South American History in the Making

Images by El Universo

After 120 minutes without scoring any goals and not enough brightness, the penalty kicks was present before a thousand fans in Pretoria to witness Paraguay catapulting into the quartefinals for the first time in the history of the South American country. Paraguay beat Japan 5 - 3 in the definition of penalty kicks after the draw 0 - 0 that both teams showed during the first and second half as well the added extra time. Both teams lacked to show the advantage of the opportunities to score, one that it seemed very difficult to achieve from both sides. Japan's defender Yuichi Komano striked the ball in the net post, in the third penalty shot from Japan, which permitted Paraguayan player Oscar Cardozo to finish and sentence the team into the quarterfinals. With this result, Paraguay will now face the difficult task against Spain, which beat Portugal with a single goal from Barcelona's David Villa.

Paraguay played with much heart and determination, but it lacked the opportunities of scoring a single goal, it was more of mere soccer exploiting in the field than scoring, but all in all Paraguay was mostly the protagonist of the match. Both teams managed to take advantage to liquidate the game, but there were several occassions were both teams showed a higher power over each other playing them equally in their level. The best chance was in the 97 minute, when Nelson Haedo Valdez, attempted a long shot, but luckily Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima managed a great save from the Japanese to losing to the Paraguayans. Japan made several attacks, but in the 116 minute, there was a counterattack from the Asian nation, but at the last touch it dissolved due to the fact that most of the Paraguayans were to defend the net from the Japanese to score. Japan had a lack of precision when it came about attacking and shooting on targets.

Salvador Cabañas, did not play the World Cup due to the fact that the Paraguayan player suffered a shot in the head on January of this year, but the striker is present within the team which gives them full motivation into moving forward in this tournament. With Paraguay advancing to the quarterfinals, South America makes history to put 4 teams thus far in this tournament.