Paraguay: Copa America Final

July 22nd, 2011 | by: Victor | Comments Off

Before the World Cup, I was convinced Paraguay could win the title. Why not? We qualified comfortably several matches ahead of the end and even had the opportunity to qualify in first place. The strongest South American teams are always highly regarded and that is exactly what we were on the eve of the World Cup. I worked out the fixture ahead of time and realized we could meet Brazil or Spain in the quarterfinals. I hoped to meet Brazil since I knew we could intimidate and defeat them if our paths crossed. We met Spain and fell out.

We had a very good World Cup. We frightened Italy, properly beat Slovakia, and struggled with New Zealand. We ran into Japan in the Round of 16 and predictably went through them as well (that would have been a horrible upset for us). We had an epic quarterfinal match against Spain which was probably one of the best matches of the tournament. It had a little bit of everything including luck and injustice. Nelson Haedo was incorrectly disallowed a goal in the first half and Oscar Cardozo failed to convert a penalty minutes before the end of the game. Eventually, Spain scored and we were out. In short, we had the EVENTUAL World Champions on their knees but failed to deliver the finishing stroke. This defeat demonstrated we were at the level of the World Champions and had we gone through, I’m sure we would have taken everybody else out of the tournament. How has this been so easily forgotten?

I am absolutely amazed by how much credit Uruguay has been given before the Copa America. A lot of this credit rides on their semifinal run in South Africa last year, which for me was very “lucky”. They didn’t face a big European team until the semifinals. Exaggerating a little bit, they were administratively dealt with by the Dutch. They were down 3-1 almost the entire second half. While we deserved or were close to defeating the eventual World Champions, Uruguay was pretty quickly dismissed by the Netherlands, who DID NOT win the title. Can you see why I think Paraguay has more credit than Uruguay?

It is clear to me the historical powers of South America are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, in that order. But since 1998, only Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay have been going regularly to every World Cup. We have gotten ahead of Uruguay in World Cup attendances and I am also convinced we were a better team in South Africa last year.

Favorites for Copa America.

Hearing that Brazil and Argentina were favorites for the title was fine with me. I also accepted hearing Uruguay in this group since getting to the semifinal is a great achievement no matter how lucky they were. But I find it flat out insulting when the media names Chile or even Colombia ahead of Paraguay. Chile was destroyed by Spain in the World Cup and Colombia hasn’t been on the world stage in over twenty years!

Today only the real candidates remain on their feet. Even though we have not had the best quarterfinal and semifinal games in this Copa America, we deserve and have earned the position we are in. I heard they compared us to Greece 2004 today. What has Greece ever done over a period of twenty years to be given such a great compliment!!!

We are digging in for the final, and our warriors are ready for the final battle cry. On Sunday we will see what Uruguay is really made of.

Vamos Albirroja Querida!!!