World Cup 2010: Paraguay Striker Oscar Cardozo Will Be Ruled Out With Injury - Agent

The agent of Benfica striker Oscar Cardozo, Pedro Aldave, has revealed the Paraguayan will most likely not feature at the World Cup.

The 27-year-old forward has been linked with an influential role for his country in South Africa after an impressive season for Benfica in which he bagged 36 goals in all competitions.

Cardozo, who sustained an ankle injury against Sporting in April, still played Benfica's final league matches and helped the club lift the league title with two goals in the last fixture against Rio Ave.

The former Newell's Old Boys player, who has reportedly been followed by Manchester City and Shakhtar Donetsk, is training seperately from the rest of the Paraguay squad and it is still unknown whether he will be fit for the World Cup.

Aldave has now blamed Benfica for Cardozo's fitness problems, saying his charge will pay the bill for "doing everything for Benfica".

"It will be hard for him to play, because playing the last four league matches required a lot of effort," he told radio station TSF.

"After the match against Sporting, he never competed again at 100 per cent, but he made a huge sacrifice for Benfica.

"I am not surprised he has not been used [by Paraguay] because the World Cup is only a few days away and he is not yet fully recovered.

"In fact, at this point it is natural that the national coach chooses another striker who is in better condition."

Herbert's warning for group rivals

Ricki Herbert claims FIFA World Cup™ group opponents Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay will underestimate New Zealand at their peril in South Africa.

The All Whites departed for the tournament on Saturday ready for their first taste of the FIFA World Cup since 1982.

After a last-gasp defeat to Australia in Melbourne, a decent build-up in Europe where they beat Serbia 1-0 and battled hard in a 3-1 loss to Slovenia, coach Herbert is left feeling buoyant about their chances.

''I think we're punching above our weight now and it's great. It's consistent. If anybody wants to take us lightly at the World Cup then good luck to them.''
says Ricki Herbert, New Zealand coach

If we can keep the percentage of chances coming and increase the percentages of those hitting the back of the net then it will certainly stand us in good stead."

Friday's defeat in Maribor highlighted areas New Zealand still need to work on - their defensive work at set-pieces and their finishing skills. Slovenia's first two goals came from excellent free-kicks by Milivoje Novakovic, while a goalkeeping blunder by Mark Paston handed Andraz Kirm a simple third.

At the other end the New Zealanders created several opportunities but only had a 20th-minute goal by Rory Fallon to their credit when the final whistle went.

"Whether they were free-kicks or not, and we can argue that, the reality is people at this level are going to punish you. We can do better there," said Herbert.

"We also just need to be much more clinical. We probably had four or five goal-scoring opportunities and we took one of them. If we can keep the percentage of chances coming and increase the percentages of those hitting the back of the net then it will certainly stand us in good stead."

New Zealand have just one training match against Chile - a game that will be played over three 30-minute periods - ahead of their opener against Slovakia on 15 June

New Zealand will today take on Chile as part of its preparations for the World cup

New Zealand lost 0-2 to Chile. Two goals within three minutes in the 2nd half were enough to seal a win for Chile.

New Zealand are going to find it very difficult in this group
the other teams will very likely earn 3 sure points off them.

^^^^
120% agreed. If New Zealand scores a goal, hmm, thats going too far. If New Zealand manages to get the ball into any of their opponents 18 yard box, that will be a huge achievement on their part.

the weakest group in my view.
Italy should get through easily.
the other three have an equal chance and whoever they meet in the 1/4 should be happy.

spot on Mbulela.

The Italians have a very easy group

its like they fixed it, nothing's impossible in mafia land

I wish Slovakia and Paraguay upsets them , cuz they will seriously deal with New Zealand,

mukina2:

spot on Mbulela.

The Italians have a very easy group

its like they fixed it, nothing's impossible in mafia land

I wish Slovakia and Paraguay upsets them , cuz they will seriously deal with New Zealand,

Italy might come out of this group in 2nd place
i've got a gut feeling about that

Italy arrive to defend World Cup title

JOHANNESBURG — Reigning champions Italy arrived in South Africa on Wednesday to defend their crown after tournament favourites Spain showed off their firepower as they scored six times in their final warm-up game.

Coach Marcello Lippi's Italian squad, which includes nine of the players in the squad which triumphed four years ago in Germany, were guarded by dozens of police after their plane touched down at Johannesburg airport.

They headed off to the Leriba Golf Lodge, just outside Pretoria, to prepare for their opening Group F match against Paraguay in Cape Town on Monday.

The Italians' arrival ups the tempo two days before Friday's big kickoff when the host nation take on Mexico in front of 90,000 spectators -- including former president Nelson Mandela -- at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium.

Italy have rarely shone since their triumph against France in the 2006 final in Berlin, but the country's football federation chief Giancarlo Abete insisted it would be a mistake to write off Lippi's squad.

"Italy are world champions, that should not be forgotten but you cannot deny that other teams have done better than us in the last few years," Abete said on the plane to South Africa.

"For everyone the favourites are Brazil, Spain, Argentina and England, but we've got great belief.

"For Italy we're talking about tradition and in big competitions our strengths show through."

But history is against the Italians -- no country has won back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.

Lippi has already lost key man Andrea Pirlo to a calf strain for the Paraguay game and the playmaker faces a race against time to be involved in any of the group games.

Slovakia will come out of this group, Italy may not make it, i say Paraguay and Slovakia

yomola:

Slovakia will come out of this group, Italy may not make it, i say Paraguay and Slovakia

I sincerely hope slovakia makes it to the finals and finish top three in the tournament. 

[s]if they win, i get to win some neat ££££ thanks to some game am playing with my colleagues at work [/s]

so for me, its slovakia all the way 

^^^
i dont know if Slovakia will make it to semis but i'm sure they'll make it out of this group even if it means the Azzuri wont make it. They are a good team and whats more, they have Marek Hamsik, an absolutely magical player

medjai:

^^^
i dont know if Slovakia will make it to semis but i'm sure they'll make it out of this group even if it means the Azzuri wont make it. They are a good team and whats more, they have Marek Hamsik, an absolutely magical player

that's very reassurring

ITALO de very strong, new NEW ZEALAND nawowo, means 3 for all. more over if PARAGUAY can get a point from ITALO , is automatically byebye to SLOVAKIA never under estimate the power of the south AMERICANS.

mukina2:

spot on Mbulela.

The Italians have a very easy group

its like they fixed it, nothing's impossible in mafia land

I wish Slovakia and Paraguay upsets them , cuz they will seriously deal with New Zealand,

Will you shut up dia. Nonsense and Ingredient

honeric01:

Don't be surprised to see Italy not make the round of 16.

Well tbh I would be suprised. Forget friendlies the azzuris don't take em' seriously.

medjai:

Apart from Di Natele and Alberto Gilardino the rest of the Azzuri's attackers have had a rather horrendous season. Vicenzo Iaquinta and the entire Juve team have been exceptionally poor. Giampaolo Pazzini and Quagliarella have been average. Di Natele was the highest goal scorer in the Serie A with 28 goals, but he finds it hard to replicate his club form for country, scoring just 5 goals in over 30 appearances. The Azzuri's might goals hard to come by but will rely on an experienced midfield with Andrea Pirlo, Genarro Gattuso, Mauro Camoranesi and Daniele De Rossi, who was exceptional with Roma. Their strong point will as usual be the defence. The defence is a blend of experience with the likes of Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Gianluca Zambrotta and youth in Domenico Criscito and Leornadi Bonnuci. They have the superman, Gianluigi Buffon, in between the sticks but he isnt quite the Buffon we used to know and has had a poor season with Juve. Qualification wont come easy for the Azzuri's here.

Tbh I ain't too worried about our strikers. They will come good when it matters and if they don't, our midfield,defence and Goalie would make up for em'. Also Buffon had a poor season by his very very high standard cuz he was struck down by numerous amount of injuries.

[size=18pt]Nelsen: It is down to spirit[/size]

Ryan Nelsen has hailed New Zealand's landmark draw with Slovakia as a tribute to the indomitable Kiwi spirit. The All Whites defied the odds to claim their first FIFA World Cup™ point thanks to Winston Reid's stoppage time equaliser against the highly-rated Slovakians on Tuesday.

Nelsen, the Blackburn defender who captains the side, said New Zealand had done more than enough to earn a point in their first FIFA World Cup appearance since suffering defeats by Scotland, Brazil and the Soviet Union in Spain in their only previous finals appearance, in 1982.

"One hundred percent I think it is down to spirit," Nelsen said. "You're playing at altitude, it's windy, it's sunny and you are playing a really well organised team. In those circumstances, to create two chances in the last two minutes; you only do it by chancing your arm, by fighting, by giving it everything and the boys did that."

The jubilant celebrations of the New Zealand players after the last gasp equaliser made it clear how much the draw meant to the squad. "I knew we would never give up and we never did," Nelsen added. "The goal just topped off a fantastic day. We actually had a bit of a celebration planned if we were to score but that obviously went out the window."


Nelsen would not be drawn on what exactly the players had in store. "You will have to wait and see. Hopefully there will be another goal and we can do it then," he said. Nelsen added: "It is just great because everyone out there was looking at New Zealand and thinking we were just making up the numbers. It really annoyed everybody because we are a pretty good team. Now to get a result against a team that qualified from a group that included Poland, the Czechs and Slovenia, is very positive."

Nelsen believes New Zealand can now entertain realistic hopes of making it to the knockout stages if they can pull off a win against either world champions Italy, or, more realistically, Paraguay.

"I said to the boys before that it is a 90-minute game but it only takes a few seconds to etch your name in history," Nelsen said. "Those few seconds came in the 93rd minute but it is a fantastic feeling. What this has done is given us something to play for in the next two games. Now we need a win. If we can get a win, whether its against Italy or Paraguay, you never know, we could go through."

Nelsen paid tribute to the fortitude of Reid, who had been at fault when Robert Vittek headed Slovakia into the lead but bounced back to claim the winner, vindicating his decision to pledge his allegiance to the country of his birth having spent his teenage years in Denmark, for whom he won ten U-21 caps.

The captain said: "Winston is just a young kid, a young man and that is what you have to do in top international sport. You have to keep your confidence and try to affect the game. It only takes a couple of seconds to do something special and he did that. It was not just the goal, he also had a fantastic block when Vittek had a chance to score a second which would probably have killed us.

[size=18pt]Santa Cruz ready to step up[/size]

Roque Santa Cruz hopes to play a major role in Paraguay's 2010 FIFA World Cup™ campaign in South Africa, despite revealing a niggling injury kept him out of Monday's opening match. The Manchester City striker surprisingly started on the bench in the 1-1 draw with FIFA World Cup holders Italy in Cape Town, only coming on as a late substitute.

The injury-plagued forward revealed a minor problem had convinced coach Gerardo Martino to leave him among the replacements, but Santa Cruz says he is now ready to hit the ground running.

Asked about his absence from the starting line-up, Santa Cruz said: "It's very hard to pick players from our team, we are players playing in hard leagues and anybody can play.

''After the last friendly I finished with some discomfort in my leg , as we have such good players there is no need to risk anything.'' says Roque Santa Cruz, Paraguay forward

"I was not really 100%. I had a muscle problem and didn't know if I could play from the beginning, so I think the coach took the best solution and the right choice. It's been the story with injuries through all my career, not just this season! It's disappointing but something I've lived with through my career.

"Right now, I think we have an advantage that we have such players in the team and there's no need to force people in. In the last World Cup I risked a lot to play, but there's no point now. I hope I'll be fully fit for the Slovakia match, I felt okay against Italy when I came on, and I felt I could have played longer. We've got six days between games and that should be enough to be ready."

Santa Cruz is justifiably upbeat about his side's Group F prospects in South Africa. "We obviously want to make it into the next phase from the first stage," he said. "We want to go at least to the quarter-finals because in Paraguayan history it's never been done. But you never know."

[size=18pt]Chiellini wary of All Whites' threat[/size]

Italy centre-back Giorgio Chiellini admitted that the world champions are worried about the aerial threat posed by New Zealand. The two sides go head-to-head on Sunday, with both having drawn their opening Group F games in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The two sides are no strangers to each other, having clashed in a friendly warm-up ahead of last year's FIFA Confederations Cup, in which Italy scraped a 4-3 victory. And Chiellini and his team-mates know they will be in for another bruising battle in Nelspruit.

"They're very physical," he said. "We played them in a friendly last year, they're very dangerous in the air and from set pieces. But everyone knows that we should win. We need to have more shots than we did against Paraguay.

"We have to give away as little as possible and to keep the ball on the ground rather than playing long balls," he added. "It won't be easy but with all the respect we owe our opponents, we should win. I don't even want to think about the possibility of a draw or something else."

Italy will be without first choice goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as he is suffering from a sciatic problem in his back and is out for an unspecified amount of time. And Chiellini admits that he and his fellow defenders have a responsibility to help make his replacement Federico Marchetti's life as easy as possible.

Marchetti came on for Buffon at half-time in the 1-1 draw with Paraguay but will get his first start in the FIFA World Cup against New Zealand. "He has his qualities, he'll have no problems replacing Gigi (Buffon), he's calm," said Chiellini. "He doesn't need me to give him any advice. Goalkeepers are in a different world, they have different feelings on the pitch. It's moreover Gigi who can give him some advice. What we (defenders) can give him is an easy night."

Even so, Chiellini admitted that the loss of Buffon, who has long been regarded as one of the best if not the best in his position in the world, will be a blow. "We all hope that it's nothing serious and that he can soon come back, of course I'm very disappointed," he said. "We know what he's worth. We always need someone like him, from every perspective.

"We'll miss the man as much as the player but he'll still be there in the dressing room before and after the match. For any team a great goalkeeper makes a difference, as much as a striker who scores. The goalkeeper and the strikers are the most important positions."

Italy were criticised following their opening game for not creating many chances, but Chiellini believes the reigning champions suffered the same problems as all the other big teams.

"Apart from Germany everyone had similar performances, it's just some had a bit more luck and won," he said. "That proves that there are no easy matches, even against supposedly weaker teams.

"However, at the end it will be the favourites who go through and who will get to the latter stages," he added. "I believe we can go all the way and I hope we win the group so we can avoid the Netherlands in the next round as I'm sure they'll win theirs."

Italy goal keeper Gianluigi Buffon has been ruled out of Sunday's Group F match with New Zealand because of a herniated disc in his back.
The 32-year-old was injured during Monday's 1-1 draw against Paraguay and substituted at half time. There are fears that he way not play again during the world cup.
Italy team doctor, Enrico Castellacci said "its not easy to make a prognosis but it's a small margin and Buffon strongly wants to recuperate."
Buffon initially said he hoped "to recover in two days" but the Azzuri may now have to defend their status as world champions without him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8740361.stm

Italy are struggling for second position in this so called easy group. The only easy groups if you ask me are such that have African teams in them.

Any hope for slovakia in this group?

^^^Slovakia have a very slim chance of qualifying. A win against Italy will see them through provided New Zealand do not get a win over Paraguay but I dont think they can beat Italy, they've been very poor. Maybe now that the stakes are very high they might just give their all and get a win over Italy

After two rounds of group matches, this is how the teams stand:
P W L D F A D PT
PAR 2 1 - 1 3 1 2 4
NZL 2 - - 2 2 2 0 2
ITA 2 - - 2 2 2 0 2
SLK 2 - 1 1 1 3 -2 1

@medjai

thanks for the analysis  

so its fingers crossed oh

Paraguay and Slovakia make it through to the round of 16 while New Zealand and defending champions, Italy, have been sent packing. This is how they finished:
P W D L PT
PAR 3 1 2 - 5
SLK 3 1 1 1 4
NZL 3 - 3 - 3
ITA 3 - 2 1 2

You just have to go back a few comments, and see how wrong most of you were.

^^^ EXACTLY!!!

i was even being generous when i said they might be coming out 2nd in the group
they ended up licking the bottom of the pot
World Champions? yuck . . . .even South Africa put up a better show.

not surprised Italy didnt make it. I think i told honeric01, in the first page, that Paraguay and Slovakia could make it through

World Cup 2010 Comment: Thank You Marcello Lippi For Humiliating The Whole Of Italy, Enjoy Your Rotten Tomatoes
Only one person is to blame for Italy’s World Cup exit, blasts Goal.com’s Carlo Garganese.


There is nothing more frustrating than watching a disaster unfold when there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Since August 2008 when Marcello Lippi returned to the Azzurri bench with an embarrassing 2-2 draw against an atrocious Austria side in Nice, we all knew that the 2010 World Cup was going to be a complete unadulterated calamity unless some serious changes were made.

You all know what the changes should have been, and when it became clear that Lippi had no intention of making them then we had to painfully sit back and die a slow death.

Thankfully, the nightmare has come to a close.

It is for the best that Italy were eliminated this afternoon. Had they progressed to the next round to play the Netherlands they would have been torn apart by three or four goals.

Lippi owes the whole of Italy a grovelling apology, delivered on his hands and knees. He will forever remain a legend – although some may disagree now – for masterminding the 2006 World Cup success but his management before and during South Africa is completely unforgivable. A World Cup only comes around once every four years, and the people of Italy at the very least deserved to watch a team that had a chance of achieving something.


Lippi prevented this with his selfish and stubborn squad selection - omitting Antonio Cassano due to a personal feud, excluding Fabrizio Miccoli because he testified against Luciano Moggi, keeping washed-up veterans in the squad such as Rino Gattuso because of friendship, and the political grievances go on and on.

The ex-Juventus boss wanted to “create history” and repeat the achievements of coach Vittorio Pozzo who won back-to-back World Cups in the 1930s. Well, the 62-year-old certainly created history. He instigated the biggest World Cup finals humiliation in Italy’s history, finishing bottom of the weakest pool the Azzurri have ever been in – with no wins and just two points. He also created more history, as this 2008-2010 team is undoubtedly the worst Italy side for at least 50 years.

While I could sit here and criticize the players – explaining how Cannavaro & Zambrotta are too old, Iaquinta can’t strike a ball without miss-hitting it, De Rossi’s national team is Roma, Montolivo flinches at his own shadow – it is Lippi who must take ALL the blame.

It will be interesting to see if he returns home and faces the public – and more than a few rotten tomatoes - like a man, or shies away with a private jet like a few of the disgraced France players this morning.

The world champions are out, now it is time to forget two years of depression and look forward to a new era under Cesare Prandelli who – if nothing else – will at least pick his players based on performance and not politics.

World Cup 2010: Ricki Herbert ‘Proud’ Of New Zealand Record Despite Elimination
The unbeaten run in the World Cup probably won't be repeated, the coach believes.
By Robin Bairner


New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert has declared himself extremely satisfied with the way his All White side handled themselves in South Africa, though they will ultimately be going home after a thrilling World Cup campaign.

Having drawn against Slovakia thanks to a last minute goal from Winston Reid, they then scaled greater heights, picking up a 1-1 draw against world champions Italy. Ultimately progression to the last 16 proved too great a task as they were unable to defeat Paraguay when just a single goal would have carried them through to the knockout stage, though they were given the consolation of finishing above the Azzurri, who crashed out against Slovakia.

“I'm just so proud of these guys - to go out unbeaten at a World Cup. Will that ever happen again? I doubt it,” Herbert told the New Zealand Times.

Prior to this competition, the All Whites had only previously qualified for the tournament once before, and that ended in the squad losing three matches from three in 1982.

Antonio Cassano must be LOL. Why Lippi refused to take him, no one knows even after wide spread plea for his inclusion in the Italian squad. Italy lacked a quality finisher. Iaquinta, Quagliarella, Di Natele just couldnt deliver.