Team Dossier: Paraguay — the Hunters who beat Brazil and Argentina, and now must face the USA without their best player

There is a story worth knowing before Paraguay kicks off against the USA at SoFi Stadium on Friday night, and it starts not with a formation or a scouting report but with a country that declared a national holiday.

When Paraguay drew 0-0 with Ecuador on October 15, 2024, to seal their spot in this tournament, President Santiago Peña gave his country the day off. Streets in Asunción filled with red, white, and blue. People danced who hadn't watched a football match in years. Paraguay had been to one World Cup since 2010 — and it ended before the knockout rounds. Sixteen years is a long time to wait.

Now they're here, back in North America, back on football's biggest stage. They are not favorites. They are not expected to win Group D. But they are dangerous, organized, and — as of last Thursday — braced for a crisis.

Gustavo Alfaro arrived in August 2024 with a book to his name — literally. After guiding Ecuador to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he wrote Cazadores de Utopías Imposibles (Hunters of Impossible Utopias). The title tells you everything about how he thinks.

Paraguay before Alfaro were a mess. Sacked coach Daniel Garnero left after a dismal Copa América campaign. The team was trying to play a possession-based system that fit their personnel the way a suit fits a scarecrow — technically presentable, practically useless. Alfaro scrapped it. "Paraguayan DNA, intensity and clean sheets," he said on day one. "That's what will take us to the World Cup."

He was right. Under Alfaro, Paraguay lost just one away match across the entire South American qualifying campaign — in Brazil. They drew in Bolivia at 4,100 meters above sea level, drew in Barranquilla's suffocating heat against Colombia, drew in Ecuador at altitude. They beat Argentina 1-0 in Asunción. They beat Brazil 1-0 at home. The two sides ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in South America, knocked over in consecutive home matches. 1

Alfaro calls himself "El Cazador" — The Hunter. He hunts for the right moment to press, the right angle to defend. His philosophy, borrowed from Pat Riley: "If I want to build an offensive team, the first thing I have to do is work on defensive discipline." Paraguay are a 4-4-2 team that compresses space, wins second balls, and punishes transitions. They are exactly as unglamorous and exactly as effective as that sounds.

Captain: Gustavo Gómez. The Palmeiras defender is Paraguay's spine — physically imposing, vocally authoritative, a leader who sets the defensive tone from minute one. He and Alderete (Sunderland) form one of the more experienced center-back partnerships at this tournament.

Miguel Almirón has become something of a cult figure in MLS at Atlanta United after his stint at Newcastle, but here he plays as a wide forward rather than the box-to-box midfielder English fans knew. At 30, this is almost certainly his only World Cup. He brings relentless pressing and the occasional moment of quality in tight spaces.

Andrés Cubas is the unsung engine. Standing just 5'6", the Argentine-born defensive midfielder looks like he could be knocked off the ball by a sharp breeze. He cannot. Cubas wins duels through positioning and timing, provides balance, and — perhaps most importantly — initiates Paraguay's counter-attacks the moment he wins possession. Born in Argentina, he promised his Paraguayan mother he would one day wear her country's shirt. He has not let her down. 1

Damián Bobadilla (24, São Paulo) is the one to watch over the next three weeks. His father was a goalkeeper — the legendary Aldo Bobadilla — who flew across goal-lines for fun. Damián stayed out of the nets and became a box-to-box midfielder instead: physical, calm, and clever enough to already be one of São Paulo's most trusted players in Brazil's top division. He is on the edge of a very big tournament.

On June 6, Paraguay beat Nicaragua 4-0 in their final warm-up match. In the 25th minute, Julio Enciso — the 22-year-old forward who is meant to be Paraguay's most dangerous weapon — was carried off on a stretcher in tears.

He suffered a double injury: a hit to the side and a second blow to his lower back that affected his quadriceps. Alfaro called it impact-related rather than muscular, which is the hopeful read. "We hope Julio is alright and he can be ready to return for the opener," Alfaro said after the match. Reports from within the Paraguay camp as of Sunday suggest he is unlikely to start Friday, though Alfaro has not formally ruled him out. 3 4

This matters because Enciso is a genuinely different kind of player from everyone else in this squad. Fast, direct, capable of the unexpected — he scored a Puskás Award-worthy screamer for Brighton against Man City in 2023. He contributed 12 goals for Strasbourg this club season before the injury. In a team built around defensive structure and transitions, he is the one who can conjure something from nothing. Without him against the USA, Paraguay will be harder to break down but much less dangerous going forward.

His backup plans: Antonio Sanabria up top alongside Almirón, or a reshaped 4-2-3-1 with Diego Gómez (Brighton) playing behind the strikers. None of it quite replaces what Enciso does.

Paraguay in Alfaro's 4-4-2 do not try to win the ball high up the pitch. They sit in a mid-block — compact, organized, hard to play through. The two banks of four stay narrow to clog central channels, forcing opponents wide. When the ball goes wide, the winger on that side presses, the nearest midfielder slides, and Cubas or Bobadilla sweeps behind.

In possession, they are direct. From Gómez and Alderete at the back, the ball moves quickly to midfield and then, equally quickly, to the front two. There is no elaborate build-up; there is a purpose to go forward fast. Almirón and Sosa on the flanks are expected to carry the ball in transition rather than sit and receive passes. The system asks a lot of their fitness and discipline.

Against Pochettino's USA — a team that presses high and wants to play in the opponent's half — the defensive shape will be tested. The question is whether Paraguay can stay organized long enough to earn a counter-attacking chance. Alfaro's teams historically hold their shape under pressure. They held it against Colombia in Barranquilla. They held it in La Paz. They held it in Quito.

Paraguay have played in eight previous World Cups. Their best run came in South Africa in 2010, when a group containing Italy and Slovakia gave them a path to the knockout rounds, and they took it: they beat Japan in the round of 16 on penalties, then pushed eventual champions Spain to the absolute limit in the quarterfinal. At 0-0 in the second half, Paraguay had a penalty saved. Spain answered with one of their own — also saved. David Villa then put Spain ahead with a header shortly before the hour, and Paraguay equalized through a deflected effort. Then Villa struck again, late, to end it 1-0 in extra time. Spain went on to win the whole thing. Paraguay went home. 5

It is the kind of performance that stays in a national football memory: the sense of how close they came. Sixteen years later, a new generation of players is trying to build something at least as good. The infrastructure is different — Almirón is older, Enciso is new — but the mentality Alfaro has instilled is not so different from what Oscar Tabárez once built at Uruguay: pride, discipline, and the refusal to accept that a smaller footballing nation should simply lose gracefully.

Paraguay finished last of the six CONMEBOL automatic qualifiers. They are not here to manage the tournament. They are here to complicate it for someone.

Can Paraguay make the round of 16 without Julio Enciso?

Group D has the USA (hosts, favorites), Turkey (European playoff winners, genuine unknown), and Australia (familiar opponents, physical and organized). Two of those three can go through, and Paraguay know it. If they hold the USA to a draw on Friday, Turkey becomes a winnable game. Win that, and Australia in the final round is a straight playoff.

It is possible. It requires the defensive structure to hold in Los Angeles, the midfield to compete with Adams and McKennie in the center, and either Sanabria or a half-fit Enciso to produce a goal at a moment when Paraguay most need one.

Alfaro ran through his team talk before qualification was sealed, telling his players: "This is not a dream. This is a possibility. We just have to go earn it."

They earned it once. Friday night, they start trying to earn it again.