Wrong place, wrong time

When I first heard about Paraguay forward Salvador Cabañas being shot in the head and staying at a Mexico City hospital in critical but stable condition, the first thought that went through my head after hoping he didn't die was "Paraguay is screwed, now it can kiss its hopes of going far in the World Cup goodbye."

What the 29-year-old forward's tragedy shows us is that soccer players are celebrities nowadays, whether they like it or not, and as such they are targets that should think twice about the places they go to, especially at night.

Cabañas was just minding his own business at a local bar at 5 A.M. when he was shot. He was at the bar with his wife and some other people. When I heard that, I thought that this all could have been avoided if they had just gathered at their house.
It's not like Cabañas was looking to get drunk or pick up women, he was just having a nice time with his wife. However, that is 20/20 hindsight, easy to say now.

Cabañas was, by far, Paraguay's best player and their ticket to reaching the quarterfinals for the first time in their history. The closest they had come was in 1998, when they lost to host and eventual champion France 1-0 in overtime. In 2002, they reached the Round of 16 once again but were heartbroken after a goal in the 88th minute by Germany sealed their fate in another dramatic loss.

In 2006, the "Guaranis" couldn't make it out of the first round.
2010 was supposed to be different after finishing in second place behind Brazil in qualifying and proving to be the best TEAM in South America, with Cabañas being the team's top scorer with six goals in 15 matches.

Paraguay has an easy group stage in the World Cup with defending champion Italy, New Zealand and Slovakia and should have no problem going to the second round. However, that is as far as they are going to go without Cabañas, since they will likely be facing Cameroon, Denmark or the Netherlands.

There is a saying that bad things come in threes, and that has certainly been the case for this year's World Cup contestants. Last October, U.S forward Charlie Davies was seriously injured in a car crash and put his WC chances in serious jeopardy. In November, Germany's starting goalkeeper Robert Enke committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train traveling 100 mph. Now the Cabañas incident validates the saying.

Let's hope that this is the last tragedy we hear about before an event that is supposed to be the coming out party for players like him and that Cabañas can recover fully from his psychological and physical injuries soon. He will have another chance to prove how great of a goal-scorer he is in 2014.