SlovakiaSlovakia - National football team
The Slovakia national football team represents Slovakia in international football and is controlled by the Slovak Football Association. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the Slovakia Football Association was founded in 1993, and has been affiliated to both FIFA and UEFA since the same year. They will be participants at the 2010 World Cup for the first time since independence. The first official match of the first Slovak Republic (1939–1945) was played in Bratislava against Germany on 27 August 1939, and ended in a 2-0 victory for Slovakia. After the Second World War, the national football team was subsumed into the team of Czechoslovakia, and for over fifty years Slovakia played no matches as an independent country.
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During this period they contributed several key players to the Czechoslovak team, including the majority of the team that won the 1976 European Championships.
Slovakia's first official international after regaining independence was a 1-0 victory in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates on 2 February 1994. Their match back on Slovakian soil was the 4-1 defeat against Croatia in Bratislava on 20 April 1994. Slovakia suffered their biggest defeat since independence (6-0) on 22 June 1995, in Mendoza, against Argentina. Their biggest wins (7-0) have come against Liechtenstein in 2004 and San Marino in 2007.
Slovakia played in a major championship as an independent team for the first time in Euro '96 qualifying, but finished in third place in their qualifying group, behind Romania and France, having recorded wins against Poland, Israel and Azerbaijan, twice. In the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, Slovakia finished fourth in their six-team group with five wins, one draw and four defeats.
Slovakia will participate in the FIFA World Cup for the first time in their history as an independent nation after finishing in first place in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 3 ahead of Slovenia, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, and Poland. On 14 October 2009, they clinched qualification with a 1-0 away win against Poland..
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ParaguayParaguay - National football team
The Paraguay national football team is the national team of Paraguay and is controlled by the Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol. The Paraguay national football team has reached the second round of the World Cup on three occasions (in 1986, 1998 and 2002) but has never advanced beyond that stage. Paraguay's only major tournament victories have come in the Copa América, in which they triumphed in 1953 and 1979. Paraguay also won a silver medal in the football tournament at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, being defeated 1-0 by Argentina in the final[1]. This second place finish is Paraguay's top finish in any world-level competition.
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Since the 1998 World Cup qualifiers Paraguay has been established between the top 3 teams of CONMEBOL. South Africa 2010 is Paraguay's fourth consecutive trip to the World Cups, having been in France 1998, Korea/Japan 2002, Germay 2006 and now South Africa 2010. Soon after the introduction of football in Paraguay by Williams Paats, the Liga Paraguaya de Futbol (today Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol) was created in 1906. The first national football team was organized in 1910 when an invitation by the Argentine club Hércules of Corrientes was received to play a friendly match. Members of that first national team where F. Melián, G. Almeida, A. Rodríguez, M. Barrios, P. Samaniego, J. Morín, Z. Gadea, D. Andreani, C. Mena Porta, B. Villamayor, M. Rojas and E. Erico. The match ended in a 0-0 draw.[2]
Because of the increasing number of invitations to play matches and international tournaments, the Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol decided to officially create the national team and select the striped red and white jerseys that until this date remain as the official colours (taken from the Paraguayan flag). In late 1919 Paraguay accepted the invitation to play the 1921 Copa America and in order to prepare for that occasion a number of friendly matches were played between 1919 and the start of the tournament in 1921. The first of those friendly matches was a 5-1 loss against Argentina, and it marked the first international game by the Paraguayan national football team. When the 1921 Copa America finally arrived, Paraguay surprised everybody by beating then three-time South American champions Uruguay by 2-1, being this the first match in an official competition for the Paraguayan football team. Paraguay eventually finished fourth in the tournament and became a regular participant of the tournament for the next editions.
In 1930 Paraguay participated in the first World Cup, organized by Uruguay. In the first round, Paraguay debuted and lost to the United States (0-3), to then defeat Belgium (1-0) with a goal by Luis Vargas Peña. Only one team was to advance from the group stage, and the U.S. left Paraguay behind..
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