Roque Santa Cruz, the Paraguay striker, said his team's physical presence will help make the difference when they take on Japan in today's last-16 encounter in Pretoria as both seek to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in their respective histories. "I think it will be a very close encounter overall and in terms of possession, but I think our physical presence can make the difference," said the Manchester City forward, playing in his third World Cup.
"They are a very compact side and they break very quickly so we will have to be on the lookout but in general we are looking to our game," he told AFP at team headquarters in the south-eastern city of Balgowan yesterday. Japan saw off Denmark in their final group match, with a fine pair of free-kicks from their man of the tournament, Keisuke Honda, and Yasuhito Endo and now hope their fluid movement on the ball can edge out the Paraguayans and stop the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking sides from dominating the last eight.
"These kinds of games often get decided on dead-ball situations and we shall have to be alert to that aspect of things," Santa Cruz added. "While I think we have a greater physical capacity than they do we have to make sure they do not cause problems from dead balls." * AFP
