The United States and Paraguay have reached halftime with Paraguay holding on to a one-goal lead.
Paraguay dominated the first twenty minutes of action. They had several scoring chances and were much more aggressive than their American counterparts. A few defensive mistakes, the most obvious being an intercepted pass from U.S. defender Tim Ream, led to some near-goals in the opening moments.
Forward Oscar Cardazo was able to put Paraguay on the board in the 18th minute. After Jonathan Bernstein defended to prevent a Paraguay cross, a corner kick was earned. Off the kick, the ball bounced around between players before Cardozo found himself open right in front of the net for an easy goal.
The United States looked decidedly different from that moment on. A flurry of free kicks led to some very close U.S. chances. The last, and possibly best of those, was a beautiful ball from 30 yards out by Landon Donovan that found the head of Jay DeMerit inside the box. DeMerit made contact, but the ball sailed just over the net.
Immediately following that chance, Carlos Bocanegra came in for DeMerit as the first substitute of the match in the 42nd minute.
For more on the match, check out the rest of the US-Paraguay StoryStream.