England v Paraguay: The drumbeats of war on the neighbouring island tend to deafen us to Paraguay's claims to be taken seriously in this World Cup.
Not as contenders, but as a team who can make life difficult. The old rap against the Paraguayans, that they are world class at the sorts of altitudes where nobody else can live, have become redundant. In qualifying, their away draw with Argentina was as vital as anything achieved in Asuncion.
And then there is their experience. They have escaped the group stages in the last two World Cups, and it took an 88th-minute goal for Germany to overcome them last time out. Four years before that, the French needed a golden goal to prise the Paraguayan's out of the World Cup. The Alirrojo (a type of bird, we believe), as they call themselves, will be a gristly team.
While England has been hanging on every word of those granted access to Wayne Rooney's foot, the Paraguay have seen one of their top scorers in qualification, Jose Cardozo, exit the tournament with a calf injury and have watched the worrying decline in form of their own boy wonder, Jose Montiel. The youngster, who moves to Italy after the summer, illuminated the later stages of Paraguay's qualifying campaign but has been subdued ever since and is likely to start on the bench tonight.
Paraguay are backboned by four key players whose experience they rely on. Justo Villar, the goalkeeper, is the captain and the successor to Jose Chilavert (who has been a loud and vindictive critic of the side). Villar was his nation's footballer of the year in 2004. Veteran centre back Carlos Gamarra is a wonderful reader of the game. Central midfielder Carlos Paredes was the star of the qualifying campaign.
Roque Santa Cruz, haunted by injury (and the sort of form which yielded him just four Bundesliga goals for Bayern this year) will lead the attack.
Santa Cruz is the enigma of the bunch, and despite missing much of the warm-up campaign finished the German season looking sharp. He will be partnered on the basis of recent friendlies by the mobile Werder Bremen forward Nelson Haedo Valdez.
Watch out for the introduction of Nelson "El Pepino" Cuevas, much loved at home and many people's preference for a starting berth.
Paraguay will play their strong, direct brand of football and attempt to hustle England a bit. Their manager, the lugubrious Aribal Ruiz, has been playing the media game like a GAA boss, talking up England every time he sees a microphone in front of him.
"Peter Crouch is a concern for me. We hardly come across players like him, very seldom. In football it is not easy to find such a tall player with such good control," he said at Thursday's press conference while pausing to wipe the sweat from his furrowed brow. "He has this harmony in his movements, a co-ordination that is very good and he also can go back and help with the game-building."
Ruiz's side are good and strong at the back and pride themselves on being decent in the air. It should be an interesting clash, and at their base outside Munich the Paraguayans have worked long and hard at defending set-pieces against big men.
How England set out their stall will be interesting. Despite a run of good performances in the ersatz world of pre-tournament friendlies there remains the concern Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard (presuming he is as fit as he says) are too alike in their attacking style to make up the centre of a midfield which will go far in this tournament. Both, however, are a part of Eriksson's clique of favoured players, and against Paraguay it is difficult to see him making the hard call and dropping one of them in favour of Michael Carrick, Jamie Carragher or Owen Hargreaves.
The word is Eriksson will attempt to get away with it as he goes looking for the sort of good start which might make the final group game with Sweden more viable as a testing ground for Rooney's fitness.
England have their eyes on the return of Rooney and are thinking of what impact he might have on the last eight in the tournament. Paraguay are worried about nothing more than a result. Criminally underrated and written off, they are tipped to wrestle a point here.
Probable line-ups
England (4-4-2): Robinson: Neville, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole; Beckham (capt), Gerrard, Lampard, J Cole: Crouch, Owen.
Paraguay (4-4-2): Villar: Camiza, Caceres, Gamarra, Toledo: Bonet, Acuna, Paredes, Ribero: Valdez, Santa Cruz.
