 Yes, so World Cup qualifying has started in South America with the second round of the fixtures taking place today, reigning World Cup holders. Argentina took the dreaded trek to La Paz to take on Bolivia, where they emerged three-nil winners. In the second match between Ecuador and Uruguay, it is one-one-half time action continuing tonight with these fixtures to be contested. These are the conmeable World Cup qualifiers. Venezuela taking on Paraguay. That's 7 o'clock Eastern Caribbean time, 6 o'clock in Jamaica. Chile taking on Colombia, Chile against Colombia at 7.30 Jamaica time, 8.30 Eastern Caribbean and there's Peru taking on Brazil at 10.30 Eastern Caribbean time, 9.30 in Jamaica. Our South American football correspondent Juan G. Arango joins us now. Juan, welcome to the Sports Max zone. We haven't seen you in a while, but we have seen you doing other things, and we're happy to have you on. Let's start with this Argentina win today, the World Cup holders. As we said, going to La Paz, high altitude, much feared, but the Argentines got the job done. Yeah, you know what? It's funny, a couple of years ago, last time that Argentina ended up going to La Paz, you'd hear a lot of Bolivian fans, pundits and of course coaches going and saying, hey, mark number 10. Today, they had to mark 10 in order to be able to kind of slow down Argentina, which was not the case, was further from the case because Julian Alvarez ends up taking over the baton, if you will, for Leo Messi and becomes that conductor, if you will. But it starts to show again, the collective work that's been done by Leo Nascalone and his ability to implement a system where it's not about Messi, where Messi ends up being that extra octane, if you will, to a team that can really create a lot of great situations and finish most of them as well. So I guess that's where you have to start looking at it in Argentina side, that regardless where they play, home away, altitude or at sea level, they're a team that's going to give you everything and they're looking fully score on to be able to defend Copa America if you look at it from middle range. Tagre Fico and Fernandez got first off goes for Argentina against the Bolivian side that lost Fernandez after 39 minutes. So it was a 10 man Bolivia team that the Argentines defeated on a scale of 1 to 10. How good were the work of holders today? I mean, knowing that there were certain changes that were a couple of adjustments, obviously their main cog isn't there and yet they're able to function the way they did. I would say about a seven or an eight. And basically a six or a seven was more than enough to be able to convincingly beat a Bolivia side that looked hapless against Brazil that at times they looked staunch against Brazil if you want to look at the first round, but then we're able to capitulate because of the talent that Brazil had in their ranks. With Argentina the same thing too, but it's a team that as soon as they took that 2-0 lead, they knew that they had to regulate the match, they knew that they had to be able to control the match and yeah, if they got an opportunity or two, that's all great as well. I guess like I said, a Bolivia side that has shown very little and weren't very happy coming in because at one point in the match you would start hearing the fans actually chanting Messi's name because they wanted him to play. Unfortunately, he wasn't even on the bench or he wasn't even listed as one of the substitutes today for Los Galones. Yeah, one, he played 89 minutes in the game against Ecuador and Friday scored the lone goal in that contest and as you pointed out, not involved at all in today's matchup. We gather fatigue, the reason for that decision. Do you suspect that this is how we're going to see Leo Messi being utilized going forward by this Argentina setup where he's playing specific matches, the bigger matches if you might for this Argentine team? You know what, that's a great question and I think he himself answered it. He said, look, expect more of this, expect me looking to rest a little bit more, expect me to be solved off more, expect me to be an option off the bench. So it's him knowing that he has to economize himself. Look, I think it was in the next, he has eight matches left in MLS and I'm talking about with him when the span of about a month and a half. On top of it, he has to focus on October and November World Cup qualifying plays. So you have about 12, 13 matches and maybe just maybe there's a chance for him to have playoff games which could end up being two, five, around seven or eight more matches. So you have about 20 more matches left for Leo Messi in such a short span of that. Add to that the stretch that he had just before World Cup qualifying where he played basically every two and a half, three days during League Cup and MLS. So you keep that in mind and it's been a lot of matches that he's had to play ever since he had that extended break after leaving PSG. So he also knows that at this point he has to be able to try and be more economical and know how to budget his energy going into this final stretch of his season and of course waiting to see what happens in January, February and when World Cup qualifying and MLS resume in the month of late February, early March. Yeah, Brazil, Peru later tonight won. One that is tipped to be a very, very exciting matchup. Our last match, of course, Peru picking up a red card. What are we to expect for this fixture? I don't know. I mean, look, look, I don't say it. I don't say it as me trying to back up, right? It's just that the Peru side that we saw against Paraguay looks so defensive. You know, Pedro Galesa ends up being the man of the match basically with the amount of saves that he ends up making against Paraguay. Lisa Binkula gets sent off. Peru play again with 10. And you're really not seeing what Peru can show under Juan Reynoso. It's a totally different system. It's a totally different philosophy compared to what Ricardo Gareca was able to implement. And they're still trying to familiarize themselves with their new coach, if you will. That being said, against Brazil, it's going to be a huge tough competition. But I would believe that Brazil comes out on top knowing that they have a great deal of confidence, knowing that they're starting to understand more of Fernando Diniz who's maybe even being speculated to Coach Copa America to give Carlo Encelotti more time. And maybe you start looking at other options coming in as well. Neymar wasn't 100% going into that match. Maybe he gets a rest or gets limited minutes. We'll see how that ends up playing out. But to me, Brazil is just way, way much better than Peru at this moment. Right. And they would be hoping to continue on the scoring form which they had against Bolivia 5-1. Do we expect a sort of fixture where there are a lot of goals won? With Peru at home, it ends up being, I mean, a difficult yes. But knowing how much talent this Brazil side has in front of them and knowing that, as I said before, the last time I was on, how many distractions that they've been able to prevent with Anthony being off the list and being focused and Fernando Diniz has been able to do a great job of focusing the team, of letting them be able to express themselves a little bit better and kind of find their way towards the opposing goal which they did have problems early on against Bolivia. I think you'll see a little bit more of a similar pattern developing against Peru. And keep in mind, this is a much more defensive Peru. This is going to be a team that is better defensively than what Bolivia was able to offer up over in Brazil in the last round. So it'll be a bit harder to find some spaces to be able to operate in certain sectors. It'll be a bit more of a rugged match for Brazil, that's for sure. But obviously with the quality that they have and the solid nature of their defense, you end up seeing that Peru is going to have a hard time as well. Yeah, for sure Juan. Before we let you go to watch some more football, I just wanted to get an idea of what Lance was talking about at the top of the segment when he said we haven't seen you for a little while, but we've seen you doing other things. You know what? I don't know either. I mean, I don't know what he's been watching, but I'd rather not say it. I'd rather not confirm or deny any reports. I guess what the Lance can answer. Calm down, Ricardo. It's just Instagram and social media platforms. He's very busy on social media. Which you can verify, Juan, can't you? Which I... well, depends. Thank you. We're going to leave it there, Juan. Take care, and we'll be in touch. Take care, guys. Have a good one. Meanwhile, the Conqueratiations League will wrap up its second round later on Tuesday among the Marquis matches. Jamaica hosting Haiti and Grenada playing away to Honduras, both in Group B of League A. Sports Max 2 will have live coverage of both encounters with coverage of the Jamaica vs. Haiti game starting at 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock Eastern Caribbean time. So a tough match there. We remember the Jamaica coach, Hemer Hallgrimson, suggesting when we spoke yesterday about his comments that he thinks Honduras, but Haiti is going to be a tougher team than Honduras are. I guess when we see the match tonight, we'll see if he was right or wrong. Yeah, and he was sure to mention that, you know, when we're thinking quality-wise, player-wise, and he went on to expand on that point. So I'm looking forward to see if he has any changes lands from the Honduras win, because clearly for him, against Honduras, you know, that was a walk in the park versus what he'll be up against versus Haiti. Well, I thought he was pretty full strength on the Honduras game, so I can't see too many roster changes for this fixture. Yeah, neither can I. From what we've seen of Hallgrimson since he's taken over this team, he's been quite willing to rotate the backline because he has said it himself that there's not a massive difference in the quality of the players he has at his disposal in the backline. So maybe we'll see some amount of rotation there, but by and large, what you see up front is what you generally get. Those comments I found interesting, but from the first press conference that they had when the squad was named, the rhetoric I picked up coming from the reggae boys coaching staff is that they have a lot of respect for the Haiti team. And we saw them at the ConquerCaf Gold Cup, and they did look good. So there is no doubt that they will offer a significant threat to the Jamaicans tonight. Having said that, Lance and Mariah, if I were in the position of Hallgrimson and I'd already put away Honduras, then I too would say, well, yeah, I think Haiti is tougher because you have them in front of you, you have them to deal with, and you need to get the players in a frame of mind to understand that this is going to be a difficult match. And you want to win it. Remember, last Nations League campaign, Jamaica did not make it to the semifinals if you won, and they did not lose a match in Nations League. So they understand the importance of winning these matches. You don't want to be dropping points, and especially because you're at home, you want to be able to pick up maximum points. And as well for me, as you look ahead to World Cup Qualifying, you want to start developing a winning formula at home. If you look at the last World Cup Qualifying cycle, not many wins, if any, on home soil. In fact, in my opinion, the best performances came away from home, and you want to start changing that as you look ahead to the next World Cup Qualifying campaign. Yes, I think that getting wins, of course, has a major psychological advantage on the players. Nobody wants to lose at home, and especially when the fans come out in their numbers. And I know from being here how passionate Jamaican fans are. Damari Gray was on the score sheet against Honduras. I'm hoping that he gets on the score sheet today again, and of course we get some more goals from the Jamaican setup. Yeah, electric kind of player, Damari Gray. And whenever he has the ball, you just get the feeling that something good is going to happen for the regular ball. It's a reminder that you can catch both Konking Have Nations League and Konbeville World Cup Qualifying matches on Sportsmax channels. Ghana against the Bahamas, that's 6 o'clock Eastern Caribbean time. That's on Sportsmax 2 as we speak. Jamaica against Haiti coming up at 8 o'clock Eastern Caribbean time, 7 o'clock in Jamaica, and Honduras taking on Grenada. That's at 9 o'clock tonight, Jamaica time, 10 o'clock Eastern Caribbean time. Those matches on Sportsmax 2, so don't miss them. Back with more on the Zone after this.