In 1812 the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published one of the most famous of their fairy tales: Snow White. The tale has several elements that have endured for more than two centuries: an evil stepmother who plans to kill Snow White out of jealousy; a magic mirror that answers “Reina, here you are the most beautiful, but in the house of the dwarves it is Snow White as a goddess” when the stepmother asks: “Mirror of the moon, mirror of the star, who is the most beautiful?” ; stepmother’s poisoned apple; and a prince who finds her in a glass coffin and rescues her.
Many of you will find it inappropriate to bring this to a sports column and give a burlesque comic tone to something as serious as the fiasco of our National Team in the Copa América 2021. What happens is that sometimes the explanations of leaders and technicians have a grotesque and ridiculous tone that drives fans and journalism to take them very little seriously. Usually the arguments hide obvious falsehoods; deceptive lies. Others portray arrogance and arrogance.
The little mirror of the stepmother in the story was wielded, for example, in 2016 when the National Team, on its way to Russia 2018, began to roll down the cliff, after a brilliant start with a victory on the road against Argentina and 12 points in four games. The coach of that time, who boasted of himself as a universal football genius, kept raising the magic mirror to see his image on the glass surface and asked who is the best and most intelligent coach on planet Earth and its surroundings ? Time would later say that the surface of Mercury lied to him when he replied: “It is you, the number one, the incomparable ”.
Pride, arrogance, immodesty are the worst defects of those who lead groups. Lack of self-criticism is the shortest way to disaster. The most recent example is that of José Mourinho, who called himself Special one (in our language the chosen one). His petulance lasted a short time at Real Madrid, crushed by the best team in the world at all times: Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Ecuador, led by Gustavo Alfaro, begins to bear a painful resemblance to that of Gustavo Quinteros who collapsed on the way to the 2018 World Cup. A good start, a good review and then flat tires, a hole in the gas tank and sugar in the engine. June has been the month of stumbling. The Tricolor lost the two games in the qualifying rounds and in the Copa América they have a defeat and two draws, the latter after being in advantage.
Alfaro does not find coherent arguments about this noisy shot. With each questioning he has appealed to the “deconcentration” of his players and arbitration damage. And their mistakes? Was it always correct in the proposal, the call, the election of its holders and the changes? Yes, for the Argentine coach everything in him has been successful. The most worrying excuse has been his mention of “extra-football issues” as the trigger for the defeat against Peru in a fatal game. What he wanted to say? To what or to whom did you allude with that extreme complaint? Alfaro is morally obliged to clarify his version. The most accepted interpretation, in the absence of clarification, is pressure from leaders and businessmen to name footballers or make headlines. No one can be accused of echoing rumors, since the versions are born from the silence of the coach and the leaders. It is enough to remember that statement by Bolillo Gómez that during his time in the National Team he gave the names of ten or twelve players and the rest were given by leaders, agents and influential employees of the FEF.
Alfaro is very different from Gómez, but it works against him to leave dangerous balls stinging in the candela area without throwing them into the stands. The election of the representatives for the Cup has had serious questions on all lines. It is not understood to give ownership to footballers only by military in foreign clubs, where they have not played for months. The loudest cases are those of Moisés Caicedo, Pervis Estupiñán and Ángelo Preciado. Pedro Pablo Perlaza was a starter being discarded by his club. Quality and active sides such as Mario Pineida (called) or Romario Caicedo (they did not remember him) are not taken into account. The Byron Castillo thing does not admit any alibi. If there is doubt about his nationality, why does the FEF allow him to perform in the national tournament and Conmebol accept him as an Ecuadorian in the Libertadores? How long are the FEF leaders silent on this issue? For many fans these ‘mistakes’ have a regionalist ‘extra-football’ stink. Is it true?
The lack of effectiveness of the forwards used by Ecuador in its three presentations is striking. Alfaro has lined up Enner Valencia, Michael Estrada, Gonzalo Plata, Fidel Martínez, Ángel Mena, Leonardo Campana and Jordy Caicedo. All that troop has barely scored four goals. The five goals against have always been due to defensive or goalkeeper errors. It is not the same to err than to be “deconcentrated”. The latter is putting yourself out of the game; be distracted. To err is to make bad decisions in an instant of the game, something very common in national defenses. The flyers have been a calamity. The one who shows the most virtues is Jeghson Méndez, well in the cut, successful in the first pass and timely help for the rear; but he has always come out for Cristhian Noboa to enter, far from his best moments.
In general, Alfaro’s intelligence to reformulate his approach and introduce changes in search of improving performance has not worked. It seems that this is not a virtue of hers. Keeping Silver on the bench as his most destabilizing attacking element is a sign of his poor ability to hit the mark. Against Peru he was not even on the bench.
Today the classification depends on beating Brazil, drawing or losing by the smallest difference and that Venezuela does not beat Peru. Is there a chance to beat Verdeamarelha? Nothing is impossible in football, but to twist fate you have to possess attributes that produce the illusion of victory. Just compare the values of each team: Neymar, Casemiro, Thiago Silva, Gabriel Jesús, Everton Ribeiro. Ecuador bases its aspirations on young people who have not played in their clubs for a long time and on a 35-year-old national with gas for only one time. Maybe we can be fourth out of five and qualify for the quarterfinals to continue the tortuous path of the Copa América 2021.
At the end, I remembered two ‘journalists’ from the Luchito court who shouted a few years ago: “Before they thrashed us in the Copa América; now we are a world power ”. Where are these rambunctious propagandists, obsequious guest travelers? (OR)