The first thing he needs to remember is that this life/profession is very fickle...it's tough to attain but very easy to lose. More importantly, it's a privilege to be where he is - it's not his right. That makes this so much more tragic. That sense of entitlement can really screw someone up. From there, as a public figure, he needs to understand the scrutiny and find a way to come back from it. Dave Chappelle made light of it in an old stand up when he talked about how Kobe Bryant (RIP) beat the court case, but in a nutshell....he didn't let the noise affect his domination on the court. The same must hold here. Bigger clubs are becoming increasingly risk averse when it comes to negotiating and have dipped from the negotiating table for much less (aka Moises Caicedo's boatload of "reps") that scared away the likes of Manchester United. This is the type of decision that hurts the kid most, but also has negative blowback on IDV and Sporting. This poor decision might've just cost a possible future negotiation millions of dollars in transfer value because of a player's poor record of discipline or ethics/morals/standards...IDV still gets a cut of a future deal because he came through their cantera. Sporting has the most to lose as they bought a bigger share of his contract hoping for a higher rate of return on a transfer. But for him, his $1.3M annual salary might now be slashed by 25 or 30%...worst of all, he might get cut if Valladolid is trying to go hard in the paint and make an example of him.
Oh man, when it rains it pours, first Sarmiento and now Plata. I wish the qualifiers had come this month. Thankfully everybody is ok, these type of things can get ugly very fast, ala Henry Ruggs in Las Vegas. This has left a very sour taste in everyones mouth and I even read somewhere that all the spaniard pundits reaction was kind of a "AHA! no wonder this guy couldnt break into the first team in portugal, its his lack of maturity." I think we're building a bad reputations there. If they take another Ecuadorian after Kaviedes, Plaza, and Plata, I'm going to be surprised lol Valladolid are in playoff positions with a shot at promotion, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they decide to do more than just suspend him for a few games. He's been on a hotstreak.
I don't want to be that guy but Spanish pundits are always looking for any little excuse to shit on South American players...so their reactions aren't surprising to me. Hopefully this incident brought Plata's ego back down to earth and he realizes how quick his career could have ended over a stupid decision. I'm hoping Alfaro called him and chewed his ass out because he deserves it.
Alfaro, regrettably, is partially to blame for this, but I can't throw him under the bus too much...his job is tough as it is trying to coalesce a team that's median age is under 24 y/o. That being said, we've seen the discipline issue hit the seleccion in training and the excessive use of social media and public posting before and after games - something that all players have been guilty of. I hope a firmer stance is taken to mitigate these things later on.
Peru will play two friendlies in January against Panama and Jamaica. It's a good idea on their part and we should do something similar. MLS and Liga pro start back up in February so players from those leagues will be 1-2 months removed from playing in competitive games.
I'd assume that something gets scheduled, but honestly, I doubt anything gets announced now that we're entering the holiday season. It will be interesting to see if Ecuador opts to play some non-FIFA match friendlies to keep the guys warm.
Congrats to IDV. They deserved it after a fantastic second half of the season. Ramirez played really well too. Hopefully he finally matured and won't make stupid mistakes on the NT.
Yea, IDV was so dominant in the entirety of the series. I really couldn't understand how some Barcelona fans on the news networks really thought Emelec would be able to overcome the 3-1. They even admitted that it was mostly due to "guayaco pride" lol Mena's Leon lost in penalties last night, but he's been on fire for the greater part of the mexican playoffs.
BSC and Emelec should have taken note of what IDV does a long time ago. They're set up for long term success. They're going to continue selling players for years to come. In the past couple of years they've sold - Vite, Moises, Preciado, Hincapie, Franco, Rezabala, Realpe, Corozo, Plaza, Plata. I'm for sure forgetting players they've sold. No team in Ecuadorean football can even come close to matching that. One day Moises and Piero will be sold for 40m+. If Plata gets his act together he'll get sold for a good amount of money too. IDV will get 10% of those transfers. They'll be able to use those funds to invest in their cantera and the first team squad. What got IDV to the final isn't rocket science. Prior to the segunda etapa they had a good squad. They had a good mix of young players (Ramirez, Hurtado, Chavez, Pacho) and veterans (Schunke, Faraveli, Pellerano). They had holes in their squad tho. Primarily they needed a goal scorer and playmaker. They went out and got Bauman and Sornoza. They also brought in Gaibor and Jose Angulo. Every other team in Liga Pro is broke and or in debt. Liga, BSC, and Emelec all had holes they could have filled but for financial reasons they were not in a position to be able to do so. IDV doesn't get to the final if they don't bring in Bauman. Because of how they run their organiozation they were able to spend money when ever BSC has Joshue Quiñonez. Emelec has...no one lol Liga has Nilson Angulo, Sebastian Gonzales, Reasco. Liga has more talented players in their cantera that will get their chance with the first team soon. Liga's sub 16 and sub 18 won championships this past season. Anyone want to take a guess as to their opponent was in the championship games? IDV. Liga will be fine. I don't expect them to win the championship next season but like IDV they're set up for success in the mid and long term.
BSC has the potential to farm players. Back when Torreros FC was Alfaro Morenos academy them IDV, CS Norte America produced the majority of the players we were seeing in Seria A. Litterally in 1 in every 3 players passed through at least one of their academies sometimes 2 or even all 3 academies. Now that they became Torreros FC I don't see them properly producing players. Once they go to the Senior team in Torreros they get loaned out or sold to other teams. I think now apart from Josue Quinonez they still have Edwin Valencia a striker that caught the eye of the media, yt, and Celico. Let's see what happens to him. I see him getting loaned to Deportivo Cuenca if he doesn't find any space in BSC. Emelec used to make use of their affiliate team to the point where their first team was mostly players produced from their own academy. I think they have Silvano Estacio and Jefferson Vernaza as their top youth prospects. Liga due to their huge dept has been forced to rely more on youth. But there is some really good news resulting from it. Stade Reims made an offer for Maiky De La Cruz. 2 of their youth players went on trial to Ajax. We used to let so many players go because we don't have an affiliate team. That is some we really need to have to improve our youth development.
Orense has an interesting youth team as well which is why they managed to reach Seria A. Let's see what they do with it. Their youth team qualified to Copa Libertadores along with IDV and Liga de Quito.
As a Guayaco, I never understood this regionalism our country has. Like if a team plays well, give them their flowers regardless of where they're from and support any Ecuadorian team when they play Libertadores or Sudamericana, except if it's against your team. lol Ironically Leon wanted to kick Mena out and the man single handily brought them to the final. I guess that was God's punishment on Leon for being ungrateful. I think IDV are the only team that's actually in the green, which shows the merits of going all out on youth development. However, they were able to do that because they're not a traditional "big" Ecuadorian team that has to satisfy annoying, needy fans. They could implement a long term policy without any backlash. But I agree that all teams need to go the youth route not only for the teams to survive financially but also create a stronger league. A league that is constantly producing talents will lead to all teams becoming stronger in order to keep up with each other. And not to brag, but I feel Ecuadorian football is very strong. Our teams have a good core of players that compete very well against Argentinian and Brazilian teams but where we always fall short at is financial power. If we had the financial power to reinforce positions midway through the season, you would see our teams making it to international finals more often.
Every country has regionalism. Colombia has it even the USA has it (east coast vs west coast.) But I think the users here do support all teams and give credit where credit is due unlike pages like futbolecuador, yt, and Facebook. The news about Mena not continuing in Leon could have just media speculation with no truth behind it. I think it safe to say currently we are def the 3rd best league in Conmebol. Colombia and Chilean leagues have taken a fall in recent years. It a good thing we partner with Spain to structure our league out. Talking about the MX final let's compare our league to their. That Liga mx final was amazing and showed great football but their league has playoffs so even the teams in 12th places have a chance of getting into the playoffs. And for the next 5 years their will be no regulation. I'm glad our league isn't structured like that you really have to put effort all year long to get to a final. And the regulation has teams really fighting. The only thing that really hold us back. Is the debt. Imagine how competitive Olmedo could have been if they didn't have financial problems. They had a great team on paper at the start of the year.
I hate the format of our league. I just can’t stand it and I think whoever has the most points should win it. I think that format would amp up the competition. Barcelona had a decent primera etapa which could have gone our way and had us in the fina. I Also I forget, but whoever wins primera etapa gets to go to copa libertadores right away, right? A lot of the times whomever won primera etapa is not in form which makes a dull final. I remember watching Independiente during primera etapa and man those guys could barely put any passes together.
Emelec used to be a team that gave young players an opportunity. All those years they won the championship or came in second a lot of that success was due to young footballers playing an important role - Jaime Ayovi, De Jesus, Marcos Caicedo, Enner, Miller, Mena, Cuco Angulo, Ayrton, Gaibor. They used to develop their own or go after young players, give them an opportunity, sell them abroad after they stood out, then use those funds to finance the club and bring in players. It's what kept them competitive for a long stretch and also helped their finances. By being competitive they were able to qualify for copa Libertadores. I'm sure they used the money they got from transfers and international competitions to fund the stadium renovation. I don't think Emelec and bsc should turn into idv 2.0. That would require a considerable financial investment into setting up the infrastructure - scouting network, youth development coaches, schooling, real estate. Even if you do undertake a project like that you're not going to see results for the next 5-10 years at a minimum. They have to find some sort of balance tho. Between their youth development, Independiente Juniors (Vite, Hurtado, Chavez, Garcia all played for the reserve squad last season), and their project with Numancia, Idv is set up for years to come. What's crazy is that some fans think their championship this year is just a fluke. Idv will make it to a Libertadores final in the next decade. They may even win one too.
This is very debatable. Formats like that result in leagues where only 2 real teams are competing for the first spot most of the time. Where as this format keeps alot of teams even smaller teams in the mix. I think this makes it more competitive. Teams that win the first phase aim to win the second as well to avoid finals. Emelec could have won both phases and became direct chanpions but look at how other teams like 9 de octubre and Universidad Catolica were competing too. Look at how many times the smaller teams gave the bigger teams a run for their money. IDV improvement from primera etapa to second was thanks to all the changes they made in their team mid season where other teams couldn't due anything cause they already blew their budgets. BSC did great in the first phase and terrible in the second. In the accumulated table they finished 4th and in the 2nd phase they finished 9th. Being very far from deserving to be Champs. Compared to the format from other leagues it is more fair and competitive. Again look at mx. A 12th position team can go to play offs and become Champions. If I remember correctly there are a few league in conmebol that have an unfair systems like this were a lower level team can end up winning the entire league.
Would it really require that much of an investment if they already had a system in place and used to develop youth ? I don't think so the main thing is as you said is balance. In Emelec case I said it before I haven't liked a majority of their signing for the past few years. Go back to promoting youth rather than signing these random players. If anything it would be worth it to invest in scouts cause it does seem like they are struggling to find talent. Both BSC and Emelec have the tools to have great academies and produce players. I think maybe scouting and trying to find balance can really go a long way. Ofc they won't be IDV 2.0 it would be hard for any top team to replicate it to that extend with out neglecting the need to satisfy fans and continue to preform at top level but look at other teams like Aucas, Deportivo Cuenca, Universidad Catolica that produce a decent amount of youth with a lot less resources. But if you guys do want to talk about a team that does want to become IDV 2.0 keep an eye on Atlético Kin. It would be amazing to have more and more teams follow their model let's see what happens with that team. I hope Liga makes a smart move and acquires them as an affiliate team. Our academy would be godly if we made such moves.
I don’t think that would happen to our league. A two team league wouldn’t happen in serie a. Our league is broke and usually the consistent and winning teams get dismantled, they don’t last more than a season, perhaps 2 and that’s pushing it because of financial reasons. I haven’t watched Liga MX in years but having very short tournaments is not my thing. It doesn’t give you the opportunity to enjoy being champs. I did watch the very last few minutes of the game last night and it was alright. It’s like having Emelec and Independiente be champions in one year. Definitely not my thing.
Literally all the leagues in conmebol have that type of short tournament for a final except for us, Chile, Argentina and Brazil if I am not wrong. Chile Argentina and Brazil has who ever gets most points wins but at a certain point in the tournament usually it ends up being only 2 teams fighing for 1st place then sometimes the 1st place is so ahead there no more competition for 1st place anymore. I liked the fact that usually for us it litterally goes up to the last matches to decide most of the time and we still have multiple team fighting for a final. This segunda etapa had IDV, Emelec, 9 de Octubre and even Universidad Catolica fighting for the final.
Good post guys, love reading about all this. Didn’t know about that Numancia move at all. That’s pretty swell for IDV. That Atheltico Kin stuff looks interesting, I visited the site, looks organized and promising. They still have a lot of work to do though.
Yes Numancia is a move that really impressed alot of people around the world IDV is gonna make a real name for themselves in Europe. IDV will have access to European facilities, prepare players for European football and have their players looked at from all over the world. While Numancia has access to unlimited and cheap talent. IDV has already sent 4 players on trial to Numancia from Independiente Juniors. The future of this project is very promising the skys the limit for them really. Atletico Kin used to be Real Sociedad they got bought out by this company and have all the possibilities to become the next big Academy to compete with IDV. I discovered them thanks to Liga. They loaned out about 6 of their youth players to them. All players that were getting called to the U20 with Celico. Liga also lent them coaching staff and use of their facilities. I hope that partnership grows because we need it. Any know what happening with CS Norte America havent been able to follow them much recently. They used to post tons of vids from players. And bck when FEF had player cards I was able to see all the players that were developed by them. The last thing I saw from them was the news that came out where a few years back CS Norte America transferred over hundreds of players to IDV in just a few years. The number of players being produced was unreal. I still dont know how they did it. It thanks to these little guys that our league grew so much and that IDV was able to achieve the status they have today.
Conmebol will It would be costly to set up the infrastructure similar to what Idv has. They employ the best coaches in the country. Their scouting network is solid. They probably also have an analytics department. They also house and school their prospects. Bsc and Emelec should definitely look into improving their youth development systems. One reason I wasn't a fan of having 6 foreigners per team is because instead of investing in Ecuadorian talent it's much easier to simply go to Argentina or Uruguay. Bsc and Emelec may find it harder to bring on young talent. Look at how many players Idv is selling abroad. There'll be young players who choose idv over other teams because they'll be in the best position to achieve their goals - debut in primera, play Libertadores/Sudamericana, get called up to the sub17 and sub20 NTs, get sold abroad. I'm not too familiar with Atletico Kin tbh. I did notice that Celico calls up a lot of their players tho. I have no idea what happened to Norte America. It's possible they folded. Sad stuff. For awhile they were doing great things.