South American stamp: Valencia, the leader of an Ecuador that believes in the impossible | CHRONICLE

The minimalist colors with which they painted the walls decorate one of the rooms of the Hyatt Regency Oryx hotel in Doha. There, in the ‘bunker’ that Ecuador chose to concentrate on the World Cup Qatar 2022, some players met hours before the World Cup debut. Bible on the table, everyone holding hands and praying that everything goes as planned. So it was. The ‘Tri’ beat Qatar 2-0 in the premiere of the World Cup and took an important step on his way to history.

“Who guides our steps is God”Carlos Gruezo posted on Instagram. They were very murky weeks, moved by the case of Byron Castillo that could have left them out of the World Cup, but Gustavo Alfaro’s team never lost that faith that the Argentine coach proclaims, the “hunter of impossible utopias”, as he calls himself in his book, who this Sunday saw Ecuador’s fifth victory in the world cups

Beyond the rumors about a possible bribe by Qatar so that Ecuador let yourself be won and thus continuing with the tradition of the hosts winning in the opening match (there were 16 wins and 6 draws), the previous one always put the South Americans as favorites. And on the playing field there were no surprises or contradictions.

The ‘Tri’ dominated from the first minute. In fact, after five minutes he was already up on the scoreboard. Although Enner Valencia’s goal was annulled by a millimeter off-side that made the technology -in this case the SAOT- make its first presentation at the World Cup.

Despite that little moment of uncertainty, Enner, Ecuador’s historic goalscorer in the World Cups, scored a double. First from a penalty that he himself made (16 ‘) and then with an accurate header at 31 ‘. That is, in half an hour the game was resolved. Although the bad news is that Valencia withdrew in the second half due to physical problems.

The hosts, for their part, have not had any clear chance and have left a bad image in the first game in the history of Qatar in the World Cup. Soccer is not learned only with money.

The northerners have left good feelings in their premiere with caicedo owning the midfield and estupinán like a plane by the band. And, of course, the goalscoring quality of Enner who started the tournament in style and that, in a ‘9’, will always be beneficial.

Now, the next match will be on Friday the 25th against The Netherlands will debut this Monday (10 am) against Senegal that he will not have his great star, Sadio Mané, due to injury. Ecuador got three gold points, the three points they had to earn to be enthusiastic.

Guided by a “hunter of impossible utopias”

“Hunters of impossible utopias” is the title of the book Gustavo Alfaro published on September 15. There the coach of Ecuador tells details of what was the preparation of the team for the classification to the Qatar World Cup. She chose a sentence from the emotional and moving speech that she delivered on March 20, when Ecuador confirmed its classification. There he said that his players were the architects of this achievement.

“They had to believe. They believed from day one, they stood up, they were patient, they were persevering, they were hunters of impossible utopias. Nobody believed in Ecuador and today Ecuador is on its feet. Today Ecuador says present to the world”was part of this message.

“For me, reaching a World Cup is already a success, afterward the illusion (of doing something great) cannot be quantified, but we are very excited”he commented the day of the presentation of his book. “We are going to go out on the field being Ecuador”he warned on another occasion. And he closed one of her talks with: “The challenge is to play the best role in history in the World Cup.”

Ecuador’s best record in a World Cup was achieved in Korea-Japan 2002, precisely his World Cup debut. They reached the round of 16, an instance in which they were eliminated against England due to the great goal from a free kick from david beckham. Now, Qatar is not a utopia, it is a possible dream.

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