National Team Overview: Ecuador

As a preparation for the upcoming continental tournament, we are introducing the participating teams of the Copa América, and now it is time for Ecuador.

Ecuador is not one of the best or strongest teams of the South American region. They did not really achieve a great success throughout their history but yet they are a very passionate and lovable team, who aims to play an attractive football so that their supporters can enjoy what they see, even if they are not winning their matches.

Ecuador is one of the least successful Copa sides

As we have mentioned in one of our previous articles, Ecuador is among the least successful teams in the history of Copa América. Having been participant in 24 Copa Américas, they have never been able to claim the first place, or even a medal throughout all this time. The best result of Los Amarillos is a fourth place which they managed to reach in 1959 and again in 1993.

In 1959, it was 5 teams participating in the continental tournament. They played in the group stage system of a championship, so everyone faced each other once. Win meant 2 point, while draw was worth 1 and a lose, of course, 0. Ecuador manager to finish in the fourth place by tying with Argentina and beating the last team, Paraguay. Uruguay won the title that year.

• Ecuador’s top position in Copa is 4th
• Los Amarillos participated in only 3 World Cups
• Gustavo Quinteros’ men are underdogs

Online gambling sites in Ecuador report that reaching the fourth place was a far greater result in 1993. Ecuador was drawn in group A together with Uruguay, Venezuela and the United States. Surprisingly, they won all the 3 matches in the group phase, with a goal difference of 10-2 in 3 matches! In addition, they went on to beat Paraguay to 3-0 in the quarter-finals, only to lose against Mexico in the semi-finals.

On the other side of the semi-finals, eventual winner Argentina knocked out Colombia on penalties, and Colombia took the third place upon defeating Ecuador by one goal. Until now, this is the best result the Ecuador has ever reached in the Copa América, however, they are hoping to get better results in the future.

Ecuador has a bright future ahead

Ecuadorian gambling news believe that their national team shows a straight line of improvement in recent times. They have been gathering better and better results and they are constant members of the Copa América and the FIFA World Cup as a result of their great performance on the qualifications.

This great improvement is shown on FIFA’s ranking as well, in which they rank each national football team according to their performances. They update their list every month. The list has been lead by World Cup winner Germany ever since the World Cup 2014, but Ecuador is in the 31st place which is relatively high.

However, their best place is even better than this one. It is hard to believe but Ecuador was regarded as the third best national team in the world in 2013 between April and June. Their lowest ranking was recorded in June, 1995. They were ranked in the 76th position back then.

Moreover, is is worth mentioning that Ecuador participated in 3 out of the past 4 World Cup events. It happened in 2002 for the first time in the history of Ecuadorian football that the national team has reached the top 32. They once again made it in 2006, where they even qualified for the Round of 16 upon defeating Poland and Costa Rica in the group stage. England knocked them out in the next round.In 2014, they got eliminated in the group phase even though they collected 4 points.

Ecuador’s squad is mong the weakest

Mobile betting sites, such as Bet365 believe that Ecuador does not have realistic chances of winning the trophy. The popular online gambling destination would be willing to pay your stake 21.00 (20/1) times in case the Tricolor ends up winning the title in the end of the competition.

In addition, online sportsbooks are not even sure if Ecuador can qualify for the quarter-finals this year. They are drawn together with Chile, Mexico and Bolivia, and they are huge underdogs against the first team, however they can play quite exciting encounters with the remaining two teams.

Ecuador’s squad is mostly built on players from their own domestic league. The biggest star of the Ecuadorian squad was supposed to be Manchester United’s right winger, Antonio Valencia, but he has to miss out on the continental tournament due to an injury in his ankle.

It is really hard to find familiar names from the Ecuadorian squad. The bigges tstar clubs for which they are playing for are Watford, Swensea and West Ham United. It will be interesting to see 35-year-old Walter Ayoví playing, as he is about to make a centenarium and paly for his nation for the 100th time.