Paraguay Return to the World Cup After a 16-Year Absence

Paraguay · Sport

After missing three straight World Cups, Paraguay are back — built not on flair but on the defensive discipline and hard edge their Argentine coach has drilled into them.

Paraguay end a long World Cup wait

For the first time in sixteen years, Paraguay are going to the World Cup. La Albirroja sealed their place at the 2026 tournament in North America, ending the longest absence in their history and returning to the global stage they had not reached since South Africa 2010. It will be the ninth World Cup appearance for a nation with a proud footballing past — the home of goalkeeping icon José Luis Chilavert and striker Roque Santa Cruz — but one that had fallen away badly, missing the 2014, 2018 and 2022 editions as the squad rebuilt and stumbled through difficult qualifying cycles.

The campaign that took them back was not smooth at the start. Paraguay collected just one point from their opening three CONMEBOL qualifiers before the turn came, and it came emphatically: home victories over both Argentina, the reigning world champions, and Brazil, the record five-time winners, transformed their fortunes and put qualification within reach. They ultimately claimed the last automatic South American berth, finishing ten points adrift of group winners Argentina but comfortably inside the direct-qualification places.

The Alfaro effect

The architect of the revival is Gustavo Alfaro, the vastly experienced Argentine coach who took over the national side and went unbeaten across his competitive qualifying matches. Alfaro is no stranger to this stage: he led Ecuador at the 2022 World Cup, where his side beat hosts Qatar and drew with the Netherlands before narrowly falling in the group, and he had a spell in charge of Costa Rica in between. His reputation, forged over a long club career in Argentina that included a Copa Sudamericana with Arsenal de Sarandí, is built on organisation, work ethic and defensive solidity rather than spectacle — and that is precisely the identity he has stamped on Paraguay.

The squad reflects it. Alfaro has built a battle-hardened group around a 4-4-2 anchored by captain Gustavo Gómez, the 33-year-old Palmeiras centre-back and the team’s most-capped player, with a heavy core drawn from Brazil’s Série A. The experience of Miguel Almirón, the Atlanta United playmaker familiar to English audiences from his Newcastle years, and forward Antonio Sanabria is balanced by a brighter, younger edge: Strasbourg’s Julio Enciso, a 22-year-old capable of unlocking a packed defence with a single moment, and Brighton’s Diego Gómez, whose energy in midfield helped turn the qualifying campaign. Defenders Omar Alderete and Júnior Alonso round out a side that, on its day, can frustrate far more fancied opponents.

A tough group, and a bigger horizon

Paraguay will not arrive as favourites. Drawn in Group D alongside co-hosts the United States, Australia and Türkiye, they open the tournament against the US on June 12 in a fixture that will test their resolve immediately. But Alfaro’s teams have a habit of being awkward, low-block opponents who punish mistakes, and a squad that beat both Argentina and Brazil at home in qualifying cannot be dismissed. Their best World Cup run came in 2010, when they reached the quarter-finals for the only time, beating Japan on penalties before a narrow 1-0 defeat to eventual champions Spain.

There is a longer arc to this return, too. Paraguay is set to co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside its South American neighbours, with the tournament’s opening match earmarked for Asunción to mark the centenary of the first World Cup in 1930. For a federation rebuilding its standing in the game, qualifying for 2026 is more than a one-off: it is a chance to carry momentum and renewed belief into a decade that will culminate with Paraguay as a host nation. For now, though, the focus is simpler — a first World Cup match in sixteen years, and the task of proving the long wait was worth it.