Ecuador soccer team

ECUADOR MAINTAIN CLIMBING

This is simply not your dad's Ecuador. Lengthy one of south usa's little bit people, Los Angeles Tri are becoming a power to be reckoned with therefore the 2014 World Cup will represent their particular 3rd tournament appearance in the last 12 years. The big basis for the rise? More people are contending in the highest club degree overseas. And they will be counting with unique motivation in Brazil: the memory of charismatic striker Christian “Chucho” Benitez who passed on abruptly in July 2013.

GLOBE CUP CUSTOMERS

The increasing loss of Benitez impacted the squad both emotionally and on the area. Nevertheless the rise in present months of Pachuca forward Enner Valencia promises to help fill the void. Valencia is in the most readily useful as a type of his job along with his speed and finishing complement the energy and combativeness of long-time intercontinental Felipe Caicedo. Nevertheless two forwards is with respect to the playmaking because of the wingers - Manchester United star Antonio Valencia from the right and Jefferson Montero regarding remaining. Ecuador's Achilles' heel is at centerback even though problems for defensive midfielder Segundo Castillo into the lead-up toward World Cup is hard to replace.

Castillo's replacement must rise into occasion because Ecuadoreans believe they are able to handle Honduras and Switzerland, which may be enough to see them through to the 2nd round.

GROUP E SCHEDULE

June 15: vs. Switzerland, Brasilia
Summer 20: vs. Honduras, Curitiba
June 25: vs. France, Rio de Janeiro

MOVIE STARS TO LOOK AT

Felipe Caicedo, FW, Al-Jazira: Ecuador's leading scorer in qualifying with seven goals in nine games. The powerful striker is nicknamed “Rocky” as a result of their love of the boxing blockbusters and has shown appropriate tenacity despite bouncing around six European clubs in the past eight years.

Walter Ayovi, DF, Pachuca: Los Angeles Tri's captain (kept) and ironman, who plays left back for their nation, was the sole player to take part in every min of the marathon qualifying promotion and it has attracted the interest of MLS groups recently. His experience in both of Ecuador's earlier World Cups, and his life-threatening left-foot, will likely to be indispensable in Brazil.

Antonio Valencia, MF, Manchester United: he is been at turns dazzling and invisible during their time with the English Premier League giants, especially in the club's turbulent 2013-'14 season. Still, the winger stays effective at game-changing performances at even greatest levels of the video game.

THE COACH
Reinaldo Rueda is a veteran tactician whom earned lasting results with all the childhood and senior nationwide teams of his native Colombia, after that included another impressive range to his resume by leading Honduras to Southern Africa 2010, their particular very first World Cup in 28 years.

It says much about Ecuador's passion when it comes to online game that their accomplishments with La Tri in the present period attained the personal thanks of president Rafael Correa, which praised his team's “unity, solidarity and delivery” on the way to Brazil. Colombians tend to be certainly delighted to see that certain of one's own has been in charge of most three of neighboring Ecuador's World Cup campaigns.

HOW THEY QUALIFIED

La Tri would not win just one roadway match during CONMEBOL qualification. Nonetheless they rode their particular commanding home-field advantage in Quito, in which visitors' lungs gasp some 9, 350 feet above sea level (by comparison, lofty Denver sits at 5, 280), to a 7-0-1 mark at Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa. Coupled with a momentous 1-1 roadway draw at Uruguay on Sept. 11, which was enough to push them in to the continent's last automatic World Cup berth.
GLOBE CUP HISTORY

After years of struggling searching for the planet's biggest phase, the twenty-first century has smiled on Ecuadorian soccer. Back-to-back trips to Japan/Korea 2002 and Germany 2006 had been simply incentive for the long drought and their particular dedicated followers have a much faster journey this time around in Brazil.

MLS/USA CONNECTIONS

Something of an Ecuador-to-MLS pipeline has actually been around over the years: Chivas American midfielder Oswaldo Minda is on the roster and Chicago Fire striker Juan Luis Anangono was at La Tri's player pool. Meanwhile Joao Plata is a valuable cog at genuine Salt Lake.

Looking further right back, Eduardo “El Tanque” Hurtado (remaining) was a dominating existence in advance when it comes to LA Galaxy in the early several years of MLS before dropping on harder times with all the MetroStars and New England Revolution … Naturalized Ecuadoran Ariel Graziani ended up being a hot-tempered character but cold-blooded finisher when it comes to Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) also New England and San Jose from 1999-2002 ...Quinindé-born Víctor Estupiñán became certainly one of a choose few foreign specialists to indulge in the MLS Combine and SuperDraft last year; Chivas American made him a first-round choose but he left the club after one season which, unlike forecasts that he would score 30 objectives, he scored just one single objective in nine appearances … Ecuador's run in the 2006 World Cup was concluded by The united kingdomt within the Round of 16, courtesy of a viciously dipping freekick strike by future Los Angeles Galaxy recruit David Beckham.