Berlin: Paraguay 0 - Sweden 1

What a day. Thrilling. Exciting. Disappointing. Excruciating. I spent all day at my cousin's place, gathering my energy for the big night: Paraguay - Sweden. When it was finally time to leave for the game around 4pm, I was ready. I'd borrowed a camiseta albirroja from my friend Christian, and took the train to meet with Christian, Paul, Stefan, and Tanya (friends of Christian). Together we boarded the U2 train stadium-bound.

After arriving at the stadium station, we were amazed and astonished at the sea of blue and yellow that awaited us. Swedish fans outnumbered us by about 10 to 1 (if not more!), but we proudly walked around, showing our red, white, and blue colours.

We bought some bratwurst, drank a beer, and entered the stadium. Here's the sight that awaited us inside:

However, we were seated right among the small throngs of Paraguay fans, which was quite a consolation. There's security in numbers.....

The game itself was brilliant. A hard-fought battle between two good teams. The Swedes played good, attacking futbol, while the albirrojas played equally aggressive and skillfully. Both teams had some really good chances to score, but in the end it turned out to be a low scoring game: 1 - 0. The oh-so-disappointing thing is that in the end, the Swedes scored and we didn't. What made things worse, they scored in the 89th minute. A 0 - 0 tie would have kept hope alive for passage to the second round: a tie tonight and a win against Trinidad on the 20th (coupled with a Sweden loss to England) would've seen us through to the next round, but now that we've lost the first two games, we're out. Just like that.

Well, at least the team fought valiantly. They really are a talented team, and it's unfortunate that this is the way things have turned out. Two 1-0 losses: both in games that we could just as well have tied or even won, for that matter.

Highlights: Julio Dos Santos, Nelson Haedo Valdez, and Paredes. Those three played excellent.

On the 20th I'm going to Kaiserslautern to see Paraguay - Trinidad & Tobago. Even though Paraguay is out of the tournament, the atmosphere at the games is such that the games are definitely worth attending. I look forward to it. Below are some more pictures of tonight.

Stefan, Christian, Paul, and Tanya:

Christian & Cub:

Paul & Cub:

One more thing: the Swedish fans are great. They were proud to wear their colours, without insulting anyone not wearing their colours. This is more than can be said of the English.....

Today's WM scores:
Ecuador 3 - Costa Rica 0
England 2 - Trinidad & Tobago 0
Paraguay 0 - Sweden 1