Cada World Cup opens with Ecuadorian Valencia
score twice in a row
, beating the hosts.
The most controversial World Cup in history has begun. The opening match between Qatar and Ecuador has been marred by a lot of controversy, and both teams are probably trying to air their grievances in this match.
After the match, at least one rumor dissipated in front of a global audience - the one that Cada had bribed eight Ecuadorian players to let the opening match slip away. In the end, Ecuador relied on 33-year-old phenom Enner Valencia
score twice in a row
Kada's home field advantage was useless, failing to maintain the tradition of not losing the opening game for the home team.
advancement
The road is pretty tough.
Ecuador immediately threatened the hosts with an overwhelming attack at the start of the match. Just three minutes into the match, Ecuador scored a goal from a teammate in front of the Cada's goal. Unfortunately, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) ruled that the goal was offside by a narrow margin and the goal was disallowed. The power of the public helped save Cada from an embarrassing situation, but it triggered more conversations among netizens around the globe.
After the goal was disallowed, the Ecuadorians were not discouraged and Valencia's offense continued to fire. In the 16th minute, Valencia was fouled in the penalty area and scored a 12-yard penalty. Finally, the first goal of this year's World Cup belonged to Valencia. In the 32nd minute, Valencia scored again with a header from a tricky angle to take a 2-0 lead.
The Ecuadorian team was under a lot of pressure before the World Cup. In fact, they didn't qualify for the World Cup until November 8th. Ecuador finished 4th in South America
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After that, it didn't work.
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Chile and Peru have decided to file a lawsuit accusing Ecuador's Byron Castillo of being born in Colombia, arguing that Ecuador had falsified documents to allow him to play in a number of World Cup qualifying matches. After FIFA declared there was no doubt, Chile and Peru appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
On November 8, the CAS ruled that Castillo's documents contained incorrect information, but his Ecuadorian passport was genuine, so Ecuador retained its qualification. Because of the use of documents containing incorrect information, Ecuador will be deducted three points and fined 100,000 Swiss francs (NT$3.3 million) for the next World Cup qualifying tournament. Although the judgment did not prohibit Castillo from playing, Ecuador did not allow Castillo to play as a precautionary measure. After many twists and turns, Ecuador faced Cada in the opening match and won convincingly.
As for the hosts, Kadar has already been embroiled in numerous controversies (read: Small Country Diplomacy and Sweatshops - Kadar's Controversial International Stage at the World Cup), and the embarrassing result in the opening match has added more shadows to this year's World Cup. Fans have long viewed Kadar as a fish out of water team, questioning their eligibility to host the World Cup. In fact, it has taken more than a decade for Kheda to develop the country's sporting elite with the establishment of the Aspire Academy in Duha Sports City in 2004, and in 2014, a group of Aspire Academy trainees represented Kheda to win the AFC U-19 Championships. 2019 saw the Aspire Academy-based footballers win the AFC U-19 Championships in seven games. In 2019, the same Aspire Academy-based footballers won the Asian Cup with seven victories, defeating Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
People mocked Qatar as the underdogs, but in fact they are the recent Asian Cup champions. Today, the Asian champions were crushed by a South American team on their home turf, so we should not be too happy about it. Maybe there is still a big gap between Asian soccer and South American soccer.
