Paraguay was able to strike early and then withstand an American charge for the rest of the match and come out with a 1-0 victory in the US-Paraguay friendly Tuesday night in Nashville, Tennessee.
Paraguay forward Oscar Cardazo scored off a set piece in the 18th minute and that completed the scoring for the entire match. Paraguay was aggressive early-on, but dropped back after taking the early lead and were able to stop a series of US scoring chances.
The best of those came in the 67th minute as sub forward Eric Lichaj made a run by two defenders and crossed to Clint Dempsey in front of the net. The crowd groaned as Dempsey hit the ball into the 20th row.
Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar made two very impressive saves in the final minutes to preserve the victory. The first came in the 87th minute off a beautifully struck ball from Michael Bradley just outside the box. Villar was forced to leap and dive and just barely got a finger on the ball to tip it away.
Jermaine Jones was able to strike the ball from around the penalty spot in the final minute of stoppage time and force Villar to make another diving save.
The attendance for the match was 29,059, the largest for a game in the state of Tennessee. Clint Dempsey was named Man of the Match.
For more on the match, see the rest of the US-Paraguay StoryStream.