Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro said on Thursday his players had already achieved something special by ending the country’s 16-year World Cup \u200babsence, but added that they are here to compete rather than \u200csimply celebrate their return to the tournament.<\/p>\n
Paraguay face co-hosts the United States in their opening Group D match on Friday, marking the South Americans’ first World Cup appearance since 2010.<\/p>\n
“In my \u200bview they have already won,” Alfaro said of his players at a \u200bpre-match news conference on the eve of the game.<\/p>\n
“After 16 years \u2060they qualified when it seemed impossible, when there was no hope.”<\/p>\n
The Argentine added \u200bthat the team had restored the connection with the fans.<\/p>\n
“They’ve recovered Paraguay’s DNA.”<\/p>\n
While acknowledging \u200bthe emotion surrounding Paraguay’s return, Alfaro stressed that his squad’s ambitions extend beyond merely taking part.<\/p>\n
“We are not here just to be part of the World Cup,” he said. “We’re here to compete.”<\/p>\n
Alfaro \u200bexpected the opening test to be difficult, with the United States playing on \u200bhome soil under coach Mauricio Pochettino.<\/span><\/p>\n “Of course it is complex to face one of the hosts,” \u200cAlfaro \u2060said, pointing to the quality of their opponents’ European-based players.<\/p>\n Paraguay would need to show concentration and discipline, he added, especially against a U.S. side who were dangerous from set pieces.<\/p>\n Paraguay also received encouraging signs regarding the fitness of Strasbourg winger Julio \u200bEnciso, who is \u200brecovering from an \u2060injury suffered shortly before the tournament.<\/p>\n “Julio is doing very well,” Alfaro said, adding that he had followed the required steps in \u200bhis recovery and would continue to be assessed before a \u200bdecision is \u2060made on his availability. As anticipation builds ahead of Paraguay’s long-awaited \u2060return to \u200bthe World Cup, Alfaro said he had urged \u200bhis players to stay calm as they counted down the final hours before kick-off. –Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21698,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-36894","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Alfaro \u200bexpected the opening test to be difficult.","published_date":"","news_description":"Alfaro \u200bexpected the opening test to be difficult.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36913,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36894\/revisions\/36913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAlfaro said the squad, and the country, wanted Enciso to be ready, and suggested he would start if fit.<\/p>\n
\n“We waited 16 years,” \u200bhe said. “We can wait one more day.”<\/p>\n