Brazil and Argentina were held to draws by lesser opponents on Wednesday and Chile climbed to fourth place in the standings in the latest South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.
Brazil was booed off the pitch after being held to a scoreless home draw by 10-man Bolivia, while Argentina conceded an equalizer in the final seconds to draw 1-1 at Peru.
Chile crushed Colombia 4-0 while Uruguay was held 0-0 at home by Ecuador.
After eight of the 18 rounds in the marathon qualifying campaign, the results left Brazil, Argentina and Chile all on 13 points, behind leader Paraguay on 17.
With the top four to qualify directly for the 2010 World Cup and the fifth team to go into a further playoff against a CONCACAF team, Uruguay is fifth on 12 points, two ahead of Colombia and Ecuador a further point back. Peru and Bolivia's impressive draws were not enough to lift them from the bottom two rungs of the standings.
Disappointed with Brazil's lackluster play, fans jeered the team throughout the match.
"It was a night when everything went wrong," said Milan's Ronaldinho. "When the victories don't come, it's normal the fans react like this. We can only hope we can revert this situation the next time we play."
Despite playing with Ronaldinho, Sevilla's Luis Fabiano and new Manchester City signing Robinho in attack, Brazil rarely threatened.
"We did all we could," coach Dunga said. "But as time went by our players became too anxious to score and that made things difficult."
In addition to failing to win the Olympic gold at the Beijing Games - Brazil was third after falling to Argentina in the semifinals - the five-time world champion was coming off a loss to Paraguay and a home draw with the Argentines in its previous two qualifiers.
Bolivia, which lost away to Ecuador on Saturday, relied solely on counterattacks and surprisingly had a couple of good chances.
"To earn a draw against a team with world-renowned players like Brazil is a historic result for us," Bolivia coach Erwin Sanchez said.
Brazil failed to improve even after Bolivia defender Ignacio Garcia was harshly sent off in the 57th minute.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily September 12, 2008)