stop.As it turned out, neither pause had much imp

SAO PAULO -- The return of Lionel Messi to an under-pressure Argentina team has finally paid off.After a lackluster performance last week against Brazil last week, the five-time FIFA player of the year winner inspired a 3-0 victory over Colombia for the South American World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday. He scored the first with a breathtaking free kick, gave two assists, dribbled through Colombias defense several times and coordinated his teammates on the pitch.Argentina is now in fifth position with 19 points after 12 games, with six games to go. Colombia dropped to sixth with 18 points.The first four in South American qualifiers have automatic qualifying positions for the next World Cup and the fifth will be in an international playoff for a spot.The home victory eased some of the pressure on coach Edgardo Bauza, who received the dreaded vote of support from Argentinas football association during the week.In Santiago, Alexis Sanchez scored twice after returning from injury to give Chile a 3-1 win over Uruguay. Chile is now fourth, with 20 points, and Uruguay remained second with 23.Leaders Brazil beat eighth place Peru 2-0 in Lima to move closer to securing a spot at Russia 2018. Teenage striker Gabriel Jesus, who will soon move to Manchester City, scored his fifth goal in six games for the five-time World Cup champions.Elsewhere, third-placed Ecuador beat bottom-of-the -group Venezuela 3-0 at home and now has 20 points. Venezuela was stuck on five.Ninth-placed Bolivia had a 1-0 victory over seventh place Paraguay and now has seven points. Paraguay is on 15.The 13th round of South American World Cup qualifiers will be played in March 2017.ARGENTINA 3-0 COLOMBIAMessi opened the score with a perfect free kick to the left of Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina, on 9 minutes.Only 13 minutes later, Messi managed to dribble through the Colombian defense and cross to striker Lucas Pratto, a contentious choice by coach Bauza ahead of Juventus targetman Gonzalo Higuain.Argentina could have scored many more goals in the second half, with Messi still leading the efforts. The third only came at 83 minutes after the Barcelona star began a play with a backheel kick. Seconds later he stole the ball from a Colombia defender, cut into the penalty area and put in a smooth low cross he found Angel Di Maria, who effortlessly scored.Colombias coach Jose Pekerman said his team clearly felt the absence of two key defenders: suspended Oscar Murillo and injured Yerry Mina.After the defeat against Brazil, Messi openly said he was disappointed with Argentinas performance, and used an expletive to say the team needed to improve to qualify for Russia 2018. On Tuesday, with an increased box-to-box awareness throughout the match, Messi led by example rather than words.Words were also in short supply after the game. On behalf of the whole team, Messi said no players would speak to the press, in response to a wave of criticism in Argentinian media.-----CHILE 3-1 URUGUAYUruguay scored first against Chile, through South American qualifiers top goalscorer Edinson Cavani, at 16 minutes.But Chile, the Copa America champions, responded to pull one of their best wins in the tournament so far. That was largely thanks to a superb performance by Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez, who returned from injury, scored a brace and is now just one goal short of Marcelo Salas as the top goalscorer ever for La Roja.The beginning of the turnaround began with striker Eduardo Vargas nodding a cross from the left to level the score in the dying moments of the first half. At 60 minutes Uruguayan goalkeeper Fernando Muslera failed to save a powerful shot by Sanchez from the edge of the box. At 75, Sanchez scored again, in a smooth finish in front of Muslera.Uruguay had a chance to make it 3-2, but Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo stopped a penalty taken by striker Luis Suarez.Chile and Uruguay will each carry a major problem for their next match in South American qualifiers, which could be critical to both. Chile will not have midfielder Arturo Vidal against Argentina and Uruguay will miss Suarez against Brazil.-----PERU 0-2 BRAZILBrazil did not need to be at its best in securing a 2-0 victory over Peru in Lima; the sixth in a row for the leaders of the South American qualifiers under new coach Tite.After a lackluster first half, Brazil went ahead in the 57th minute when Perus defense gave the ball away inside the penalty box to 19-year-old Gabriel Jesus, who made an easy and calm finish.In the 77th minute, the Peruvian defense again was at fault, allowing Jesus to set up midfielder Renato Augusto for another simple finish.Brazil ends the year with 27 points, which was enough to qualify in other editions of the South American qualifiers. Only months ago it was lagging sixth under previous coach Dunga.Peru, who started dreaming of going to their first World Cup in 32 years after a 4-1 victory at Paraguay last week, will stay at eighth position with 14 points. Air Max Sale . 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The mystery of what exactly has happened to the Serbian star just keeps getting more curious.In the space of two months, Djokovic has gone from being the surest bet to win Grand Slam tournaments the past two years to an enigma who crashed out of the third round at Wimbledon in July and bombed out of the Rio Olympics in August with an opening-round loss to Juan Martin del Potro that left the world No. 1 weeping as he walked off the court.Then he seemed oddly subdued for long stretches Sunday during his four-set loss to Stan Wawrinka in the final of the US Open. And the crowd sensed it, too. It began chanting Djokvoics name without prompting a handful of times, imploring him to rage back into this match.You know, in matches like this, if you dont use the opportunities, the other guy comes and takes it, Djokovic said.Djokovic knows thats particularly true of Wawrinka, who has won 11 straight finals he has played. The other day, Djokovic didnt dispute an Italian reporters teasing contention that You are responsible for creating the Stanimal, a reference to their fourth-round 2013 Australian Open match in which Djokovic won the deciding set 12-10. The match gave Wawrinka the belief he could actually beat the worlds best.You couldnt blame Djokovic if he had flashbacks to that day or his 2015 French Open final loss to Wawrinka every time the Swiss hit a rope down the alleys.But even if you countenance the idea Wawrinka, who has now beaten Djokovic along the way to all three of his career Slam titles since 2014, has somehow crawled a little inside Djokovics head, that still doesnt fully explain Djokovics current fugue state.For whatever reason -- be it the unspecified personal problems he alluded to at Wimbledon or the more recent wrist and shoulder injuries -- Djokovic hasnt looked himself since June.He has somehow transformed from a chest-thumping man whose reputation for fighting, scratching and clawing his way to wins no matter how long it takes to a man who endured Wawrinkas 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 march to the title Sunday rather quietly.Along the way, Djokovic controversially resorted to the ploy of calling out a trainer twice in the final set. (It wasnt the first time he has been accused of bending the rules when struggling in a big match.)Wawrinka was about to serve at 3-1,, up two sets to one, when Djokovic requested the first trainers visit not long after hed spent a changeover icing both of his thighs.dddddddddddd But when the trainer arrived, Djokovic took off both shoes and treated everyone to some adventures in podiatry by requesting treatment on -- wait -- his feet?The toenails were off and bleeding, Djokovic explained. It was quite painful to move around. The toe just happened today.Wawrinka was caught on TV microphones during the first six-minute delay complaining to the chair umpire that Djokovic was trying to buy time because he was cramping -- something that a player cannot receive treatment for during a match.And Djokovic admitted in his news conference that he does know that rule.But he denied under repeated questioning that he did anything untoward as a last-ditch ploy to win. And Wawrinka, who was only just three games from victory by then anyway, refused after the match to criticize his longtime friend and sometime practice partner for requesting the trainers visits.For me, I just asked the umpire because he asked [for] the physio when he was serving, and we played maybe seven more points, Wawrinka said. If your opponent is struggling, if he has blood coming out [of his toes], you have to stop.As it turned out, neither pause had much impact on the match. Long before his feet began to trouble him, Djokovics biggest problem Sunday -- besides the bombs Wawrinka was hitting down the lines again and again -- was he couldnt break Wawrinkas serve. And he didnt hurt Wawrinka much with his own.Djokovic is considered the best returner in tennis history. But against Wawrinka, he converted only three of the 17 opportunities.It was a terrible conversion of the break points -- just terrible, he said. I lost my nerves in very important moments today.And so Djokovic moves on down the road now lugging a personal record of 12-9 in Grand Slam finals with him. He had won four straight majors until his early-round loss at Wimbledon.A glass half-full person would rightly say its an extraordinary achievement the 29-year-old Djokovic has even made 21 major finals. But Sunday, Djokovic -- who fell to 2-for-7 in US Open title matches alone -- wasnt feeling that way just yet.Obviously, Grand Slam finals are different than any other match, [and] I have lost a few Grand Slam finals, some close matches, Djokovic said. Thats the cycle of life, I guess. ' ' '