The National Team has played twelve games in the qualifying rounds for Qatar 2022 and has used twelve different formations and in most of the games it has tried the strangest systems. All this undermines the stability of the team and causes distrust in footballers. The untimely summons of injured players or players in poor sports form and the repeated summons of footballers from the same club is also surprising. Coach Gustavo Alfaro can deny it, but that perception is definitely installed in almost all soccer fans.
I cite two examples. For the triple date that has just ended, he called two players from Independiente del Valle: goalkeeper Moisés Ramírez and winger José Hurtado. Ramírez was the goalkeeper who was consecrated in the South American sub-20 and in the World Cup of the category under the direction of Jorge Célico. Today he is a starter in his team, like Hurtado.
Ramírez was chosen to cover against Bolivia in a match that was only a training session with the public. The press addicted to the leaders of the FEF raised the tone of the usual praise and sinned in excess. Ecuador was said to be a “hellish machine.” You know who I mean. They give their opinion on commitments of various kinds. Independent journalism acted with caution because the adversary arrived in Guayaquil only to comply and aligned a few headlines, more substitutes and several sub-23s.
DT de la Tri lacks self-criticism; complicated games are coming.
Then came the fiasco against Venezuela. You don’t have to be an expert in tactics and strategy to suppose that against the bottom of the tie, who in eleven games had only won two and tied one; that had 8 goals in favor and 22 against, Ecuador was going to impose control of the ball and attack from the beginning to obtain the points it needed as a valid argument to strengthen its direct classification. But an event occurred to the general astonishment. Alfaro did not want to betray his fearful and defensive ideology; his inveterate resistance to daring, daring, intrepid football. He opted for the fear and cowardice he showed when he directed Boca Juniors, an emblem club of recklessness, claw and audacity. He planted a line of three central defenders and two lanes that derailed during the 90 minutes. In front of them four court flyers who suffered cutting injuries in their own game, exceeded every minute by the Venezuelans, encouraged by the trembling that was noticeable in the knees of their rivals.
Unthinkable, the llaneros were the owners of the ball and capoteado a 21-year-old goalkeeper, with a single match of Selection. And that the three best players of the vinotinto were not on the court: Yeferson Soteldo, Salomón Rondón and Josef Martínez. We lost because Venezuela was better and because Ecuador was a disaster, to which was added an unfortunate failure of the novice Moisés Ramírez. With his habit of avoiding blame and placing it on others, Alfaro held the players responsible. Should our young archer be stoned for his mistake? He had a good percentage of guilt, but the most responsible was Alfaro, although he always hides himself in his mortifying verbiage.
Moisés Ramírez should not be blamed for Alfaro’s mistakes.
What was Alfaro’s argument for giving up reason? Questioned after the game, he replied that his intention was “to avoid the speedy Venezuelan counterattacks.” Ridiculous explanation if we consider that the rival had an anemic average goal of 0.72 per game. Did the Argentine DT speaker believe that Venezuela was Germany or England? If he had any credit left among Ecuadorians, he lost it that day. And the worst thing is that we were left with the stinging feeling that he wants to see our idiots’ faces. Alfaro lacks self-criticism.
Colombia was our most dangerous antagonist and direct rival. We played visiting in the scorching Barranquilla climate. We assumed in the coffee soccer players the desire to avenge the humiliating 6-1 defeat in Quito that caused the dismissal of their coach, the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz. There was an atmosphere of revenge in the Metropolitan Stadium. There was no such. Curiously, in this commitment Ecuador came out with a line of four (as it should have done against Venezuela) and with two attackers. Enner Valencia was not alone, he was accompanied by Michael Estrada. The duel ended goalless thanks to the performance of Colombian David Ospina and much more of our goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez.
Colombia was a disoriented campus, without ideas, disjointed. Outside Ospina, who brilliantly saved a header from Piero Hincapié (the best of Ecuador, with Domínguez), was shipwrecked in mediocrity. Its creator, Juan Fernando Quinteros, failed; His greatest hope contributed little, the left-handed forward Luis Fernando Díaz, author of two shots that Domínguez conjured in luxury saves; and Santos Borré played only with his name. The point reached by the Tricolor was the result more of defects in Colombia than of our virtues. Valencia and Estrada received few decent ratings. Sometimes Mena and other Moisés Caicedo tried something, but it wasn’t enough.
The National Team has 17 points, one more than Colombia and Uruguay, but nothing is certain due to the advance of Chile. We have six games to go, three at home and the same number of visits. We will receive Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. Perhaps Alfaro will put five defenses against the llaneros. Nothing would be surprising in the strange world of the technician’s antilogical. Perhaps we will open ourselves in offensive projection against the two best teams in America. If we want to qualify we must beat the three countries, something complicated. With them we would add 26 points, but we must get two more in the visits to Chile, Peru and Paraguay. The path we must travel is not easy.
To achieve this, the best must be summoned and the fittest on the field, something difficult if we take into account Alfaro’s background, who has already declared that he does not owe any explanations to anyone, as if the National Team had been handed over to him. The Tricolor belongs to Ecuadorians, to you, dear reader, to all of us. Polo Carrera, a former soccer player and coach, said a few days ago: “I don’t know what Professor Alfaro wants. Do you want to promote young players on a team? Do you want to go to the Qatar World Cup? Or what do you want? I see many players who, being from a team, act in the National Team ”. And Mario Canessa, in Commenters radio Caravan, urged Alfaro to say once and for all who is responsible for making the calls. (OR)