Brazil-Paraguay Preview

Brazil v. Paraguay
June 10, 2009, 8:50 P.M. Eastern
Estádio José do Rego Maciel, Capacity 60,444
Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Brazil triumphantly returns home to play Paraguay in the Northeastern city of Recife. There will a change to the Brazil lineup due to Luis Fabiano’s suspension for two yellow cards yesterday. It’s hard to tell what Dunga will do as Pato and Nilmar are his other options at forward. What he should do is give Pato a well deserved start.

In the two nations’ last meeting in June ‘08 Paraguay crushed a poor and pathetic Brazil side in Asunción. Paraguay scored on goals by Roque Santa Cruz and Salvador Cabañas. Brazil was dominated in every aspect of the match, and there is only one direction to go from that performance.

Paraguay is coming off a somewhat surprising 2-0 loss at home to Chile. They were without star forward Roque Santa Cruz who is recovering from injury and questionable for Wednesday’s match. Overall their record is 7-3-3 putting them second in the qualifying table with 24 points, behind Brazil because of goal differential. However, the road has not treated Paraguay well, as they have one win, with three draws and three losses. That lone win was at Colombia.

Brazil: Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Gomes (Tottenham Hotspur), Victor (Gremio), Maicon (Inter Milan), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Miranda (Sao Paulo), Juan (AS Roma), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Luisao (Benfica), Kleber (Internacional), Andre Santos (Corinthians), Kleberson (Flamengo), Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos), Josue (VfL Wolfsburg), Ramires (Cruzeiro), Elano (Manchester City), Felipe Melo (Fiorentina), Julio Baptista (AS Roma), Kaka (AC Milan). Alexandre Pato (AC Milan), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Internacional), Robinho (Manchester City).

Paraguay: Justo Villar (Real Valladolid), Aldo Bobadilla (Independiente Medellin), Diego Barreto (Sol de America), Dario Veron (Pumas UNAM), Julio Cesar Caceres (Boca Juniors), Julio Cesar Manzur (Libertad), Carlos Bonet (Libertad), Pedro Benitez (Tigres UANL), Denis Caniza (Olimpia),
Enrique Vera (America), Edgar Barreto (Reggina), Osvaldo Martinez (Monterrey), Cristian Riveros (Cruz Azul), Jonathan Santana (San Lorenzo), Victor Caceres (Libertad), Eduardo Ledesma (Lanus),
Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn Rovers), Nelson Haedo (Borussia Dortmund), Salvador Cabanas (America, Mexico), Oscar Cardozo (Benfica), Edgar Benitez (Pachuca)

Projected Starting XI: Julio Cesar, Kleber, Juan, Lucio, Dani Alves, Elano, Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Kaka, Robinho, Pato

Prediction: Brazil 3 – Paraguay 1