Imagine if Alfaro Tactics were to play relaxed after taking the lead on purpose. Like he told the players will qualify easy. Let the other team have possession so we can put some real pressure on our selves. To really prepare for the harder matches to come. To really be ready for the world cup when games get hard and out of our control. Look at everything that happened and not one team has yet to really challenge our position in 3rd place. These next coming games I expect everyone to flip the switch and really start playing on max potential. Every player need to assure their own spot in the WC. We will start polishing our self for it. And once we arrive I know we will play amazingly. We will be the black horse of this wc. Let go and aim for 8 points minimum. Let stand up to Argentina and Brazil. Let show them that we can play them on their level.
My simple advice and whishes to you guys : Don't think too much on the next WC, but focus on your next coming games. You guys are very, very close, but still not there yet. I don't know how to say this in english, but, "En la puerta del horno, igual se puede quemar el pan"
That would be hysterical… and then we find out this isn’t even our real team A. These guys are just the B squad giving Antonio Valencia, Felipao, Arturo Mina, Noboa some rest. Haha You make a very good point, let’s not forget it’s Brazil and Peru that brought down the morale of this team just a few months ago that spun us into a black hole. thankfully Alfaro and the players sound very level headed in the interviews. At the end of the day we as fans and even media can go off on our daydreams, as long as the performers stay focused. On another note I was listening to one of the Ecuadorian sports commentators talk about how Alfaro and the federation hired a Research company from abroad to break down our games and identify our deficiencies. The key performance indicator noted is our defense and more importantly our defense during counter attacks, and how much more secure we’ve looked at the back after the exercise. I find it very pleasing that Alfaro is a believer in analytics and then applying them in a quantifiable way. It’s funny to reflect on it now but: When Bolillo took the reigns and left right after the Copa America disaster, nobody wanted to coach us. ******** Cruyff for doing what he did to the team, that’s some coward shit. Alfaro has been frustrating at times and isn’t perfect but no one in the football universe would have ever imagined Ecuadors position leading up to these last 4 games, 14 months ago. He rubbed the chalk on his palms, tightened his lifting belt, and took on some weight that everyone else thought would break his back. I love that he’s brought some respect back to the team, seeing all those haters from other nations on our social media pages crying “ustedes sólo viven en el piso tirandose”, makes me smile from ear to ear. To say we are absolutely the 3rd best team in SA might be a stretch, but we’re certainly developing our own unique brand of futbol.
Agreed on all fronts. The analytics component is very interesting, and I think it'd be a testament to a forward thinking coach who sees the need for it, and a federation that approves the expense. There's a more progressive mind to the leadership under Egas and the rest of the crew, which is a big leap forward for the FEF.
Yes these are finally good signs and improvements from FEF. Its nice to see they are making these moves. IDV also implemented these strategies. It incredible to think our football and league is doing this and has this. Alot of people wouldnt believe that a team in Ecuador is doing this. I dont think many teams in South America are.
Yea my point was there is really no way for us on the outside to really know how profitable this business model is for an Ecuadorian club long term. You have to consider for every Plata and Hincapie there could be 100's that don't amount to much. IDV may very well be making it work for them I'm sure they have turned some profit especially with their good results in Copa Sudamericana and Libertadores. Hopefully they will continue to unearth these young gems for the benefit of the NT. Also I was referring to a rumor I heard about Sporting intentionally trying to keep Plata's value low which is why they barely playing him so they could coerce IDV to sell full ownership to them before showcasing him. Sporting is in the business of turning profits of these youg players so I wouldn't be surprised.
I could be wrong it was a long time ago but after the WC 2002 Kaviedes had some off the field issues and went MIA for a while then ended up back in Ecuador and only returned to the NT right before the 2006 WC.
Since we are talking about our 06 wc how much of a difference do you think José Cevallos would have made if we took him to the WC. Rather than Mora. Mora was always a limited gk. He was inexperienced and I was think honestly a benched Cevallos would have been better. Look at all the players that we had on our team going threw a bad moment at club level but shined in the nt. Cevallos was about to retire but he shined for Liga helping them obtain their Copa Libertadores just 2 years later. He been in that slump since 06 I think if he had gone to the WC he would have preformed and sweated the national team jersey. Even though he was benched he was still a keeper that had already been to a copa libertadores final, had multiple Seria A titles, multiple caps in the NT and was in the previous world cup. Why did we not take him. How far do you think we could have gone with him ? Tied 0-0 with England and gone off to penalties? Or even tied vs Germany prior and finished top of our group and have gone against Sweden? I still remember that Beckham free kick. That goal hurt to watch. Man 11 y/o me was not ready for that. There was alot of interviews lately where Mora admitted his fault to that goal. We had such a great squad we just needed a great keeper. Cevallos could have been the shining gk we needed then and we left him behind. On the other note if he had gone to that WC and shined he probably would have never came to Liga. It's crazy to think about. Something else that crazy to think about imagine if Ecuador had a Keylor Navas in the 06 wc. Man we would have def gone to semis. That squad would have been world class in every aspect.
Portuguese teams are very well known for buying cheap. Buy for $4 million then sell for $40million a couple years later. Seems like they fleece English teams the most.
It’s all variables. For all we know we could have brought Cevallos but not gotten out of group stages.
I think the biggest "what if" is that miss by Tenorio against England. If he made that I'm sure we would have won that match.
We do know, because of the volume of contracts negotiated and approved on an annual basis in comparison to other clubs. IDV's infrastructure is set up to play strengths to the numbers - it's like an angel investor or VC that start investing in early stage startups. You build a portfolio that's got some dogs, some cash cows, some stars, and lots of mediocre talent. Think about their business model: The team built a new stadium (private financing) to sustain a local fanbase that will bring ticket sales. They have a robust sponsor list. They have prize money from a big tournament win (a few years ago) They run generally low payroll as their team is young. They probably have over 200 players in the canteras across several age groups. What operating expenses are there? Electricity, meals, schooling, etc....but it's all done in house. Maybe some fringe payments to families. I'd assume they are investing about 5-10k annually on a player between housing, education, food, etc. But that player might pan out to cover operating costs and then some. If you get one contract per year that can inject $1-2m on a sale with a windfall clause that will give you 35% of a future transfer, and assuming they sell high, you might get a $2-? million extra. Imagine when this club can effectively do that several times over in a year....and in the cases where it's not a fat contract, you might see regional movements where players are transferred, loaned, or whatever, and the club might make $50k-$100k...maybe more. Again, it's volume. 1 gem changes everything. With the right system in place, a lot can happen. This model has never been seen in Ecuador, first and foremost, because it's capital intensive to start: run years of losses, building, setting a course for a future that might or might not pan out, and poof...it's there. I'm reasonably sure IDV made their money back and then some. They bought a club in Spain!
It's a painful memory, but amazing at how much time as passed and how much futbol has progressed in Ecuador because of those watershed moments. Also, some of our posters, predate the 06 world cup. That's amazing to look back at, too. The truest OGs
Great post And the crazy thing is that's without factoring in the fact that even if they don't find a gem (like Plata, Hincapie, Moises), their good scouting allows them to have two other routes to profit from. The first route is finding a Tier B talent (like Pedro Vite), giving him play time to show his skills, and selling him for good money abroad. The second route is finding players that are a bit older (like Arturo Mina or Julio Angulo) and selling them when they have a good season. Let's hope we have a good world cup like Celico said so we have another campaign to look fondly back upon.
[QUOTE="Allan_Somewhere, post: 40091729, member: Let's hope we have a good world cup like Celico said so we have another campaign to look fondly back upon. [/QUOTE] If Colombia and Costa Rica can make Quarter finals we can too. We have a team that deserves it and that I think can do it with a very unique identity and style. 06 was definitely a great time and something I look back at repeatedly.
The great thing is that even if we fail to make quarters, this team is so young that it can try again 2 more times (barring any major injuries or internal issues).
He’s a pretty new YTuber,but his videos are well founded,subjective and nicely edited,I see him growing,he also has a couple of videos on Ecuador’.
This is a bit off topic but I saw that for the 2026 world cup we get 6 places in CONMEBOL, which I'm assuming is actually 5.5 with the last place being repechaje. The biggest winners to me are Asia (+3 spots), Africa (+4 spots), and CONCACAF (+2 spots). Will be nice to see new nations debuting or coming back in the world cup.