Does anyone remember Joaquín Botero? He first made headlines back in 2002 after scoring 49 goals for club Bolivar in one season and thus becoming the world’s top goal scorer. The following year Botero was signed by Pumas UNAM where he played for three years and only scored 21 goals.
Botero then returned to South America and was all but forgotten. That was until he helped guide Bolivia to a 6-1 prison ass-rape of Argentina in La Paz. Botero contributed to the monumental win by scoring three goals and rounded up his brilliant display with a silky back heal pass to teammate Didi Torrico who sealed the win. And where is Botero now; playing for Mexican primera A outfit Correcaminos UAT!
As far as Bolivia goes they are currently five points behind fifth place Uruguay; which is their most realistic shot of reaching the 2010 South Africa World Cup. Their next match is at home against Venezuela followed by back to back road games to Chile and Paraguay before returning to their high altitude fortress estadio Hernando Siles where they will host Ecuador and Brazil. Bolivia closes their qualifiers with an away game to bottom dwellers Peru.
Perhaps, the victory against Argentina was a fluke and will be the only thing left to salvage of a dismal world cup qualifying campaign or maybe just maybe it is sign of things to come as the Bolivians mount a hellacious turn around. Only time will tell but one thing is for certain at least for me the CONMEBOL qualifiers have just turned interesting.
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