In my opinion the hardest players to develop are goalkeepers and strikers. It takes a certain kid of tempement. Obviously you need speed and strength. You can learn how to position yourself or how to use your body to shield the ball. There's things that can be coached. Whats harder to teach/learn is how to stay calm and collected inside the box. During training players probably go beast mode. But during a game it's a different story when pressure is involved. Young players don't always pan out. It happens everywhere. I'm sure Chile and Paraguay have young players that could have made big if events in their lives had different trajectories. Luck is also a factor. You can train and take care of your body well but you're always one bad collision away from wrecking your knee or ankle. Circumstances too. Look at Hincapie. What if Komar had never gotten injured? He probably would have remained on the bench. He wouldn't have been selected by Alfaro and he wouldn't have been transferred to Bayer Leverkusen.
Today's round of games made me happy to be Ecuadorian. We don't have to rely on anyone but ourselves to qualify as 3rd.
True, but tbh I’m afraid of the game against Peru. I saw about 20 minutes and give them some space they will get you. I had Quito flashbacks watching Colombia - Peru. In fact they had another counter but that Peruvian forward squandered it with his poor decision making.
It'll be different this time around. When playing away, Alfaro likes to give the other team possession and sit deep. Peru does not do well when teams defend deep since they rely too much on counters to score.
Football can be unfair. Colombia dominated Peru and deserved to win imo. It won't be easy against Peru. They're the home team so they're going to want to set the tempo and control the game. Circumstances are different. We're close to qualifying and we've picked up some clutch points since September. What's gonna be the formation? Does Alfaro stick with the formation that's gotten him results while playing away (against Colombia and Chile) or does he play a bit more aggressively? Enner is suspended. Mena probably will miss the game due to injury. I'd like to see the following lineup: Galindez; Angelo, Torres, Hincapie, Estupiñan; Franco, Gruezo, Moises; Plata, Jordy, Ayrton. Having a player like Franco is key. He's versatile. The formation I mentioned can be a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2. It can even become a 4-5-1. I'd like to see Janner get some minutes. Carcelen and Mendez too.
This is very true. There are days where Toluca fans love him and other where they throw every kind of hate at him. Liga MX just wasn't a good league for him imo. Imagine if he had gone to Boca. I just hope now he can go to DC United. This is a league that will fit him nicely and get him confident.
If he was consistent, MX would do just fine...as would Boca or DC United. The challenge is that if he's streaky, would that carry over to other teams/leagues. At this moment, my estimation is the he would still be unreliable. At Boca he'd be benched and then loaned if he didn't show an immediate impact or if he started underperforming to the pressure. My doubts around Estrada are literally about mental toughness - the skill set is there, but is he prone to dips because of emotion or pressure...or is his ceiling what we see when he's at his best, but the norm is inconsistency? - this literally separates the elite strikers from the rest of the pack. He might just not be a big game player, but maybe he'll be the late bloomer and enter his late 20s with a different mindset...maybe he plateaus, or maybe he turns into a dud. I hope for the best case scenario. If you look at Felipao's club stats, he's never had truly elite stats, but he's proved value in other ways - especially as a super sub that might score a goal every few games (in recent history). For Ecuador, his goal tally is higher than for most his club career, but did he ever pan out to be the transcendental striker we needed? Not really. The conclusion is that we really have had serious issues covering this position at the NT level.
I believe one of the reasons we don’t have many forwards is because that is a position that is taken by many foreigners in serie A. Teams want immediate results so they go for the developed product which is understandable.
He started to decline when he started getting the boca rumors and boca really did want to get him. I still think MLS would be a better environment for our Strikers to develope. Like Cuco, Campana and him. So seeing Campana move to MLS and Estrada linked to DC United seem like good move right now. I hope hope pick up their form.
What to root for before our game: A colombia loss, and a chile/bolivia tie guarantees us at least repechaje. At least according to my calculations. We'll have the advantage of playing with that knowledge by the time the players get their pregame speech. How do you guys think this will affect our gameplan? If we're locked in 5th: Go conservative and get a point? Or go all out for the win knowing we have the ultimate cushion if things go awry?
I usually comment in the Colombia forum besides Peru but since they are all a bit disappointed I don't think it would be right to post my analysis in there. Peru defended well and Colombia had 1 more shot on target than we did. I don't know if we deserved to win but Colombia definitely didn't. Rueda's gameplan was extremely predictable and it was easy to shut out. Now all of South America has the impression we're some sort of defensive side and that couldn't be further from the truth, but we do like counter attacking a lot and as somebody point out someone who defends deep can give us trouble. Good luck on Tuesday and may the best team win.
There is alot disappointment from fans following that game. Poor Rueda may have kept 2 teams out of this wc Chile and Colombia. But hey man your always welcomed here. May the best team win. Here is a pregame meme and a nice Advincula pfp.
The game on Tuesday is going to be nuts. Apparently it's going to be at 100% capacity. I'm not sure if that's been confirmed though. It'll be interesting to see how Ecuador's players handle the pressure. That crowd is gonna be hostile. Peru should not to be confused for being a defensive side. They're gonna score goals but they're also going to concede them. Ecuador will approach the game like they did against Colombia and Chile. They'll look to counter attack and do damage on set pieces. I've been thinking about it and a player like Jordy Caicedo can be useful. He can be dangerous in set pieces and his speed is an asset on counter attacks.
I'm not sure how a guy like Rueda gets chance after chance managing a national team. Ecuador was lucky Toño, Felipao, Montero, and Noboa were in their prime. There was nothing revolutionary about his tactics or squad selection. If he was coach I have no doubt in my mind we wouldn't be where we are. No way does he make Moises debut against Argentina. He probably doesn't call up Plata last year when he wasn't playing for Sporting. The midfield would have been Gruezo and Dixon Arroyo. Colombia made a mistake in hiring him.
We'll be fine since we already handled that kind of pressure against Colombia (35,000 in attendance). Rueda is living off that 2016 Libertadores win, which like Ecuador, he had a strong team that carried him and his predictable tactics.
Idk if you guys saw but our players were mad and disappointed after the game vs. Brazil, which to me is a great sign. They want to win badly and if this mentality carries over to the world cup, I have a feeling they will surprise us.
Lol I’m listening to this live YouTube stream and this guy commented that Corso struggled against Cantolao from Aucas yet he did fine against some new Liverpool signing from Colombia.
The move signals Alfaro is going for the win. Not sure that's the proper pairing to lead the attack though. A player like Washington Corozo would have been useful. Or Jhojan Julio. Someone who can play behind the striker and in front of the midfielders. Both can operate on the wing too. If Alfaro is gonna go with two forwards then we're better off going with Djorkaeff and Jordy. Or Djorkaeff and Estrada if Alfaro insists on sticking with Estrada.
Agreed - two hombres de area actually start stepping on each others toes. If that's the case, I put Jordy at the point and slot Estrada back to help feed the ball to Jordy. The two can't crowd the box together...it'll be a disaster.
According to reports from Futbol Ecuador: El once tentativo de la Bicolor: Pedro Gallese; Luis Advíncula, Carlos Zambrano, Alexander Callens y Miguel Trauco; Renato Tapia, Yoshimar Yotún y Sergio Peña; André Carrillo, Raziel García (Christofer Gonzales) y Santiago Ormeño. Lapadula goes to the bench as he broke his nose (again)