Paraguay national football team
The Paraguayan national football team is the football variety of Paraguay and is led by the National Football Association Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol.
The jersey colors of the national team are red and white ( jersey) and blue ( shorts and socks).
History
The beginnings (1906-1930)
Shortly after the football in Paraguay had been made known by the Dutch William Paats, 1906, the League Paraguaya de Futbol (today Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol ). In 1910, the first national team played in the match against the Argentine club Hércules of Corrientes. This game was preceded by an invitation of the Argentine Association. The game ended 0-0.
Due to the high number of invitations to friendly matches and tournaments of the Paraguayan Football Association decided to establish an official national team. 1919 Invitation to the 1921 Campeonato Sudamericano was adopted. In the same year, the first official international match Paraguay took place. Opponent was Argentina and they won 5-1.
Due to the participation in the Copa América in 1925, the Association joined FIFA.
At the Copa America Paraguay surprised by the team defeated the three-time winner of the tournament Uruguay in the first game 2-1. After two defeats against Argentina and Brazil, the Paraguayan national team finished her first international tournament in last place.
Paraguay in 1930 participated in the first World Cup. In Uruguay, the team met with the United States and Belgium. After a 0-3 defeat against the Americans Paraguay won against Belgium 1-0. Since then ascended only the group winners in the knockout phase, at this point the tournament for the South Americans had ended.
On the two following World Championships, the team did not participate in the qualification.
The first results (1930-1970)
The following Copa América tournaments in 1929, 1947 and 1949 Paraguay showed very good performance.
The national team was in 1950 automatically qualified for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, as the national teams of Peru and Ecuador had been canceled. During the World Cup finals Paraguay played against Sweden and Italy, India had earlier canceled participation. Against the Swedes played Paraguay 2-2 in their final group game against Italy. the team lost 0-2.
1953 could be won with the Campeonato Sudamericano 1953 in Peru the first international tournament. Paraguay finished the tournament with equal points with Brazil on and won the decider for the title 3-2.
For the Soccer World Cup in 1954, the Ablirroja could not qualify. 1957 Paraguay managed to qualify for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. In the deciding game, the favored Uruguay was beaten 5-0.
In the first game against France, the South Americans led the meantime even 3-2, lost the game but end up with 3:7. After a 3-2 victory over Scotland and a draw against Yugoslavia, the team only reached the third place in the group. Juan Bautista Agüero scored two goals in the tournament for Paraguay. In addition to Aguero, who later played at FC Sevilla and Real Madrid, also other players in the team, which made the jump to Europe were.
Nevertheless, no one managed to qualify for the next World Cup in Chile in 1962.
More influence in South America (1970-1990)
Paraguay was in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century did not qualify for a World Cup, but the success in South America made from a strong opponent of the team in South America. 1979 was the Copa America and won with Club Olimpia, the country had a strong football club who could win the Copa Libertadores in the same year.
Important players in the period were Romerito, Carlos Alberto gravels, Alicio Solalinde, Roberto Paredes, Hugo Ricardo Talavera and Eugenio Morel.
After 28 years, Paraguay has for the first time again qualify for a world championship. The Football World Cup 1986 was held in Mexico. The Guaraní sat in qualifying in the last round against Colombia and Chile. In Mexico, the team played in the first round against Mexico, Belgium and Iraq. In the first game you could beat the Iraqi national team. Against Mexico and Belgium they reached a draw each. Romerito and Roberto Cabañas scored in the first round all the hits. With a second place in group for the first time could be achieved in the knockout stages of a World Cup. But Paraguay lost 0-3 to England.
The golden generation (1990-2006)
After the first success in the World Cup to get over the first round also, did not make Paraguay to qualify in the following preliminaries for the World Cup (1990 and 1994).
1992 won the South American qualifying tournament for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The team finished second in their group, but failed in the quarterfinals of Ghana.
During this time, played a lot of young players in the national team. Carlos Gamarra, Celso Ayala, José Luis Chilavert and Francisco Arce were the new generation of football players in Paraguay. They were also named as the Golden Generation.
This generation made it in the coming years that the Albirroja successfully participated in three World Cups, scoring in the South American tournaments always among the top favorites. Paraguay has one of the best teams in South America.
With the Football World Cup 1998 could be said in the group against Spain, Nigeria and Bulgaria. In the second round, the team lost to eventual champions France 0-1. In the extension Laurent Blanc scored the golden goal. Carlos Gamarra, Celso Ayala, and goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert were nominated for the All-Star Team of the tournament.
With the Football World Cup 2002 Paraguay also failed in the second round. The German national team defeated the South Americans 1-0. Goal scorer Oliver Neuville ( 88 minutes )
At the 2006 World Cup, the Albirroja failed in the first round to Sweden and England.
The presence
After the soccer World Cup in 2006, the then coach Anibal Ruiz resigned. Raul Vicente Amarilla took over the post of interim head coach. 2007, the Argentine Gerardo Martino became the new coach of the Guaraní.
In the Copa America was reached in recent years, almost always have a place in the top eight. At the last Copa America in 2007, the team failed to Mexico in the quarterfinals 6-0.
After many players of the golden generation as Carlos Gamarra, Francisco Arce, Celso Ayala and José Luis Chilavert declared their resignation, the country needed new hope for the next few years. This they found in the Paraguayan U-19 national team, which had won in 2002, 2003 and 2006, the international youth tournament Milk Cup in Northern Ireland.
Players like Nelson Valdez, Julio dos Santos, José Montiel and Óscar Cardozo were the new key players on the team. The new National Team 2009 finished the CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2010 third place from. Even world champion Brazil was defeated 2-0. In the preliminary round of the World Cup Paraguay occupied after a win against Slovakia and two draws against Italy and New Zealand the first place and met in the second round on Japan. After the regular time and extra time ended without a goal, had for the first time at the World Cup in South Africa, the decision on penalties fall. In this Paraguay won 5-3. It was the first victory in a penalty shootout for Paraguay after being previously inferior to two penalty kicks in the Copa América. This was the first time Paraguay in the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time and there were four South American teams in the last eight of the tournament. In a dramatic match against Spain, in the course of 2 minutes both teams were awarded a penalty and fired, Paraguay lost with 0:1.
First time in 2011 succeeded in moving into a single final of the Copa América. Here come Paraguay in the tournament only two victories, both on penalties. The group stage was survived by three draws as one of the two best third. In the quarter and semi-finals were played respectively 0-0 and won the two resulting penalty shootout, the first of 2-0 against Brazil. In the final against Uruguay Paraguay was then but a chance and lost with 0:3.
In qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 the national team failed the last one in the South American group with only twelve points ( Uruguay reached with 25 points, the play-off game).
Participation in World Cup Soccer Championships
Paraguay participated in seven World Cup finals. Several times it was eliminated in the qualification, including once against the eventual champions. Since then, the South American qualifiers will be played in the league system between all South American CONMEBOL members, Paraguay could still qualify. So far the team but did not make it past the quarter-finals. Here, Paraguay lost three times in the knockout round with 0-1, including two against the eventual champions France and Spain, and in 2002 against the eventual runners-up Germany. In 2010, Paraguay was able to assert, among other things against the reigning world champions Italy in the group stage.
Participation in the Copa America
Most games
Scorer
José Saturnino Cardozo is since September 5, 2001 Top scorer when he in the match against Bolivia 's record of Saturnino Arrúa and Julio César Romero first hired his goals 13 and 14 and then surpassed. On July 9, 2011 Roque Santa Cruz made the 2-2 draw with Brazil in the Copa América his record of 25 goals and surpassed him on June 7, 2013 when he at 1:2 in World Cup qualifier against Chile in the 89th minute the first goal scored.
Coach
( incomplete)
International matches against German -speaking national football teams
So far there have been no games against Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
- List of international matches of the Paraguayan national football team