World Cup
2010-06-29 - Paraguay vs Japan
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football: FIFA World Cup: Round of last 16
Venue: Loftus Versfeld , Tshwane/Pretoria
Tuesday 29th June 2010 – Kickoff time: 15:00 GMT
Paraguay (FIFA rank: 31)
After a successful qualification campaign from South America and a solid run in their group F which ended in winning it and sending world champions Italy home, Paraguay will be fully confident of progressing through to the quarter finals of the World Cup for the first time.
Paraguay topped their group after opening the campaign with a 1-1 draw against champions Italy. Antolin Alcaraz put Paraguay one up just before the break but Italy equalised on the hour mark.
Their second game was more comfortable, Paraguay cruised to a comfortable win over Slovakia, with goals from Enrique Vera and Cristian Riveros sealing the victory. They finished the group stages with a goalless draw against New Zealand, who ended up drawing all three games and finished the tournament without a defeat.
Paraguay was known as a defensively weak side but coach Gerardo Martino has appeared to have sorted out those problems as they only conceded one goal in the group stage, after a huge error made by their goalkeeper. They look very comfortable in possession, passing the ball well and have some strikers like Cardoso, Santa Cruz or Barrios who can do a lot of damage to any defense.
Antolin Alcaraz and Jonathan Santana, who missed their team's final group game through injury, returned to training on Saturday ahead of their last-16 clash against Japan. Central defender Alcaraz, who scored in the 1-1 draw with Italy, suffered an ankle injury against Slovakia and missed the 0-0 draw with New Zealand, while midfielder Santana sat out the game with a leg muscle problem.
Midfielder Victor Caceres is suspended after picking up a second yellow card in the draw against New Zealand.
Probable line-up:
Bonet – da Silva – Alcaraz – Morel
Barreto – Vera – Riveiros
Santa Cruz – Nelson Valdez – Barrios
Japan (FIFA rank: 45)
Before the tournament, Japan had never won a World Cup finals game abroad but after Keisuke Honda's goal against Cameroon in their opening game, the Japanese haven't looked back. They narrowly lost to Holland in their second game, before a convincing 3-1 win over Denmark booked their place in the last 16.
Their coach Takeshi Okada stated before the tournament that he expected nothing less than a place in the semi finals of the World Cup. Most people laughed when hearing that but they proved everyone wrong by showing a completely different side to the one that was in such dreadful form coming into the tournament and they qualified in style for the second round in after an impressive victory in their last group stage game against Denmark despite they only needed a draw.
Keisuke Honda was once again their star player in the win over the Danes scoring a stunning freekick, and he will be the key to any success against Paraguay. The CSKA Moscow midfielder is earning great reviews so far in South Africa, and it would be surprising if he is still playing in Russia come the end of the summer transfer window.
Japan are organized at the back, and they can fall into defensive mode quite easily, as they look to endure games. However, when they have the time and space to put together a few passes, then it is a different matter altogether. They proved to be quite dangerous going forward.
Okada have a full squad to choose from, the only question is if he will replace Okubo from the starting 11 as he disappointed so far in the tournament, failing to score.
Probable line-up:
Komano – Nakazawa – Tanaka – Nagamoto
Abe – Hasebe – Endo
Matsui – Okubo
Honda
Head to head
Paraguay and Japan have officially faced each other six times in the past and Paraguay are slightly in front.
2 – Wins – 1
3 – Draws – 3
1 – Losses – 2
7 – Goals For – 4
4 – Goals Against – 7
