Gustavo Alfaro does not call Pedro Ortiz, from Emelec, for the microcycle of goalkeepers of the Ecuadorian team

“Gustavo Alfaro does not marry anyone,” said Hernán Galíndez in November 2021, then enrolled in the Catholic University. However, there are increasingly clear indications that certain footballers, despite not living a good sporting moment for a long time, would already have their respective names insured on the list of 26 players that the Tricolor will register for the Qatar 2022 World Cup .

For a microcycle of goalkeepers that will take place on Tuesday, August 16, from 09:00 at the National Team, Alexander Domínguez (Liga de Quito), Galíndez (Aucas), Moisés Ramírez (Independiente del Valle), and Gonzalo Valle (Guayaquil City).

If we take into account that the last FIFA date of the year is scheduled for the end of next September, and that from this Friday there are 100 days left for the start of the World Cup (Qatar and Ecuador will open the tournament on Sunday 20 November) it can be inferred, with this citation of goalkeepers, that Pedro Ortíz, of remarkable campaign in Emelec, is not to Alfaro’s liking. And also that, probably, the Argentine coach will do something that is not usual: take four goals to a World Cup.

In a statement released on social networks, the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) announced a “call for goalkeepers” to do a “training session and video analysis by Diego Carranza (goalkeeper coach of the Tri). For the work that will be carried out in the National Team they were called Domínguez, Galíndez, Ramírez, and Valle.

The Dominguez to Qatar thing is virtually sealed. In the second week of July he returned to national football. He joined Liga de Quito because the leadership of the Colombian club Deportes Tolima, from Ibagué, decided to terminate the 35-year-old Ecuadorian’s contract. Domínguez was blamed by the coffee press for committing serious mistakes in the three goals that his squad suffered in the first leg of the championship in that country, on June 22.

Dominguez’s messes

Tolima lost 3-1 to Atlético Nacional de Medellín in a duel in which “the Ibaguer team paid dearly for individual errors, mainly those of goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez, who had a terrible night,” he said. Antenna 2. The reproaches to the Ecuadorian for his poor performance were unanimous in Colombia. One of the many they did to him was from 60 meters.

A week later, Domínguez was also blamed for the goal with which Flamengo beat Tolima 1-0, as a visitor, in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores round of 16. dida He was left without reaction to Andreas Pereira’s distant shot.

Domínguez reappeared in the Ecuadorian tournament with a return to the white goal, on the previous July 24. He was greeted with a 4-0 thrashing from Universidad Católica to the Azucenas.

Galindez vs. Frascarelli

In the case of Galíndez, on July 3, Aucas announced his signing. Thus ended the complicated passage of the goalkeeper of the National Team through Araucanian football. Already as an auquista a doubt arose regarding the newcomer from the University of Chile: what chance would he have of being a starter if Damián Frascarelli owned the goal since 2020?

There were no impossible. Galíndez, who came with the urgency of accumulating minutes in a club to reduce the possibility of being left out of Alfaro’s call, debuted as a starter in Aucas immediately. And Frascarelli went to the substitute bench.

Galíndez got the job with about ten days of training and debuted with a 0-0 with Delfin. And although César Farías, DT of Aucas, affirmed that there would be shared ownership between Frascarelli and Galíndez (35 years old), this rotation was already interrupted in the commitment with Liga (1-1), for the fifth date of the second phase of the LigaPro.

As for Ramírez and Valle, the football news of both is remarkable. The first (he will turn 22 on September 9) has been decisive for Independiente in qualifying for the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana, the penultimate instance of the Ecuador Cup, and will be key in the desire of the current monarch of Ecuador to win the second stage of the LigaPro and thus defend their crown against Barcelona SC.

Riobambeño Valle, 26, has the merit of having prevented more goals than Guayaquil City has received, despite not having a defense with prominent names. The citizens have 22 goals against in the accumulated table (one less than Católica, one and two more than Independiente and Emelec, respectively; and half a dozen less than Liga de Quito).

Ortiz good time

However, the absent Ortiz is not short on merit. So brilliant has been his level in 2022 that the Spanish company Olocip, specialized in the implementation of the most advanced Artificial Intelligence in the sports and industrial fields, included him -along with another Emelec player, midfielder Sebastián Rodríguez- in the ideal eleven of the group stage of the Libertadores.

Olicop explained on June 28 that the team of the best in that cup round was drawn up based on “the accumulated impact in all offensive, defensive, and game-building actions in the minutes played” for each footballer in the Libertadores .

On July 1, Ortiz, a great figure for Emelec in the 1-.1 draw against Atlético Mineiro, was recognized by Conmebol as the best goalkeeper in the first leg of the round of 16. The governing body of soccer in South America included the 32-year-old goalkeeper in the ideal team. The remaining ten positions were filled by soccer players from six Brazilian teams and four from Argentina. (D)