Paraguay to face Spain after victory over Japan
Paraguay finally made it to the quarter finals of a World Cup with a penalty shoot-out victory over upstart Japan on Wednesday in the Round of 16 in South Africa. After playing for 120 scoreless minutes, the Paraguayans and the Japanese went to a shoot out. Paraguay was perfect during the shoot-out, connecting on all five of their penalty kicks, while Japan's lone miss on their first four shots was fatal as they fell 5-3 to be knocked out of the tournament.
Paraguay has now achieved something they've never done in the past, advancing to the quarter finals after having been eliminated from the Group of 16 stage three other times in the past. By beating the Samurai Blue they've denied Japan the same honour, as it sought to best its own high of making the Group of 16 in 2002.
It was Paraguay who controlled most of the match, although neither team greatly threatened the other for much of the game. The opening minutes provided some of the best chances, with Paraguay coming close in the 22nd minute mark, with Lucas Barrios getting stopped and having a rebound hang around the box for painful seconds before being shot out of danger. Daisuke Matsui took it back the other way and nearly beat Paraguayan goalkeeper Justo Villar with a beauty of a long shot, showing Japan to be the team with arguably the best mastery of the much-maligned Jabulani game ball.
Throughout the game though it was Paraguay who controlled the ball, having possession a whopping 64% of the time, with Japan happy to lead charging counter-attacks compared to the carefully constructed attacks of the Paraguayans.
Paraguay fails to impress
While Paraguay has achieved a historic result with the victory, they didn't show themselves to be a top-class nation with their play and looked sloppy at times against Japan. Both teams were huge underdogs coming into the match, with Paraguay's odds at 50-1 and Japan's at 125-1. Scraping through on a penalty shoot-out fails to show a decisive victory for the Paraguayans, something their coach, Geraldo Martino seemed to acknowledge.
"Everyone knows it's unfair to have it decided by a penalty shoot-out, but that's the way it is," Martino said. "I just think we were lucky during the penalty shoot out. That made the difference."
It was Yuichi Komano who failed to convert on Japan's third penalty kick, putting pressure on his goalkeeper to make a stop, but he was unable to do so.
Paraguay will need to work on capitalizing more off of ball possession for their upcoming match against Spain, which defeated Portugal 1-0 also on Tuesday.
Taking on Spain next
In taking on Spain next, Paraguay will face some challenges controlling the ball. Unlike Japan, which seemed very happy to counter with set-piece attacks to generate their offence, the Spanish play a similar ball-control game to Paraguay. Martino suggested after the match that his team might change their strategy accordingly.
"Maybe in the next game, we can play a different way," Martino said. "Perhaps not having to be in the position to control the game will give us more space and that would benefit us."
The fewer opportunities Paraguay will have to dominate the midfield means they will have to do better to capitalize on their chances. Additionally, with several of their shots going just wide or high, they should perhaps take a cue from Japan and work hard on solving the puzzle of the Jabulani.
For Japan though, they rued their apparent willingness to go to a shoot-out rather than go for the outright win.
"I should have been more insistent on winning," Japan Coach Takeshi Okada said afterwards.
Tags: