Ecuador opens World Cup, and coach has dreams of greatness

Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, 60, is far from modest about Ecuador’s chances at the World Cup: winning.

“I tell my players I’m not going to compete. I’m going to win. How would I say [o uruguaio] Obdulio Varela: we fulfill if we win”, said the coach in an interview with the FIFA website.

The World Cup can always reserve surprises. In Russia, in 2018, Croatia was a finalist. Turkey reached the third position in 2002. But an eventual Ecuadorian title would be the biggest upset in the competition’s history. Even more so for a team that will participate in the tournament for the fourth time and has never gone beyond the round of 16. This happened in 2006.

Alfaro’s speech sounds more like a call to arms for athletes. Even more so because, in the months leading up to the trip to Qatar, the coach’s plans began to be hampered by injuries.

The attacking midfielder Joao Rojas, ex-São Paulo, suffered a cruciate ligament injury in his left knee. Defender Arboleda, from the Morumbi club, fractured his left ankle and striker Ayrton Preciado underwent surgery because of a fissure in his tibia.

“I’ve already told all of them that I’m waiting for them until the last day,” said the Argentine.

The title dream doesn’t seem likely either because in the qualifiers Ecuador took the last place in South America. Finished in fourth place. In fifth, Peru played a repechage with Australia and lost. In last year’s Copa America, he managed to reach the quarterfinals against Argentina and was defeated.

It is a change of perspective because Alfaro praised Tite and even said that the coach of the Brazilian team deserves the world title. Something that didn’t go down well not only in Ecuador, but also in his home country.

Ecuador has talented players like Moisés Caicedo. The 20-year-old midfielder is one of the surprises of the current Premier League season for Brighton and has been rumored to be at Europe’s biggest clubs in the upcoming transfer window.

“The physical and technical ability he [Caicedo] has something impressive. He is a boy who has a huge future”, praised manager Graham Potter, who used to be from Brighton and now manages Chelsea.

At the same age as Caicedo, Ecuador has defender and left-back Piero Hincapié, from Bayer Leverkusen. In attack, the reference is still Enner Valencia, 34, remaining from the campaign in the World Cup in Brazil, in 2014. With 34 goals, he is the top scorer in the history of a team that came to have a leading role this century.

The country’s first participation in the competition took place only in 2002.

The team also had to overcome the controversy involving defender Byron Castillo. Chile has filed an appeal with FIFA asking for Ecuador’s place in the World Cup on the grounds that the player is, in fact, Colombian. The entity denied the request and the case went to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). With just over a month to go before the tournament begins, a change is now not seen by managers as something likely.

“We need to have an exact dimension of what we are and what to be. In my mind, there is nothing other than the World Cup. There is nothing more important than that because I fought all my life to have this opportunity”, he says. Alfaro.

With Ecuador, he maintained the same tactical pattern that he showed in other teams he managed, such as Boca Juniors and Huracán, in Argentina: a variation between 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1. In the qualifiers, in a few moments he used a line with three defenders.

Ecuador will open the World Cup against Qatar on 20 November. In addition, for Group A, they will also face Senegal and Holland.