World Cup Soccer 2010: Paraguay advances as Asian hopes die with Japan eliminated
The South Americans are having a blast at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, as their teams have done extremely well in the tournament so far. Only Chile has been knocked-out by the Brazilians which is yet another South American nation. Paraguay had a tough pool to qualify from, as they faced Italy, Slovakia and New Zealand in their group matches. Despite being put in a difficult situation, the Paraguayans managed to top the group and faced the Japanese in their second round elimination battle.
Japan also had a good run in the World Cup, as they showed some good attacking power in their group matches. They also beat Denmark in their last match, as they showed some brilliant skills on the free-kicks. The Japanese were the only team in this tournament who looked dangerous on the free-kicks, as the rest of the teams only complained about the Jabulani ball. This match promised to be a good contest between two sides, as there were no clear favourites to progress to the quarterfinals.
The Paraguayans showed the same determination at the back, as they did in the group stages. Only one goal has been scored against them and they were able to keep the Japanese shut for two long hours. However, Paraguay did not show any promise while going forward and lacked some real quality in their team. Things did change for the Paraguayans when Nelson Haedo Valdez was brought on the pitch, to replace Edgar Banitez. Valdez has been brilliant throughout the Paraguayans’ run in the World Cup, but for some odd reason he was not included in the starting line-up by Coach Gerardo Martino. After coming on the hour mark, he made some valuable contributions in the attack, but the goal did not come for the Paraguayans either. The Japanese defence kept them away from scoring, thus pushing the match into extra-time and finally into the penalty shootout.
This year’s World Cup saw its first penalty shoot-out between Paraguay and Japan. It was Paraguay who emerged victorious by 5-3, thus advancing to the next round. However, with the elimination of Japan, the Asian teams now have all been eliminated from the World Cup.
The fans were expecting the Japanese to continue their good form, from the group stage, against the Paraguayans. However, they failed to maintain the same standard of attacking football as Paraguay had better chances and a more dominating position throughout the match. The Japanese hardly threatened the Paraguayan goalkeeper as they had a few shots threatening to go past the keeper. Even from the free-kicks, they did not look intimidating; hence, they lost the edge that they had against an opposition like Paraguay. In the penalty shoot-out, a penalty was missed by Yuichi Komano, while the Paraguayans missed nothing. Thus, the better team won the match, and there were no upsets regarding the result of an uninteresting encounter.
Despite this victory and a place in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, there is still something troubling Gerardo Martino. His star centre-forward, Roque Santa Cruz, is still failing to find his form. Although, Santa Cruz has shown a good form in the English Premier League, but still he has failed his national side miserably. He played for the major part of the match, but failed to provide anything for his team. Therefore, he was replaced in the first half of the extra-time, as the coach brought on Oscar Cardozo as his replacement. This showed that the forward was not even favoured by the coach to take a penalty, and Cardozo did not let his coach down, as he scored the last penalty kick for Paraguay.
In the quarterfinal’s, Paraguay would face Spain, who defeated Portugal by 1-0. The Paraguayans need to work very hard to challenge the Spanish side, which is starting to find the rhythm in their game. The Paraguayans, however, did not look like a side that can withstand a bigger challenge from the likes of Spain. Gerardo Martino has a lot of thinking to do ahead of the big clash with the Spanish giants.
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