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The first competition in the World Cup to be decided by penalty kicks went the way of Paraguay in 2010 World Cup sports wagering.

Paraguay took the most challenging route to its first World Cup quarterfinals with 120 minutes of scoreless, boring play. It is difficult to say that they won the competition so much as they put it out of its misery. They defeated Japan 5-3 in penalty kicks after the game ended in a scoreless tie after added time. Paraguay will now make it to the quarterfinals in World Cup probabilities in internet betting for the first time in their history.

2010 World Cup betting favored Paraguay in the game against Japan but it took a penalty shootout for Paraguay to at last win. Japan defender Yuichi Komano hit the crossbar whereas Paraguay converted all 5 of their penalty kicks and that was the difference.

A penalty shootout wasn’t an unanticipated turn since the match between Paraguay and Japan didn’t have a lot of great chances. Both teams played very conservatively throughout the match. Paraguay had the majority of the possession however they did not do much with it as they only had three shots and only 1 on goal. Japan actually had more shots on goal but none were considerable threats. When Daisuke Matsui hit the crossbar in the 22nd minute was the one scoring chance they did have.

The goalless tie between Japan and Paraguay was just the third 1 in World Cup history for a round of 16 matches. Paraguay made all five of their penalty kicks although they had not trained penalty kicks much leading up to the World Cup but they sure looked great on Tuesday. The scorers for Paraguay were Edgar Barreto, Lucas Barrios, Cristian Riveros, Nelson Valdez and Oscar Cardozo.

Japan’s scorers were Yasuhito Endo, Makoto Hasebe and Keisuke Honda. The miss by Komano was a difficult one but the uncertain part is why he was shooting at all. He’s a defender who never scores goals and has no experience taking penalty shots. And he actually went before Honda who’s a goal scorer.

Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino said the squad only practiced taking penalty kicks once. He admitted that their execution in practice wasn’t too good, though clearly nobody might say they were not prepared.

Japan coach Takeshi Okada insisted he was proud of his team and took full responsibility for the failure. He claimed that he was simply not in a position to make them win by not getting them eager enough.

Paraguay and Japan were the two lowest ranked teams left in the 2010 World Cup. It is the 4th straight World Cup appearance for Paraguay and it’s the 1st time the team has ever reached the quarterfinals. As they face Spain, Paraguay will be strong underdogs in the quarterfinals. That quarterfinal competition will be played on Saturday with the champion relocating into the semifinals.

The Paraguayans are the fourth South American team into the final eight; only Chile didn’t make it, and it lost to Brazil in the 2nd round. Asia’s last leftover team and possibility for the World Cup was Japan.