England vs Paraguay 1-0

A 1-0 victory was good enough for England to get 3 points. However, the match left the English asking more questions about their team than being particularly happy. Paraguay isn’t the strongest of sides. England creeped to victory rather than having a convincing performance. Any thing can happen in football but I don’t see England causing a serious threat in the competition if they don’t improve on the pitch drastically.

Sweden vs Trinidad and Tobago 0-0

The Soca Warriors are celebrating. 10 men Trinidad and Tobago have held off Sweden. Sweden dominated possession. Sweden attacked a lot. However, they hit very few shots on target and nothing materialised into goals. There was the very good defending by T and T and the excellent keeping by Shaka Hislop. It is all about scoring goals though. Maybe Sweden should not have kept that extra man marking Stern John and had attacked more. The English will be very happy with this result. It makes qualifying for them a lot easier!

Argentina vs Côte d’Ivoire 2-1

The match was expected to, and produced, the best match of the tournament so far. The pace was faster than any thing we have seen in the tournament. There was controversy as well when the ball crossed the line (looked like that to me at least) but the referee did not give a goal to Argentina early on. That did not matter as Argentina scored two more. Drogba pulled one back to make things exciting in the last 10 minutes. Ivory Coast have a lot of talent and would have easily qualified in most other groups. It can still be possible as they can give Holland a run for their money.

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For part 22 of the series, Paraguayan lawyer Daniel Brunetti (who is blogging at Paraguay World Cup Blog) joins us. Currently, he is finishing his masters degree at Georgetown University in Washington DC. But what Daniel really is, is a football addict fan. His priorities goes first the national team of Paraguay and second his club Olimpia. For more on Daniel, check out his profile at World Cup Blog.

I thank Daniel for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Paraguay football history and the football culture which exists.

In Paraguay you don’t feel the football, you breathe it. The football is the number one sport of the nation. In each neighbourhood there are at least one football field, and even if you don’t have a near field, every place could transform it in a huge stadium for the people. We have two big teams down there, Olimpia (Libertadores Cup Champions, 1979, 1990, 2001) and Cerro Porteno. They are like the Boca-River of Argentina. But when it comes to cheer for the national team, all the people put on the national shirts.

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