A scrambled goal, three minutes into second-half injury time, by substitute Martin Palermo helped struggling Argentina scrape past Peru 2-1 here Saturday. That means the two-time champion will reach next year's World Cup in South Africa if it can win Wednesday in the final round of qualifying at bitter rival Uruguay. Anything less and it could face a playoff - or be out altogether. Chile avoided the drama, winning 4-2 at Colombia to claim the third of four automatic qualifying spots from South America for its first World Cup appearance since 1998. Colombia was eliminated. Waldo Ponce, Humberto Suazo, Jorge Valdivia and Fabian Orellana scored for Chile. Uruguay kept its World Cup hopes alive, winning 2-1 in Quito at 2,800 meters after Diego Forlan converted a penalty in the fourth minute of injury time. Uruguay will also advance automatically if it beats Argentina Wednesday in Montevideo. In the day's other match, Paraguay won 2-1 at Venezuela thanks to second-half goals by Salvador Cabanas and Oscar Cardozo. Brazil plays at Bolivia Sunday in the region's other World Cup qualifier. Brazil has already qualified and Bolivia has already been eliminated. Brazil, Chile and Paraguay have qualified with one round to play Wednesday. The fourth-place team also gets an automatic berth, and No. 5 faces a playoff in November with the No. 4 from North and Central America and the Caribbean. Teams finishing sixth or worse are out. Argentina has 25 points in fourth place followed by Uruguay with 24, Ecuador with 23 and Venezuela with 21. Argentina played poorly despite fielding many of the world's best players, but escaped with the late victory. That will take some pressure off embattled coach Diego Maradona, but it may leave the two-time champion needing another great effort to defeat Uruguay. Palermo scored from close-in on a scrambled play in the final seconds as a driving rain soaked the field. And it drenched Palermo, too, who ripped off his shirt and raised his arms to the heavens to celebrate the winning goal at River Plate's Monumental stadium. “Go and put an end to this story just as you have so many others,” Maradona said he told Palermo, as he sent him into the game in the 48th minute with the game at 0-0. Peru's Hernan Rengifo leveled the match with about 20 seconds left in regulation time after Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain put Argentina ahead in the 48th - just seconds after Palermo entered - on a sharp-angled shot from six meters. “We're going to go play in Montevideo (Uruguay) with all of our pride,” Maradona said. Mexico, US through Mexico and the United States booked their places at the 2010 World Cup by winning their penultimate CONCACAF group games Saturday. Mexico had a comfortable 4-1 home win over El Salvador, while the US rode its luck late to win 3-2 at Honduras. Costa Rica moved up to the third and final automatic World Cup-qualifying berth with a 4-0 home win over Trinidad and Tobago. That pushed Honduras down to fourth - a position which would yield a further playoff against the fifth-placed team from South America. Final positions in the group will be determined Wednesday, when Costa Rica visits the US and Honduras is away at El Salvador.
