Match Report: Paraguay 1 – North Korea 0

May 17th, 2010 | by: Victor | View Comments

Paraguay defeated North Korea in a low-intensity international friendly match on May 15th. Paraguay controlled most of the game and started picking up the pace in the second half when it looked like the game was going to end in a draw. Still, Korea had at least two clear goal scoring opportunities while we were denied by the goal post twice.

At about the 85th minute, the referee harshly awarded Paraguay a penalty kick after some innocent ball handling by North Korea. Roque Santa Cruz struck the ball beautifully to give Paraguay the late winner.

Martino stated he found this game valuable for two reasons. First, it was an opportunity for those that don’t play regularly at their clubs to do so and second, to help choose the players that will be dropped from the 30-man list. All countries go the World Cup with a maximum of 23 players.

Paraguay started with the following players:

Diego Barreto
Marcos Caceres, Julio Cesar Caceres, Paulo Da Silva, Aureliano Torres
Enrique Vera, Carlos Bonet, Eduardo Ledesma, Marcelo Estigarribia
Roque Santa Cruz, and Jorge Achucarro.

Marcos Caceres, Paulo Da Silva, and Roque Santa Cruz are the ones who hadn’t played 90 minutes in a long time. Similarly, Marcos Caceres, Marcelo Estigarribia, Jorge Achucarro, and maybe even Eduardo Ledesma have more convincing to do if they are to go to the World Cup. These players have been involved little in the qualifying process.

Our next game will be against Ireland of the 25th of this month. I may be able to show the game right here so check back in a couple of days.

Fuerza Albirrroooooja!!

Paraguay having some fun in preparation of the game.