Paraguay came in to this game after rescuing a late draw against tournament favourites Argentina and were able build on their strong start by beating Jamaica, thanks to a moment of madness from Duwayne Kerr.
The game began in dull fashion, with twenty minutes passing before we saw the first save of the game. Roque Santa Cruz hit a shot on the turn, but it was straight into the arms of Kerr.
Moments later Édgar Benítez’s ball was deflected towards the path of Raúl Bobadilla, who fired just wide on the volley.
Santa Cruz had another chance after some fine play between Víctor Cáceres and Derlis González, stinging the hands of Kerr with a powerful volley from the edge of the box.
In the 36th minute we saw perhaps the most bizarre moment of the tournament thus far. A long, extremely ambitious ball over the top of the Jamaican defence was met by a charging Kerr, who headed straight to Benítez, with the ball hitting Benítez’s knee and looping into the net.
The sides went in after a relatively uneventful first half with Jamaica a goal down.
Three minutes into the second half Paraguay scored again. A clever free kick routine involving a series of headers ended with Cáceres finding the net, unfortunately for Los Guaraníes it was disallowed for offside.
Cáceres had another chance, shooting from distance, only for Kerr to turn his effort round the post.
Miguel Samudio struck the crossbar after a neat piece of build-up play between himself and Bobadilla. Paraguay’s dominance was beginning to tell and Jamaica needed to respond quickly.
They came close as Reading’s Gareth McCleary hit from distance, but in the end it flew just wide of Antony Silva’s goal.
Thankfully the full-time whistle blew soon after, bringing to an end a game that was entertaining for just a fraction of the 90 minutes played. Jamaica are now all but eliminated from the competition while Paraguay are in a good position to qualify going into the final Group B match-day.
Paraguay: Silva; Váldez, Da Silva, Aguilar, Samudio (Piris 76); Derlis González; Ortigoza, V Cáceres, Benítez (Molinas 86); Santa Cruz, Bobadilla (Haedo Valdez 75)
Jamaica: Kerr; Mariappa, Hector, Morgan, Lawrence; Austin, McAnuff, McCleary, Dawkins (Mattocks 79); Watson (Laing 56), Barnes (Brown 62)
Booked: Austin, Morgan, Váldez
Goalscorers: Benítez
Man of the Match: Paulo da Silva. The veteran Toluca defender put in a solid display in a game with no stand-out performers, keeping Jamaica’s goal threat to a minimum.