Country : Paraguay
Paraguay
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Nickname: Guaranies, La Albirroja (White and red)
FIFA Rankings : 31
Captain: Denis Caniza
Head Coach: Gerardo Martino
Paraguay have established themselves as one of the top teams of south America during the recent years. This is their fourth consecutive world cup campaign . Recent performances by Paraguay have been strong in all competitions having won the silver medal at the Athens Olympics and getting out of the group stages on more than one occasion ( 1998 & 2002 ) .
The players playing for most of the 90’s and early part of the new millennium were regarded as the golden generation of Paraguay football. The most notable among them have been the versatile goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert. He has always been famous for not only saving the team by his excellent goalkeeping but also scoring important goals via freekicks. The golden generation included
Gerardo Martino
players like Carlos Gamarra, Celso Ayala, José Luis Chilavert, Francisco Arce and José Cardozo forming a team that brought many plaudits to the nation .
Paraguay have been highly consistent during the world cup qualifying campaign finishing just 1 point behind brazil and leading the table for most of the time . The pre world cup campaign however have been a mixture of good and bad results with winning against Greece , drawing against Ivory Coast and losing to Ireland .
The main players who will have a major role to play are :
Nelson Haedo Valdez: Not a very famous player but a neat, fast and effective striker with great aerial play. Having played club football in Germany for many years, he would be a handy player for Paraguay .
Roque Santa Cruz : A versatile striker who can tear apart any defense on his day, he is one of the most important players of the team . Having plied his trade in many countries, his experience would be useful .
Lucas Barrios
Lucas Barrios: Despite often cutting an ungainly figure, he is a deadly penalty box predator, always sniffing around for a half-chance. In 2008/09 campaign, he netted an amazing 37 goals in 38 games for Chilean side Colo Colo and added 19 more this season for new German club Dortmund, leaving him in third-place in the Bundesliga scoring charts.
Denis Caniza : The captain has a major role to play during the world cup . He can play in any part of the defence adding to the options of the head coach .
Claudio Rodriguez : This highly-talented utility player is capable of five-star performances in a range of positions: left-back, left or central midfield and in central defence, where despite a certain lack of inches, he still gets the job done.
Enrique Vera : A good midfielder with an eye for long range shooting.
Jonathan Santana : A creative midfielder whose services are much needed .
How will they fare: Paraguay are in a relatively easy group with only Italy as the major footballing force in the group . With both Slovakia and New Zealand entering the world cup after a long gap (Slovakia is making their debut) , it wont be much difficult for them to enter into the knockout rounds. But with the prospects of facing Netherlands in the knockout round , they should be aiming for the top place finish by beating Italy who have not been impressive either .
Author’s Prediction: Knockout rounds with an outside chance for the quarter finals.
