There are no leaders, coaches or players in the world of football who complain if they get the praise they get when things go “in the right direction”. On the other hand, when a team is going through an unfortunate moment like this Emelec, whose 2023 season was disastrous – there is nothing to praise in the current season, so far – complaints are not accepted by those who perform any of these functions.

After being left in a ‘coma’ in the Pro League, Emelec’s coach says: ‘We are working on gaining confidence’

At the moment of victory, everyone is on top of the truck and fighting to take their share of responsibility for success. They are launched on the fly when a football disaster occurs. All the culprits are pointed out (and in their defense they repeat words about “destructive criticism”, “making firewood from fallen wood” and similar clichés).

‘Focus on saving the category’, a call for attention from Edmund Véjar, former vice president of Emelec, to José Pileggi over the results crisis

Club Sport Emelec, one of the most popular clubs in Ecuador, the main manager of professionalism in the country, the co-star of the national football classic, the second team with the most national titles, the historic one that is heading towards its 90th anniversary Foundation, one of the undisputed giants of Ecuadorian football, is today in real danger of going to Serie B.

This is the position table after Emelec’s defeat against Delfín on the 4th date of the second phase of the Pro League

Today it is declining

The risk of relegation is high only because of the terrible numbers that Emelec is pulling from the start of the Pro League tournament (among the four worst teams in the first phase, only three wins in 19 games in the year, one of the worst places in the tournament, four games in a row without a win and goals in second phase), which were aggravated by another defeat at the Capwell stadium (1-0) last Sunday against Delfín, but also by the terrible level of collective and individual play.

Emelec and another terrible record: five months without a win at the Capwell Stadium, for the Pro League

The last two from the accumulated table will lose the category. Today, Guayaquil City is last in that ranking with 17 points and a minus fourteen goal difference. The penultimate one is the new Libertad, from Loja, with the same units and minus eight. And in box number 16, the penultimate third, Emelec appears with a score of 17 and a minus three goal difference. Namely, out of 57 contested points in the Pro League, he scored only 29.82%. And the terrible thing does not stop: of the 27 units in Capwell, only ten were saved.

Those of Emelec are the numbers and percentages that need to go down to Serie B. There are eleven dates left to avoid succumbing. Can you bet on a save with an attack that has fewer goals (18) than on the day (19)?

What’s coming

Given the cascade of mistakes that includes bringing in bad domestic and foreign “reinforcements”, unfortunate managerial statements, hiring a consultant whose advice is unknown, the arrival of a new coach who was later replaced by a self-critical one, but does not say what corrections he will take, the perspective is darker because of the eleven rivals that the millionaires will have to face to avoid going to Serie B, they beat only one of them in the first round of the championship.

Delfín, the latest executioner of the emelecistas, won in the previous round, at the Jocay Stadium. And in the rematch at Capwell, he made a ‘drop and clean’. If this negative trend continues, Emelec could see the last date of 2023 in tumultuous conditions. He could not in this second phase with LIbertad (0-0), away; against Orense (0-0), in Guayaquil; nor with Técnico Universitario (0-0), at Bellavista where ‘San Pedro’ Ortiz stopped the penalty; and neither with the whales (1-0 loss), as the host.

These will be the next opponents for Emelec in the second phase, and this is how it was against them in the initial phase of the Pro League:

fifth date

Emelec-Aucas

(auquista won 2-1 in Quito)

sixth date

National-Emelec

(in Guayaquil it was a 2-1 military victory)

seventh date

Emelec Mushuc Runa

(0-0 in the previous round)

the eighth date

Independent of the valley-Emelec

(AFNA’s team won 3-2 away from home)

the ninth date

Emelec-Cumbaya

(0-0 in the last phase)

tenth connection

League Quito-Emelec

(at Capwell it was 1-1)

the eleventh date

Emelec-Catholic University

(victory on camera 3-2, in Quito)

twelfth date

Guayaquil City-Emelec

(0-0 at Capwell)

the thirteenth date

Emelec-Barcelona SC

(3-1 visiting blues won)

the fourteenth date

Gualaceo-Emelec

(0-0 in the first phase)

fifteenth date

Emelec-Deportivo Cuenca

(local Morlacos won 3-2)

Against those same eleven opponents against whom Emelec will close in the second phase, in the first phase it lost five games, tied another five and won one. Namely, out of 33 points in the fight, he had only 8 (24.24%).