knee was injured while playing with Betis in Spain and was ruled out by Peruvian Head Coach Ricardo Gareca for its first two commitments in this qualifying schedule.
Conmebol has either four or five spots in the next World Cup. The top four teams will get tickets to Russia and the fifth one will play a playoff against a team from the Oceania Football Confederation.
Schedule for Tuesday, October 13
Ecuador-Bolivia 5:00 pm
Uruguay-Colombia 7:00 pm
Brazil-Venezuela 9:00 pm
Paraguay-Argentina 9:00 pm
Peru-Chile 10:30
All times EDT
