Offence to be Paraguay’s strategy vs USA
NEWDELHI: When it comes to South American football powerhouses, Paraguay have never really matched up to their more successful neighbours. Brazil, Argentina and Colombia have dominated proceedings for the majority of the last century while Paraguay could only manage semi-final appearances at best. However, the Latin Americans have been a dominant force at the FIFA U-17 World Cup till now and they will look to continue their winning run as they face USA in their pre-quarterfinal encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Monday.
Paraguay were one of the best offensive teams in the group stages with 10 goals to their name and thanks to their striking prowess, they finished at the top of Group B. Clubbed in a group with Mali, Turkey and New Zealand, progress to the next round could have been a tricky. But they came into the tournament with just one loss from their last 12 games and the flair shown by strikers — Anibal Vega and Antonio Galeano — meant they had the best goal difference among all the other teams in the competition at the end of the group stages.
However, the place where Paraguay have shown weakness is in their defense. The Group B leaders were not quite organised at the back and they ended up conceding five goals. But, that has been the bane for Latin American teams from time immemorial and coach Gustavo Moringo says that offence will be their best strategy.
“Our attack has been quite impressive and they have adapted well to every game. Defensively, we’ve had some issues and that is clear from the fact that we have conceded in all of our games. So, I think our strikers will be key against USA,” Moringo said ahead of the game.
MIXED BAG OF LUCK
On the other hand, USA had a mixed bag of luck in the group stages. They started well with a 3-0 win over hosts India and followed it up with a disciplined show against Ghana. But, they were completely outplayed in their last game against Colombia and the loss meant that John Hackworth’s team qualified for the knockout stages as the thirdplaced team with the most points.
“Colombia were brilliant in the last game and we were not able to get the result we wanted. But, we are concentrating on our match against another South American team and we hope that we will be able to take valuable lessons from our last defeat,” Hackworth told the media.