Osorio hopes friendlies will pave way for Paraguay to 2022 World Cup

Paraguayan national soccer team coach Juan Carlos Osorio said his squad needed to win decisively in its friendlies against top teams to prepare for the qualifying phase of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The Colombian coach spoke with reporters after arriving at the Asuncion airport on Wednesday night, a day after his team played to a 1-1 draw with South Africa in a friendly.

“I think we were superior in the match. I thought we created enough opportunities to score goals to have put more points on the board, and in the end they tied the match in the only real opportunity they had,” Osorio said.

The coach said he would continue pressing the Paraguayan Soccer Association (APF) to “make a big push to try to schedule matches against European nations and even South American nations that have a stronger soccer history.”

Osorio, however, said the friendly with South Africa in Durban was a “very interesting and productive” match and Paraguay should have won.

“In general terms, it was positive. I think the personnel that Paraguay has at this time gives us hope and the idea that we could have a great future, and, hopefully, we can play more matches and against other types of rivals to see if we can also play like them,” Osorio, who took over as national team coach in September, said.

Paraguay failed to qualify for the last two World Cups.