Brazil’s decline once again underlined. One more tournament, yet another failure, by their historically stratospheric standards. Their exit at the hands of Paraguay continues their litany of broken dreams. Led by former Rovers and Man City striker Roque Santa Cruz, the Guarani became the latest to humiliate the South American giants.
Robinho’s first half goal swept into the corner after Roberto Firmino relayed a Dani Alves cross provided Brazil with a sliver of hope they could pull this off in regulation time. On resumption the Paraguayans with Santa Cruz were a constant menace on set pieces winning monstrous headers to keep Jefferson very busy. The Brazilians seemed to lose steam and their decision to sit back proved costly.
Late in the second half, Thiago Silva handled the ball in the box under pressure again from Santa Cruz. Derlis Gonzalez buried the spot kick. After extra time it was left to the penalty shootout which the Paraguayans won as Gonzalez made no mistake stroked in the winning penalty after Santa Cruz spurned his chance at heroics blasting the ball over. Under pressure, Brazil cracked with Everton Rebeiro completely missing the target while Douglas Costa skied the ball over the crossbar. This was history repeating itself as Paraguay had done the same four years earlier to Brazil in the quarterfinals.
The Guarani are a team with Santa Cruz the emotional leader. They counterattacked down the flanks, were an aerial threat on corners, and well organized on defense when the Brazilians did decide to attack. The Seleccao were a group of individuals masquerading as a team except without Neymar, they were robbed of that individuality that could make the difference.