History of the Paraguay national football team
When the 1921 Copa América finally arrived, Paraguay surprised everybody by beating then three-time South American champions Uruguay by 2–1, being this the first match in an official competition for the Paraguayan football team.
Players such as Romerito, Carlos Alberto Kiese, Alicio Solalinde, Roberto Paredes, Hugo Ricardo Talavera and Eugenio Morel where an important part of the team, coached by Ranulfo Miranda.
[3] Paraguay ended a 28-year absence from the World Cup in 1986 with a team starring Roberto Fernández in goal; Cesar Zabala, Rogelio Delgado and Juan Bautista Torales in defence; Jorge Amado Nunes and Vladimiro Schettina in midfield; midfield playmaker Romerito and strikers Roberto Cabañas, Ramón Ángel María Hicks and Rolando Chilavert (the older brother of José Luis Chilavert).
The squad featured experienced players such as Celso Ayala, Carlos Gamarra, Roberto Acuña, Catalino Rivarola and national team captain José Luís Chilavert, who all had at least 40 appearances to their name.
Paraguay were drawn into Group D, alongside Bulgaria, who had finished in fourth place in 1994; Nigeria, which featured gold medalists from the 1996 Summer Olympics and players from 1994; and also Spain, who had made it to the second round stage at the last four previous World Cups.
Paraguayan–Uruguayan Ever Hugo Almeida had been named by the Paraguayan Football Association was head coach of the national team, selecting a relatively experienced squad for the competition, with the majority of the players having been present at the 1998 World Cup one year earlier.
Regarded as prospect for Paraguayan football, prior to the commencement of the competition, Santa Cruz scored his first international goal for Paraguay in a 3–2 friendly match defeat against Uruguay on 17 June at the Estadio Antonio Oddone Sarubbi in Ciudad del Este.
Controversially, goalkeeper José Luís Chilavert demonstrated humble leader ship after refusing to participate at the tournament, complaining bitterly about the incompetence of the local directors and despite being officially honored by the latest government, he believed his country should have invested money in education rather than football.
On 15 November 2000, Paraguay defeated Peru 5–1 at home in Round 10, with goals coming from Santa Cruz, Cardozo and Paredes, and also José Luís Chilavert, who had converted a penalty in the 83rd minute.
Italian coach Cesare Maldini, would also take with him Diego Gavilán, Julio César Cáceres, Nelson Cuevas, Carlos Bonet and Justo Villar to the tournament, young players in their early twenties who had ideally been brought into the squad to make way after the near future retirements of José Luis Chilavert, Ricardo Tavarelli, Francisco Arce, Celso Ayala, Estanislao Struway and Guido Alvarenga.
On 12 June, the two sides faced each other at the Jeju World Cup Stadium, which saw Carlos Humberto Paredes receive his second yellow card in the 22nd minute and Paraguay eventually conceded a goal just as the first half concluded.
[25] On 10 June 2013, it was reported that José Luís Chilavert had stated that Roque Santa Cruz had pretended to be injured in order to miss the match against Germany at the round of 16 stage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Experienced defender, Carlos Gamarra, who at the time was playing for Inter Milan, was one of a small amount oversea's based footballers, with most of the squad's players tied to clubs of the Primera División Paraguaya.
The competition was also Nelson Haedo Valdez's first major tournament for the Albirroja, the SV Werder Bremen striker had been present for Paraguay U20 at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship one year earlier, alongside Edgar Barreto and Julio dos Santos.
In Round 15 on 8 June, Paraguay defeated Bolivia 4–1 at home, with goals coming from Carlos Gamarra, Roque Santa Cruz, Julio César Cáceres and Jorge Martín Núñez.
Paraguay's national squad underwent a major transition after Germany 2006 because of the retirement of key players such as Carlos Gamarra, Francisco Arce, Celso Ayala, and goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert.
Paraguay's under-20 side had won the Milk Cup in 2002, 2003 and 2006, and players such as Nelson Haedo, Aureliano Torres, Cristian Riveros, Julio dos Santos, José Montiel, Édgar Barreto and Óscar Cardozo were thought key to the re-building of the team.
Gerardo Martino took with him a relatively experienced squad to Venezuela, with Darío Verón, Claudio Morel Rodríguez, Carlos Bonet, Julio Manzur, Paulo da Silva, Aureliano Torres, Roque Santa Cruz and captain Julio César Cáceres all re-appearing for the national team, and newcomers Enrique Vera, Óscar Cardozo and the Argentine-born Jonathan Santana were appearing for Paraguay in their first major tournaments.
[35] With both Paraguay and Argentina having obtained six points and qualifying from beyond their Group C, the two teams faced in their last group stage fixture with a less strengthened side, Roque Santa Cruz, Édgar Barreto, Cristian Riveros and Paolo da Silva all commencing on the bench as Nelson Cuevas would gain his first appearance of the competition and Aldo Bobadilla would play a full 90-minutes of the fixture, replacing Justo Villar for the second time in the tournament.
[47] Paraguay had been trailing 2–0 by half-time when Gerardo Martino made a double substitution when he brought on both Roque Santa Cruz and Nelson Valdez for Salvador Cabañas and Óscar Cardozo in the 62nd minute.
[56] Qualification was secured in the next fixture against Argentina on 9 September, when Salvador Cabañas had gone around three Argentine players and played Nelson Valdez through on goal who scored with a left footed shot in the 27th minute of the first half.
In January 2010, a tragic head injury suffered in an assault forced Salvador Cabañas to abandon football for an unspecified period of time, which gave him no chance of making the final 23-man squad for South Africa 2010.
[66] Cabañas left intensive care in late February and was hoping to fully recover in time for the FIFA World Cup 2010 but was not selected for the final Paraguay squad.
In 2013, Cabañas gave his version of the incident which stated that in his opinion the attack occurred so that he would not play at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and that Paraguay would not be crowned champions of the competition.
[70][71][72] Despite experiment with young players such as Marcelo Estigarribia, who had scored in Paraguay's first 2010 friendly against South Africa on 31 March,[73] and Hernán Pérez, Paraguay had a full strength and experienced side with Roque Santa Cruz, Édgar Barreto, Carlos Bonet, Enrique Vera, Cristian Riveros, Nelson Valdez and Paulo da Silva, who were the majority of the players that featured in the tournament's qualifying campaign and were believed to have been at the best moment of their football careers.
Paraguay would face Italy in their opening group stage match and would take a 1–0 lead in the 39th minute thanks to a header from Antolín Alcaraz, who latched on to a free kick to beat Gianluigi Buffon.
Gerardo Martino included with him new players such as Marcos Cáceres, Marcelo Estigarribia, Hernán Pérez, Osvaldo Martínez, Pablo Zeballos and Iván Piris, who were all participating in their first major competition at international level.
Experienced players such as Roque Santa Cruz, Nelson Valdez, Carlos Bonet, Cristian Riveros, Paulo da Silva, Édgar Barreto and Darío Verón were included.
Argentine-born Paraguayan striker Jonathan Fabbro equalized for the Albirroja in the 17th minute after scoring a penalty, however, goals from Gonzalo Higuaín and Lionel Messi took the scoreline to 3–1 as Paraguay were defeated for the third consecutive time in the qualifiers.
[102][103] The mentioned coach, however, had already received criticism from former Albirroja great José Luís Chilavert, who stated that the team is managed with 'friendship' due to the corruption in the APF and claimed that Díaz is more of an office person.
