Although Gustavo Alfaro is an “austere” coach, the position of the Ecuadorian team in the Qatar 2022 tie is “privileged,” says a journalist from Argentina

With irregularities in their performance, due to their line-ups with players who are not in their best footballing moment in their foreign clubs and with other talented ones who find it difficult to join the group work, the Ecuadorian team managed to take over the third place that ensures the direct pass to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

His suffered 1-0 victory over Venezuela due to an error by goalkeeper Rafael Romo, who failed to deflect Piero Hincapié’s header with his fists in a free kick, exposed the problems to generate play and the little offensive ambition of the Argentine coach Gustavo Alfaro to obtain a comfortable victory that allows to close the game with tranquility; and not desperate, defending almost hanging from the goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez’s goal as happened yesterday.

Against the Venezuelans, the DT had the opportunity to take advantage of the home and play with two attackers like Bryan Cuckoo Angulo (Cruz Azul from Mexico) and Jordy Caicedo (CSKA Sofía from Bulgaria), who are scoring regularly abroad, but preferred the young gunner Djorkaeff Reasco, who still does not have the route that the former already have.

Alfaro opted for a fifth midfielder like Jeremy Sarmiento, 19 with exceptional talent, without adaptation to the height of Quito, because his training has been in England, where he stands out in the Brighton & Hove Albion of the Premier League.

Sarmiento delighted the fans with his qualities, however, he failed to understand playmaker Gonzalo Plata. This lack of understanding and the deficient offensive weight were taken advantage of by the Red wine to end up cornering and bombarding the arch of Domínguez; Had it not been for the little knowledge of the llaneros to finish off at the height, they would have equaled the score.

On Alfaro’s selection process, journalist Martín Liberman, commentator for the network DirecTV Sports from Ecuador, he commented: “From day one I told them which technician they had hired. An austere DT, mouse (who hides when he must go out to look for annotations) and pragmatic, who was never going to go out to beat the rivals, to take them ahead. That he was going to make a sweet treat and then he was going to try to save all possible resources ”.

“This is Alfaro and that is what the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) went looking for. In my first intervention at the beginning of the qualifying rounds, I said it: he is the ideal coach to qualify for the World Cup and don’t wait too long. Then you (the national fans) were enthusiastic about a couple of games like Ecuador 4-2 Uruguay, where an image was seen that allowed us to dream ”, he continued.

However, Liberman remarked: “The position of the Tri in the competition is privileged (third with 20 units), because after Argentina (25) and the leader Brazil (34), the entire tournament has been on the podium. I listen to them from a distance and I think they are very pretentious, and I find that much pretension striking because it is a team that has played three World Cups in its history, but well they are within their rights ”.

And he added: “For me the tie that Ecuador is doing is brilliant with more than 50% of the points, in the direct qualification zone. The performance of the Tri has been impressive ”.

In the 13 rounds played in the qualifying rounds, La Tri has added 20 points out of 39 possible. He scored 21 goals and received 13. With a performance of 51.28%.

On Tuesday 16 of this month (19:15), the national team will visit Santiago to face Chile. (D)