Yes if Domínguez is at 100% and is capable of performing like he always does. If not then no. Achilier before his slump was good. I just don't think he is capable of ever recovering from the bad form he fell into the last year. Guagua has always been mediocre but at least he can pull off a good performance here and there. With Achilier, the last few times he has played we've seen red cards and stupid consecutive mistakes that give him less of a chance than Guagua. In other words they're both not good but Guagua commits less errors.
If first place is still an option after 2 matches, we have to go for it against France. Back in 2006, we were playing against Germany at home - there was just no way in hell we were going to win that match. France will be a different story. They are beatable, especially now with Ribery gone. Of course that will depend on our mindset and confidence after 2 matches. If we play well and pick up points in the first 2 matches anything is possible. Comparing our group to 2006, I'd say Germany 2006 > France 2014, Poland 2006 > Switzerland 2014 and Costa Rica 2006 > Honduras 2014. And Ecuador 2014 > Ecuador 2006. Of course matches are won on the field so it's impossible to predict anything but I was much more skeptical of our chances in 2006.
Hmmm dont know about Ecuador 2014 is better than 2006 squad.that squad was a well oiled machine with real deal definidores like tin,tenorio and kaviedes technical abilities.defense was solid with ivan hurtado.remember that suarez put a different line up against Germany and gave the titulares a rest.it all depends on our squad performance to really see who is the better squad,based upon recent performances I'l take the 2006 squad with a young Valencia included.
I agree with the first part of your post but disagree that 2014 Ecuador is better than the 2006 version. GK is a wash they're both mediocre. Hurtado, Sombra Espinoza, De La Cruz and Reasco are miles ahead better than the defense we have now. Midfield is pretty even but you can give the advantage to 2014 with a healthy Castillo. Fwds I'll take tin delgado and tenorio over felipao and enner at this point in their careers.
Well to be fair, Manolo isn't the only one that says our 2014 squad is better than the 2006. Alex Aguinaga says the same thing Manolo does. Overall, this squad is better in lots of aspects with the exception of the defense which is where the 2006 squad takes the lead by a long shot. Truth is Ecuador had a defense a lo brasileño- with a right and left back that would beat anyone in their path down the wings and two solid, strong, and mentally quick center backs. If my memory serves me right, lots of commentators both Ecuadorean and foreign would say our defense was the best of South America multiple times. Our defensive line was beast and out performs the current one. That being said, until Jairo Campos and Morante got injured in this qualifier, this NT no tenía nada que envidiarle a Iván Hurtado, Espinoza, Reasco, o Ulises. If everyone remembers correctly, Ecuador and Argentina had the best defense in the qualifier until Campos got injured. Ecuador was the only team that had not been scored on at home and kept a clean sheet until the half way point of the Qualifier. No national team before that can make that claim. Had we not suffered injuries in our defensive line, this World Cup people would have had higher expectations for Ecuador. A lot higher IMO. Even with the loss of Chucho, If we had maintained a solid defense, I would have no problem in saying Ecuador would've been a candidate for Quarter finals no matter who the rival was. The numbers in the Qualifier speaks for itself, and I believe if we kept that momentum going from 2012 to early 2013 with no injuries or deaths affecting this squad, the forecasts people give for Ecuador would have changed in our favor. But as far as our attacking half goes, the 2006 squad didn't have a Montero, Ibarra, Arroyo, or a mature Valencia. It did have a very important Edison Mendez who was key to the midfield (which in reality hasn't really changed because when I see Mendez on the field, I see more ideas and an overall transformation for Ecuador). Edwin Tenorio IMO was defensively better than Noboa and more aggressive too. So defensively the midfield probably had an advantage over this one, but on the attack especially when it comes to speed I don't think so. Carlos Tenorio was just as important as Felipe is now and if anything Felipe's track record with the NT speaks more in favor for him than Carlos Tenorio, and although Enner doesn't have the experience of Tin, he's coming into this World Cup in his best moment and his goals are speaking for themselves. We don't have a Kaviedes which may be the key difference up front, but we have 2 good players with different characteristics to choose from - Fidel and Michael. the latter one being someone with potential to change a game, kind of like what Jaime Ivan used to do.
Despite no ribery France is looking sharp right now against Jamaica. 6 goals in 70 minutes. Benzema with the double so far. Granted it is Jamaica this still shows us they're netting opportunities. Furthermore Honduras (forgive me for the bias here) looked a lot stronger defensively against what is arguably England's starting team (at least from midfield to goalkeeper). I've yet to see the Swiss play a strong contender so I'll reserve my opinion on them. They do come in confident and well organized with a relatively healthy. The key to our success is possession, we have to hide our defensive weakness with Noboa and caicedo really holding onto that ball. Gruezo looks confident and poised to take that starting role and I honestly don't see rueda going with valencia in the midfield (it would just be impractical after not trying it at all in these friendlies).
the next video has nothing to do with futbol. just talented ecuadorean kids rapping about world issues.
Segundo Castillo, con quien chocó Luis Montes en el amistoso México vs. Ecuador, finalmente sí es baja para el Mundial.— CANCHA (@canchamural) June 9, 2014 Oswaldo Minda, quien milita en Chivas USA, fue llamado en lugar del lesionado Segundo Castillo.— CANCHA (@canchamural) June 9, 2014
Minda... Really?! This dude deserves a World Cup??!!!! Wow. This clearly shows how corrupt FEF are. No way this dude is even close to Quiñonez. I'm shocked to say the least. Huge loss for us. Specially with this crappy player replacing him. Wow.
I agree it is. I guess my gut feeling was right initially about him not making it through. This sucks! But I think the way Rueda handled the situation was very poor. How do you let go of Pedro Quinonez (the only 5 that was left out of the 24 guys we had) and you call up Oswaldo Minda who was cut from the squad a few weeks ago? That makes absolutely no sense to me. It was disrespectful in a way to Pedro Quinonez and rewarding for someone like Minda that isn't NT material and barely had any time with this NT lately. He was present in the beginning of the Qualifiers and then Pedro Quinonez ended up being there the majority of the Qualifer, yet Minda gets the pass. I just don't understand Rueda's way of thinking. To me that says Minda was originally in better shape then Pedro...so then why was Minda cut off initially? It just makes absolutely no sense to me that Pedro Quinonez wasn't the go-to man for this situation. Reinaldo better hope this works or he is going to suffer. I'm guessing he sees Oswaldo filling in as a 4th center back like Castillo. If that's the case, then It's still questionable why he called Oswaldo, but it will make some sort of sense since Oswaldo is taller and could probably fill in as. 4th center back. But then that leads to the question- why did Rueda just not call a center back (John Narvaez)? Very questionable moves by Reinaldo right now. Narvaez could have filled in as a 4th center back and sub for JC Paredes.
http://www.futbolecuador.com/stories/publica/45201?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook So embarrassing. I agree with the ranking of our jersey being the ugliest of the whole World Cup (Mexico though is pretty ugly too, I like their classic jersey much better). In top of that the bad news of Castillo not going and Minda being called up. Not good Ecuadorian news day for me.
It's not Nike, Puma or Addidas, but it's not the worse. I wore my Ecuador Jersey to the night club and hot girls were all over it. I received a lot of compliments. My top 10: 1. Belgium's kit looks the best, but is ranked #22 2. S. Korea 3. Italy 4. England 5. Ecuador 6. Switzerland 7. Costa Rica 8. Holland 9. Brazil 10. France
Ive been reading around and seeing videos , and I agree the first game of group E will be the most important of the group and the most important for Ecuador. We don't want to get to the third game needing a win , and out of the rest of the teams , honduras is the team we should feel most comfortable facing (no disrespect to them) leaving switzerland , to me this will be the most unpredictable game , what do you guys think?
I have to agree, the Switzerland game is defiantly our most important game, the game vs Honduras shouldn't give us any problems and we should be able to win it (no disrespect to them) and the last game vs France if we are in good position we should use it to rest our main players and give the other guys some time. just one day left, can't wait!!!
I am lucky enough to be attending Ecuador-Switzerland this Sunday with my son, on Father's Day no less! Should be a great match.
rueda used this line up today to face Cerámica Atlético Clube a brasilian D team. reason he called minda was to use him as a back up RB and CB he also used bagui as a center back today if i was rueda i would have called Ramirez to be our back up right/left back and used bagui as back up left/right and center called up quinonez over saritama and he would have been another option for back up CB/RB/LB this team only scored two goals by ibarra and joao god only knows how horrible saritama must have been, how off joao was in a fwrd position and how our defense must have been losing the ball and making mistakes (minda and achiller) -----------------Alexander Domínguez (Máximo Banguera)------- Oswaldo Minda----Gabriel Achilier---Óscar Bagüí----Walter Ayoví Renato Ibarra----Luis Saritama---Édison Méndez----Fidel Martínez --------------------Joao Rojas---Michael Arroyo--------------------
I agree. It's the most accessible game of the group guys, but it does not by any means guarantee we are winning. Honduras knows how to defend when it comes to keeping their arco in zero. That's very key in a World Cup. They may not be extremely threatening on the attack, but it's not a team to underestimate. The most important game is against Switzerland because you always want to start on the right foot in the World Cup and a win is what will trigger that confidence for our guys. That way we come into a "more accessible"(But not easy) game against Honduras with a very optimistic mind set which will be good for our players.
If that was the case we would've been scored on by a large margin. We won 2-0 and the game wasn't even broadcasted to my knowledge so how would all that your saying have happened?
arroyo, ibarra, martinez, even rojas should have been able to destroy a team like that easy we should have scored more than just two goals comparing similar friendlies to this one it was either a game where we chased the ball, did not hold possession to well or did not generate to much attack don't you think rueda is repetitive and most time so is the out come of our players and the game and in the past they have been our known weak spots maybe they didnt do as bad as i made it seam but an average performance from them must of cause that type game
Exactly. This is the only game we need to worry about right now. If we lose this game, kiss the second round good bye. We need at least a tie and nothing less. Honduras and France are going to be tough games. We definitely need a win in the 1st game against Switzerland to have a good chance in making it to the 2nd round. Ecuador needs to stay focus from the get go. The Wall Street Journal has Switzerland in the Final and Ecuador not making it to the second round. http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/WORLDCUPTOEE/?mod=e2fb#/?lang=en&metrics=Most Internet Users