In the opening match of the World Cup, Ecuador surprised hosts Qatar with a 2-0 win that not only broke the host's opening game curse, but also put to rest those pre-match rumors that were spreading that they would have trouble fending off Qatar's deluxe attack.
Despite a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands and a 0-1 defeat to Senegal in the third leg, Ecuador earned global acclaim and respect for its outstanding performance.
Five and a half years ago, when Ecuador shone on the World Cup stage, they had a brief encounter with the Chinese men's soccer team: both countries were ranked 70th in the FIFA ranking. The Ecuadorian men's soccer team at the time even mocked itself, in stark contrast to the national team's slogan, "Dreams are priceless," and the fans waving "If the heart is there, the dream is there" on the sidelines.
However, to this day, national soccer fans who are used to being spectators in front of the TV seem to have lost their "hearts" and "dreams", while Ecuador has produced the most valuable national team. Not only did they beat traditional soccer powers such as Colombia, Chile and Paraguay, but they also managed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar and performed well on the field.
To explain Ecuadorian soccer's meteoric rise, one can simply attribute it to the "great man theory," in which one or a few heroes make an era on their own. Examples include Incapié, who is a starter for Leverkusen; Real Madrid, who have also shown interest in Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo; Estúl Piñán, who reached the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League with Villarreal last season; and the veteran Enner, who scored only three goals in two matches.
But the truth is that the progress of Ecuadorian soccer is more a product of changing times.
Valencia impressed the world with three goals in a chess match between Messi and Crow.
Since the mid-1990s, Ecuadorian soccer has undergone dramatic changes. Valencia, the former Manchester United star and Ecuador's most famous footballer, was a beneficiary of this wave of reforms. His mother sold drinks outside the stadium, while his father sold the bottles to a garbage collection point in downtown Quito. Valencia's job was to help his father collect these bottles and play soccer barefoot in the open spaces around the stadium in his spare time.
One day in 1996, a scout buying a drink from Valencia's mother outside the stadium overheard his extraordinary soccer talent and subsequently took him to a new training facility funded by the Ecuadorian Football Federation.
Valencia scored in the first match of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Also in 1996, the Confederation of South American Football (CONCACAF) underwent a major administrative restructuring. Take the World Cup qualifiers as an example: before then, the 10 member countries of South America were divided into 2~3 groups, and depending on the number of groups, the first and the second place in the group advanced directly. This competition system was less competitive, promotion was efficient, rough and simple. From 1996 onwards, the competition system suddenly became a marathon home and away two-round points system among the ten member countries.
This marathon system of home and away matches has proved to be more in keeping with the distribution of CONCACAF member nations. The fact that there are only 10 teams in the SFA makes for a short cycle of matches with long intervals between them for the national teams - traditional giants like Brazil and Argentina can keep themselves in shape with quality international friendlies instead of practicing; however, smaller countries like Ecuador do not have quality matches for a long period of time, and so it is it is difficult to improve its level of play.
In 1996, the South American Football Confederation (CONCACAF) began to follow Europe's example by arranging international friendly matches for its member countries. In this way, not only could member countries participate in quality matches on a regular basis, but their incomes also became stable. As the number of matches increased, the frequency of national team training increased, and naturally the bonding and combativeness of the national teams improved. The revenue generated by the adult national teams can help soccer associations hire better coaches and develop youth training.
This change in management paradigm is particularly important for improving the standard of a small soccer nation like Ecuador. Until 1996, Ecuador had won only five matches in their long history of World Cup qualifying. Since then, they have made great strides: in 2002, like China, they advanced to the World Cup for the first time in their history; four years later, Germany managed to make it to the knockout stages of the World Cup; and now they are playing in their fourth World Cup.
Moises, Brighton midfielder - Caicedo.
Their progress was so rapid that many believed Ecuador was still a weak team competing in the tournament purely to fill in or avoid a fiasco. Even the rest of CONCACAF was not prepared for their rise to prominence, and in 2004 Ecuador withdrew from the Copa America for a fantastic reason: the organizer's hotel where they had initially booked their stay refused them on the grounds that they were hosting the Argentine team.
At the same time, the Ecuadorian economy has undergone tremendous changes since the mid-1990s. In the eight years from 1999 to 2007, Ecuador doubled its GDP and then maintained an average growth rate of 4% per year. The strong economic performance soon appeared at the soccer level: those talented Ecuadorians no longer needed to study abroad to realize their talent. At the same time, Ecuador's local league began to attract foreign players from other South American countries, especially Argentina.
In 2008, Ecuadorian club Quito Sporting University won the Copa Libertadores, ushering in a national soccer highlight.
Winning the title that year sent all of Ecuador into a frenzy, and even the Valley, the league's longtime rivals who had been old and dead, went independent and congratulated the Quito Sporting University team as well - as historian Tony Jutt writes in his book - soccer unites nations. Many of today's new generation of Ecuadorian players have been inspired by the trophy to go professional - Incapié and Moises, who were working independently in the Valley at the time - and Estupinian, who is on the Quito Sporting University ladder.
It's worth noting that the Quito Sports University team that won the championship featured local players as their team, proving that Ecuador's youth training is starting to reap the rewards. The collective influx of a new generation of Ecuadorian players is beginning to catch the attention of traditional soccer powers.
In the case of Valley Independence, for example, since 2008, the club has gradually established contacts and cooperation with clubs in Germany, Belgium and Argentina, laying a solid foundation for the departure of quality young players. Among them, the famous Belgian soccer consultancy "Two Over One" has cooperated to establish a complete overseas promotion channel, divided into different phases - similar to the Red Bull Group and City Football Group.
At this World Cup, Ecuador continued to use quick transition tactics in the qualifiers and had good results with quick forward passes from a few key players in key positions.
Although the Ecuadorians eventually said goodbye to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the group stage, they earned the respect of the whole world with their performance. We also believe that they will bring more surprises in the future and become an effective force in world soccer.
Putting yourself in the right place and finding a path that suits you sounds simple, but it's rare in the real world of soccer - because there will always be unrealistic dreams of distraction and eccentricity.
