The South American Zone of 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification saw nine teams competing for 4 or 5 berths in the finals. Brazil automatically qualified for the World Cup as the host nation so were not involved in CONMEBOL qualifying. Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay advanced to the World Cup.
The format for CONMEBOL's 2014 World Cup qualifying tournament was identical to the previous four editions. All CONMEBOL national teams played against each other twice on a home-and-away basis in a single group for 4 or 5 allotted berths. The top four teams automatically qualified for the finals. The fifth-placed team competed in the intercontinental play-offs against the fifth-placed team from the AFC's World Cup qualifying tournament. The order of matches was identical to that of the 2002, 2006 and 2010 tournaments. As Brazil qualified automatically as hosts, each team had a bye on the date they would normally have been scheduled to play Brazil.
The matches were played from 7 October 2011 to 15 October 2013.[1]
While the top four teams in CONMEBOL qualification tournament qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, the fifth-placed team, Uruguay, played against the fifth-placed team from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Jordan, in a home-and-away play-off. The winner of this play-off, Uruguay, qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.
The first leg was played on 13 November 2013 in Jordan, and the second leg was played on 20 November 2013.[5]
The following six teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the final tournament.
There were 201 goals scored in 72 matches, for an average of 2.79 goals per match.
11 goals
10 goals
9 goals
7 goals
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Éver Banega Rodrigo Palacio
Jaime Arrascaita Diego Bejarano Jhasmani Campos Rudy Cardozo Alejandro Chumacero Wálter Flores Gualberto Mojica Alcides Peña
Matías Campos Pablo Contreras Marcos González Felipe Gutiérrez Esteban Paredes Waldo Ponce Humberto Suazo
Pablo Armero Fredy Guarín Macnelly Torres Carlos Valdés Juan Camilo Zúñiga
Jaime Ayoví Édison Méndez Joao Rojas
Pablo César Aguilar Luis Nery Caballero Gustavo Gómez José Ariel Núñez Jorge Rojas Darío Verón.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Peru_(state).svg.png){kind=small}
Paolo Hurtado Juan Carlos Mariño Yoshimar Yotún
Sebastián Eguren Maxi Pereira Cristhian Stuani.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Venezuela_(state).svg.png){kind=small}
Fernando Amorebieta Frank Feltscher César González Rómulo Otero Luis Manuel Seijas Oswaldo Vizcarrondo1 own goal
Juan Carlos Paredes (against Chile) Diego Godín (against Peru)