Maybe we can get Carlos Gruezo for the U20. He is no longer Zubeldia assistant coach. Joe Armas could still be a Good option too. I would love to see Segundo Castillo go to El Nacional. But that would be hard in their financial situation and they got relegated to 2nd division. I don't know if he would coach the youth national teams.
I’d like for Joe Armas to gain more experience first. Imbabura didn’t do well when they were promoted to Liga Pro and his spell with IDV Jrs was subpar as well.
His best option now to get experience would be El Nacional but will be hard in their situation. His cycle at Imbabura is pretty much finished.
El Nacional is in shambles. They have been for several years now. A lot of teams aren’t in great shape - Emelec and BSC have their respective issues. I think IDV is going to dominate Ecuadorean football for several years. I think there will be a drop off with Liga. Their core is aging and Alvarez is terrible. They’ve been successful the past couple of years but a lot of that had to do with Paz building the team. Ramirez may be sold as well. He’s arguably their best player.
If he can't turn it around in training to win that spot back, he's going to get loaned out. Players hit funks, and perhaps Italy was his. I still think he can regain hope, but he now needs to outshine his colleague- it's all up to Pervis now.
Pacho made the fifa 11 for 2025. What a beast this guy has been for all the big names that were poised to be “stars” in the last World Cup, he has been the best of them all. Insane what a solid manager can do
Bellingscam over Caicedo is crazy. Bellingscam had a horrible season and goes to show nationality does influence these awards.
R.I.P Mario Pineda, there has to be some kind of backstory here, I heard a player from BSC had requested security I wonder if this was related.
Him Jonathan Gonzalez, I think 3 players from the same 3rd division team. I think Bryan Angulo got attacked and shot at. PPP got kidnapped. Last year there was a few IDV youth players that got killed & one from BSC. It crazy.
Greetings from Quito, ya'll. The story definitely has some strange backstory twists. Apparently it's some sort of love triangle, and it appears this might have been a targeted hit by a jealous or crazy ex of the deceased woman with Mario. In any case, two sicarios came and shot up the meat shop....really crazy stuff. May he RIP.
Wishing my brothers here a Merry Christmas. Hoping that everyone has a great holiday with your loved ones. Saludos desde Quito.
Liga is putting a $7 million price tag on Ederson Castillo, who according to outlets here, is the crown jewel of the cantera. Thus far, Manchester United's interest is piqued and POSSIBLY Real Madrid. He's 17 years old and is a defensive midfielder. His reps are the Kancha agency that also manages Pacho, Franco, Angelo Preciado, Anthony Valencia, and el Choclo Quintero. Interesting...
Happy new years fellas. Hope everyone has started strong! anyone else lol’ing at the narrative that Kendry has failed because of his lack of discipline. Chelsea sent Paraguay best player at 23 years old to be his competition - enciso was never going to sit bench after being a set starter for Brighton in the premier. I’m typically one to call it how it is when it comes to mental and discipline short comings of our guys, but for once I think his past is coming to bit him in the butt lol
Paez hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt unfortunately. It seems like he may change teams. It’s up to him to perform.
Hey guys, ive been spectating this thread for a while and decided to drop down my analysis on how we should line up going into the WC. as of today 11/1/26 First and foremost we have to look at AFCON and our opponents Ivory Coast. After watching every single highlight of their qualifying process AND all of their AFCON games. to be honest. I simply am not impressed. now dont get me wrong the way we play is extremely frustrating, we know we can do better. but if we look at the games. a 1-0 win to Mozambique. 1-1 Draw to Cameroon. and a 3-2 win against Gabon. Topping the groups with 7 points. they played 2 competent teams. and struggled badly in the game against Cameroon (a team who couldn't even qualify for the world cup and who WE easily beat). also conceded goals against a Gabon team (without aubameyang) that i simply think we wouldn't concede (national pride may be talking here but still go back to the game) then a simple walk over where it seemed they got there act together against Burkina Faso with a somewhat dominant 3-0 win then yesterday happened. absolutely horrible performance its laughable. against a Egyptian team that we for sure are miles better than. Now how should we go into this game without our captain caicedo. Simple. Just get as much muscle in the field as possible. Ivory coast for a african team that is seen as a physical team, really flaws in set pieces. alot of these goals they concede are either from inexperienced mistakes from the defense, or set pieces. so i think a line up in a 4-2-3-1 Consisting of Galindez, Ordonez, Torres, Pacho, Hincapie, Castillo, Vite, Yeboah, Plata, Angulo, Enner. Now i know there are 2 players that are very questionable to start. First definitely being Felix Torres. His 2025 campaign is definitely one for him to forget. after the loss to BSC, corinthians really sort of lost hope for him and on top of that the transfer ban from FIFA resulting him to not play has probably taken a toll on his mental. But with ongoing talks of him leaving corinthians i feel like he can definitely pick up where he left off. Now why start him in the opening match. like i said earlier. set pieces. this guy is an absolute machine in the box. we saw vs uruguay back in 23. so having someone in the box who we know can score in that range is necessary. Now for the next, Denil Castillo. Cons, inexperience with the NT, and not very physical. PROS, the guy is a 6,2 2022 moises. he can do anything that caicedo was able to do in 22. i honestly dont know why he doesnt play as much as he should for la tri. Now it may be a bit confusing to start him over someone like alan franco. but lets go back to the game against senegal. franco was absolutely getting man handled and then getting subbed off by half time. now since we are missing moises i feel like vite would need to put a little more work in this game. to give denil the space for him to create. something he does alot for is club. now yes he still is young but we still have yet to see the best of him. Otherwise in for the attack i do think enner is old so we have to for sure sub him off by halftime. Now for the game against Curacao (our 3 points) Nothing much to really take away going into the game. id prefer if we lined up like this in a 3-2-4-1 Formation: Valle, Ordonez, Pacho, Hincapie, Moi, alcivar, Yeboah, Paez, Plata, Angulo, Arevalo. now why play valle. why not its the world cup against a team who will probably only get 2 shots off. and we know how well he did in that game against brazil. so for him its a straight to business game. also arevalo. he needs to play more so a game against. a team like Curacao is the perfect way to get the ball rolling in his hopefully long career with la tri. now paez. welp starboy u went to chongo to much. but truth is there still his hope for him. lets be real. he was never gonna start over ensicio. also dont forget those first 2 months in europe he really adapted well and was playing wonderfully. i just think he just isnt as high of a caliber player currently. than ensico leaving him shut out the squad completely. and hes going somewhere new to get more playing time. also a game like this is just something to get some fresh legs and playing time for all the players. Now Germany Germany’s World Cup 2026 qualifying was not at all how it was supposed to go. it was very messy. They lost unexpectedly to Slovakia early on, their first-ever away defeat in qualifying, it looked like niegelsman was very confused on how he wanted to play heading into the world cup and had to grind results just to secure their spot. this isnt the 2014 germany team we saw in brazil. i would say they quite are the brazil of UEFA. They looked disjointed at times and only sealed qualification comfortably at the end with a big win after earlier scares. That reveals cracks, not confidence. Now us, by contrast, were not scared to punch above our weight (we are tied for second as the best team in SA), and we also beat the world champs. i think we are all stuck on the illusion that Germany is the big team that they were. but its just not the case. and also you cant forget. where we are playing. New york/New jersey. a HOME game for us. without a doubt. every single ecuadorian is going to try their hardest to get to this game (i myself already have tickets) and know the amount of tension in the crowd going into a game like this. So how would i line up. similer to how we did against argentina. 4-4-1-1 galindez, Franco, Ordonez, Pacho, Hincapie, Angulo, Vite, Moises, Yeboah, Plata, and for our striker ????. i honestly have no clue who we should play for that germany game. i want to. hear ur guys opinions on this. But at the end of the day this is our group to lose. And to be honest a minimum of 5 points or this world cup is a failure.
Welcome to the crew, hermano. Good points raised, and despite Ivory Cost and Germany possibly being winnable games, mentally speaking, I FEEL that Ecuador as a whole lacks some of the hunger to make deep runs. We have the talent, and certainly, we have the potential, but in execution, we falter. The '22 WC was a classic example of that "jugamos como nunca" perspective, which we simply can't shake. With the talent we have, the numbers/data doesn't lie...we are underperforming relative to our ceiling (with exception to the defense). While the Ivory Coast might show weaknesses in their game which we can exploit with a good game plan and tight play, they have one edge over us- they are continental champs in a tournament which is a pressure cooker of expectations. AFCON is messy and chaotic, and they won it 2 years ago. They made a deep run this year and narrowly lost to a very strong Egyptian squad. That's something to watch closely. That experience matters. As for the Germans, who have been sleepwalking for two WC cycles, they have a psychological edge, and that one is an absolute advantage. Their players are all starters in elite squads, and they regularly make deep runs in continental club tournaments with a core of the squad regularly winning bundesligas. That too counts. None of this is to say that Ivory Coast comes in guns blazing and plays lights out ball, or that the Germans finally wake up and steamroll everyone like they did in 2014, but there's at least a chance. For Ecuador to play their best, and to allow the defense to continue excelling, offensive-minded players need to start scoring when called for NT play, and sadly, we can't yet crack that code. It's partially a coaching issue, but it's mainly a mental one. Beccacece even said that the expectation and mark of a good tournament is making it to the top 8. Therein lies the dilemma, he caps our potential, and it will absolutely permeate into the players. While we might not be world beaters on paper, we go into games accepting that a draw is a functional outcome, and that we can move to the next game to try and chase the next result. There's only a handful of players (Hincapie, Pacho, Caicedo) who seem very frustrated with constant draws and lackluster performances, but none of them are able to still rattle the cages of the other teammates to elevate play as a whole. The big difference with Argentina, is that whether it's a big or small match, each game is a "final". Uruguay also plays with a similar intensity. We don't play that way. Even Colombia in past WCs since 2014 actually looks like they play way above their potential when in big tournaments even if they don't win it all- folks just tend to agree they do really well in tournaments. Long gone are the days of an Edwin Tenorio who would yell at his teammates to "meterle huevos" and hold the lines, or an AV25 who used to do the same in WCs sometimes as the only guy out there trying to make things happen...these lads still lack the onfield leadership to elevate the ceiling and do what Morocco did in the past WC, or what the traditionally big squads do in tournament play which is just "go out and win it". I'm cautiously optimistic that we can pull good results, but my pragmatic-side always thinks that we yet to exorcise our small-country mentality. I hope your assessment is truer to the facts and that we can run through these 3 games with sensible tactical shifts and intentional attacking that leads to healthy scorelines to help our defense not carry games.