Paraguay proud despite losing

Whilst the quarter final stage of the World Cup ended with celebration for Germany, Netherlands, Uruguay and Spain and devastation for Ghana, Brazil and Argentina, for Paraguay it was a case of mixed feelings.

The disparity in world rankings between the South Americans and their opponents was far from obvious last night as they put up a brave fight before the tournament’s top scorer David Villa eventually took the Spaniards to a semi-final encounter with Germany, with his fifth goal of the tournament.

Afterwards, a smiling Roque Santa Cruz told Soccernews.com that his team would cherish the fact that they qualified for their first ever World Cup quarter final for a long time to come. “The performance we showed in the World Cup is a fantastic achievement and the fact that we qualified for the first time for the quarter finals is something that we’re all going to remember forever,” he said.

“Of course we are disappointed,” he added. “But I think the fact that we performed that good is clearly giving us the mood to show our faces. We can go with our chins up because we performed great today.”

Paraguay’s 2010 World Cup journey did not remind him of France ’98 or Korea/Japan 2002 where they were knocked out in the Round of 16 stage, he said.

“I think it’s different. This time we believed that our squad was strong enough to keep going and to get into the semi finals,” he said. “The feeling is much different I think – not only for the players but also for the people in Paraguay; the disappointment is there, but I think that everybody is very proud of their national team.”
“We are very proud to be part of this national team and to perform the way we did,” he concluded.

[Fatima Asmal for SoccerNews.com]