Chile moves into prime position

 (AP) -- Chile moved into prime position to get South America's final spot in the 1998 World Cup, routing visiting Peru 4-0 Sunday night at Santiago behind three goals by Marcelo Salas.
 With Argentina (8-2-5), Paraguay (9-4-2) and Colombia (8-4-3) already qualified, Chile (6-5-4) moved into fourth place with 22 points, ahead of Peru (6-5-4) on goal difference. The top four South American teams advance to the 32-nation tournament in France along with Brazil, the defending champion.
 Chile can clinch a berth with a victory at home against Bolivia on Nov. 16, and can also qualify with a tie or loss if Peru stumbles in its home game against Paraguay that day.
 In other South American games Sunday, Ecuador (6-6-3) beat visiting Bolivia 1-0 to keep its slim hopes alive, Uruguay (5-7-3) was eliminated with a scoreless tie at Argentina, and Paraguay beat Venezuela 1-0.
 In the North and Central American and Caribbean region, Mexico failed to clinch with a 2-2 tie at Canada but pushed the Canadians to the verge of elimination.
 At Santiago, Salas scored in the 13th, 83rd and 88th minutes, while Pedro Reyes scored in the 58th. Peru could have clinched with a victory.
 At Guayaquil, Ariel Graziani scored for Ecuador on a free kick in the 27th minute. For Ecuador to qualify, it would have to win at Uruguay on Nov. 16, and hope that neither Chile nor Peru win their final games.
 At Buenos Aires, Juan Sebastian Veron hit the crossbar twice for Argentina. Uruguay has not qualified since the 1990 tournament in Italy.
 At Asuncion, Felix Torres scored in the 69th minute for Paraguay. Venezuela was outscored 41-8 in qualifying.
 Mexico could have qualified with a victory against Canada at Edmonton, Alberta, but still is virtually assured of a berth. Three of the six teams in the regional finals will qualify, and Mexico (4-0-3) needs just one more point from its three remaining games.
 Jamaica (3-2-3) is second with 12 points, followed by the United States (2-1-4) with 10, El Salvador (2-3-3) with nine, Costa Rica (2-4-2) with eight and Canada (1-4-3) with six.
 Mexico, which next plays the United States at home on Nov. 2, went ahead on Enrique Alfaro's goal in the eighth minute, but Carlo Corazzin tied the score in the 55th and Alex Bunbury put Canada ahead in the 64th. Ramon Ramirez tied it a again for Mexico in the 85th.
 Canada needs to beat the United States on Nov. 9 and Costa Rica on Nov. 16, giving it 12 points, then hope other countries do not overtake it for second or third place.
 "It's like when you sleep and dream about playing the Mexicans, you are winning 2-1 as the game winds down," Canada captain Randy Samuel said. "But dreams aren't supposed to end like a nightmare, and that's what happened here today."