It’s do or die time in South American World Cup qualifying, and Thursday features some all-important matches between Uruguay-Argentina, Brazil-Ecuador and Chile-Paraguay. For Chile and Paraguay, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Paraguay’s World Cup hopes are hanging by a thread with only four matchdays remaining. Defeat at the Estadio Monumental in the Chilean capital of Santiago would essentially put an end to any hopes of participating in Russia, but Los Guaranies can take heart from the fact that they defeated La Roja 2-1 in their last encounter.
Chile will have to deal with the pressure of expectation. The back-to-back Copa America champions know that victory puts them on the cusp of automatic qualification with only three matches remaining. However, defeat could see them leapfrogged by both Argentina and Ecuador in the table and out of the qualifying places.
Hell yeah, the World Cup starts now. It’s time to get serious. It’s time for espionage, baby!
Chile know this, and while having a golden generation of Claudio Bravo, Gary Medel, Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sanchez helps, you still have to explore every possible avenue for any kind of sporting advantage.
Send in the spy!
NO INVITADO
La práctica tuvo la presencia llamativa de un filmador que captó el trabajo táctico albirrojo desde la ventana de un edificio... pic.twitter.com/qD5DAB2NFo— Selección Paraguaya (@Albirroja) August 29, 2017
Paraguayan staff spotted the voyeur during a tactical session and outed him on social media, but probably not before this secret agent was able to upload a recording of Miguel Almiron dancing around his teammates while screaming “This is Atlanta! You better watch your mouth!”
There’s no word yet on what Paraguay’s counterspy collected at Chile’s tactical session, but that’s probably because it was footage of Gonzalo Jara doing something unspeakable.