In their 3rd World Cup appearance, “La Tri” will try to take advantage of playing in neighbours Brazil & reach better than their last appearance in Germany 2006 and confirm their status as a rising power in Latin America football.
History
The Ecuadorian has a rather short history with the World Cup & major tournaments in general, they have qualified twice before to the World Cup, the first in Korea & Japan 2002 edition & in the consecutive one in Germany.
Their first appearance on the grand stage wasn’t so successful, they were in a group with Italy, Bronze medalist Croatia & Mexico, they lost their opening game to Italy 0-2, then lost again to Mexico 2-1, in a game that saw Agustin Delgado score the nation’s first ever goal in the World Cup, they then recorded their first win too by defeating Croatia 1-0, but it wasn’t enough to see them through to the next round.
In their 2nd appearance in Germany they were drawn with the hosts, Poland & Costarica, they defeated Poland with two goals to nil, Costarica 3-0 & lost to Germany 0-3 but qualified to the 2nd round as runner ups of the group after some exciting attacking football. they clashed with England in the 2nd round & lost narrowly 1-0 with a trade mark David Beckham free kick.
Strengths
Ecuador, as most of Latin teams, depend mainly on attacking play thanks to the great individual skills that the Latin Americans possess, they are a team that prefers play on the wings thanks to the speed of players like Antonio Valencia & Christian Noboa, who plays with Dynamo Moscow, when on their day, they can make life very hard for any team, ask Argentina & Uruguay about it!
The current squad still possess some of the old guard who featured in 2006 like Walter Ayovi, who plays for Mexican powerhouse Pachuca, Segundo Castillo, who plays for Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia & Edison Mendez , who’s the 2nd most capped player after legendary name Evan Hurtado, Mendez doesn’t just have International experience, he also has some European experience since he played before with PSV Eindhoven where he reached the Semi Finals with them and was even in the 50 names list for the “Balon D’Or” in that year.
The Ecuadorians place great hopes on ex-Sporting Lisbon forward Felipe Caicedo to fill the gap left by the tragic death of team star Christian Benitez, The Al Jazeera of UAE forward played a big role in the Qualifying campaign that saw them finish 4th & was the target man for the team, something they’ll hope to see replicated in Brazil.
Weaknesses
As mentioned, the Ecuadorians play a very entertaining attacking football most of the times, but this leaves them regretting a lot, the team some times leave the impression of “tactical naivety”, they don’t know how to transform all this domination & flare in their game play to a winning formula, they sometime end up losing despite being the better side.
Another problem that coach Rueda will have to fix is the wastefulness of his attackers, The Ecuadorians reach the goal a lot during the game , but they lack the finisher who can finsih all this offensive play in the net, Caicedo is a good striker but he misses so much more than he scores & at the end of the games when you look at the statistics you’ll see that they have created like 8-10 chances per game to score but ended the match with only one goal!
These two mentioned reasons have cost the Ecuadorians the ability to seal their qualification early to Brazil & made them wait to the final rounds to confirm their seat, they have to show more reality & tactical awareness in the World Cup if they to make the jump from just an entertaining team to the dark horse of the tournament maybe.
Team Star
Manchester United Antonio Valencia is definitely the name the Ecuadorians look up to make the difference. The ex-Wigan winger is the current national team captain, and is considered one of the best across the history of the nation. He was one of the best performers in the 2006 World Cup & also one of the very early Ecuadorian players to play his trade in Europe.
Most of the team style of play depends on the speed of Valencia and his movement up the right flank & Ecuadorians will hope that Valencia will be in a better shape than what he appeared with during the last season with United which saw him decline in form greatly as the whole team does.
Keep an eye also on Dynamo Moscow’s Christian Nobao, the midfielder is one of the best players in the Russian league since his debut with Rubin Kazan, and his ability to cover multi roles in the midfield & his dribbling ability makes him an essential asset to Rueda in the team.
Coach
Reinaldo Rueda may not be a famous name on the international stage, but he’s in Latin football, he’s the name who took Honduras to the 2010 World Cup, he also led his native country, Colombia, in the U-21 World Cup to a 3rd place finish back in 2003, he also took helm of the senior team, but wasn’t as successful.
The 57 years old has great tactical flexibility, he shifted his style of play from defensive minded with the Honduras, for which he was criticized heavily, into a much attacking & exciting football with the Ecuador. He’ll try to build on the successful qualifying campaign and put on a better show in the World Cup than the one he had with Honduras last time where he was eliminated from the group stages after some very defensive & negative showings.as mentioned, if he manages to increase the effectiveness of his attack & make his team more of a realistic rather than an entertaining team, his team can cause trouble.
Verdict
Ecuador has a balanced group with France, Switzerland & Honduras, they may not be the favorites to go through given France & Switzerland superiority in terms of players & experience, but they are more adapted than the Europeans in playing in the humid atmospheres of South America, and given the proximity of Ecuador & Brazil, expect a big support from their fans in the stadiums & even the Brazilians will be cheering for their neighbors. those two factors may see them pip one of the Europeans to a place in the 2nd round, but this could be as far they possibly could reach given the ability to face Argentina in the 2nd round and the limited resources of players & experiences in such matches.