The coach of Paraguay Gerardo Martino announced his initial squad selection for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the name of Lucas Barrios was definitely an unexpected addition. Barrios was born in Argentina and less than two months ago he started his dual citizenship process hoping to get a chance to be in the World Cup competition. Barrios was granted the Paraguayan citizenship on April 8 2010 and now is on his way to South Africa with his new country and national team.
Lucas Barrios is having an amazing season with his club Borussia Dortmund, and he has already scored 18 goals in just 31 Bundesliga matches. Barrios is a talented goal scorer known for his effectiveness in the target area, and Paraguay will definitely need a good striker in the 2010 World Cup since their top scorer Salvador Cabañas has not yet fully recovered.
Cabañas was shot in the head inside a Mexican night club on January 25, and was in critical condition for almost a month. The hospital doctors decided that it was too risky to extract the bullet from his head, but despite having a piece of metal stuck in his skull the player amazingly managed to recover. Cabañas was hoping to fully recover in time to compete in the World Cup, but now it seems he is not 100% ready.
Paraguay is playing in Group F of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa against Italy, New Zealand and Slovakia.
Fernando Torres has been included in the initial team roster selection of Spain for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and even though the player was recently operated he is recovering as planned from his injury. Torres is giving a battle against time to be ready for Spain’s opening game against Switzerland, but according to the doctors he will most likely miss it, and now their goal is for the striker to play against Honduras.
“At this stage we cannot be certain of anything but if he continues recovering with the same pace he should be ready to play in some games during the 2010 World Cup. It is unclear if Torres will make it for the first match and we definitely don’t want to rush. We are really looking at the long term benefits here, but we are aware that the player is also interested in the short term future which is the World Cup finals.”
Fernando Torres was injured in the Europa League game of Liverpool against Benfica, and the striker underwent knee surgery after suffering a torn meniscus in his right knee. Torres was criticised by Liverpool fans and media for his decision to go under surgery now and leave his team mid season in order to be ready for the 2010 World Cup.
Spain is starting the 2010 World Cup against Switzerland on June 16, and the second gameday is on June 21 against Honduras.
Andrés Guardado has the nickname «El chico maravilla» which means Wonder Kid, and the young player is considered as one of the upcoming stars of Mexico and international football. 23 year old Guardado is currently playing in Spain and Deportivo La Coruña, using his tremendous speed to cover the entire left wing - from the top of the offence all the way to the team’s defensive line. Andrés Guardado has already participated in the previous World Cup tournament with Mexico, and he was selected as one of the contenders for the Best Young Player award.
“I think we have a good chance of doing something great coming to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Mexico has a strong team, a combination of many young talented players and 4 or 5 older, more experienced footballers that will help us a lot. We are going through a fantastic preparation period, the team is hungry, and in my opinion we have everything needed to advance to the second round. I think we are playing in the hardest group of the entire World Cup. Nobody wants to go against the host nation in a World Cup competition for many reasons, and we have to go against South Africa on the opening game nevertheless. France is not the great team it used to be, but it is also like Mexico a team that combines young and experienced players. Uruguay is going to the 2010 World Cup with many ambitions, and even though this team has nothing to do with the Uruguay that won the World Cup trophy twice they can still create many problems to any opponent.”
Andrés Guardado also talked about his favourite teams in the 2010 World Cup: “The two teams that everybody considers as favourites to win (Spain and Brazil) are definitely playing the best football in the world right now. Of course you can never leave out historic nations like Italy, Germany, Argentina or even England. I think it will be a very interesting World Cup tournament, I hope the fans will remember it for many years to come. But to conclude, yes my favourites are Spain and Brazil.”
