It is a great day today, a day of celebration.
This is, of course, because of the great win over Slovakia today, by Paraguay, but more importantly, today is Father's Day. I am very blessed to have a Father who deeply loves and cares for his family, and for that I am very grateful. I imagine that at home, there was a great celebration of this special day today, with a wonderful meal prepared by mom. Happy Father´s Day, dad!
After a hearty breakfast at the guesthouse today, Christian and I made our way towards the stadium on foot. The game began at 1:30pm, but we didn't go to the stadium directly, because we first wanted to see the birthplace of the great writer J. R. R. Tolkien, seen in the picture below:
Afterwards, we went through the waterfront area, straight to the stadium. Here are some pictures of the great win tonight. Before the game, the lineups and national anthems:
A free kick for the good guys:
Celebrating the first goal:
Except for a 20 minute spell in the second half, Paraguay played a very good game: strategically and tactically right on. Noteworthy were the presence of Roque Santa Cruz up front - he won virtually every head ball, he makes such a difference when he plays in the seleccion - the sturdy and reliable defense - Antolin Alcaraz is such a solid rock back there - and finally, that goals came not from forwards, but from the midfield, Enrique Vera and Cristian Riveros.
After the game, it was the locals who showed us how to celebrate! They danced and sang, as if their own team had won. I guess it's true that Africans use whatever they can - absolutely anything - as an excuse to celebrate. It was loud, boisterous, and very very African.
I believe Paraguay will win group F, beating New Zealand in the last group game. This will be good because we can then avoid playing Holland in the 2nd round, playing instead either Denmark or Japan. It doesn't really matter which of the two we play - we'll beat them both - but Japan will be more difficult, so I hope we play Denmark.
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