Thus, humbly, defending against a humble opponent who was as afraid as we were. Punching, bravery, sometimes asking for a fight (‘credit’ to Alan Franco and Félix Torres), simulating with Ángel Preciado, king of the pool; wanting to weave a net in the midfield with low-tech players, with no way out due to the zero contribution of Júnior Sornoza, due to the already usual failure of Moisés Caicedo and Kendry Páez, and the loss in contrast to the area of ​​the very profitable Kevin Rodríguez, we take a small point from the Venezuelan stadium. And the applause and praise of the popular Bertoldo, a commentator dependent on the FEF and the National Team, continues to resound.

In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Ecuador has no game, no matter how much you make up the virtues of Caicedo, those of Sornoza as a driver, the skills of Páez – he won plaudits in the first game and then did not appear again – and the supposed goal-scoring ability of Rodríguez – bought at a low price priced and sold for millions of dollars after it was introduced as a national team, thanks to the ‘vision’ of Gustavo Alfaro, who took it to Qatar 2022 with a process of just 27 minutes, and Félix Sánchez Bas, who contributed to the business.

Last Thursday night, in the first 45 minutes, Ecuador did not send a single shot on Venezuela’s goal. Total shame. Inefficiency with so many ‘numbers’ made up by complicit journalism trying to deceive those watching the game. The worst thing is that there are those who believe them out of innocence or ignorance.

If the prohibition to reach the fence of the llaneros and concentrate on destroying the opponent’s game came from the coach – which was very often with Alfaro – the remedy is a rebellion of the players, led by the most experienced. That does not exist today; There is awe in the football players, who prefer not to upset the coach and the leaders of the Association, than to lose their position, be eliminated from the team and sacrifice thousands of dollars in prizes.

You have to collect points, that’s true, but in my delusion I think about the dignity of the national team, those who wear the colors that represent me, those who are the treasure of the dreams of sports glory of millions of people who stop to eat to buy a shirt or a ticket. I want points to be won by playing, and when this is not possible due to the circumstances of the game, I want them to show dignity, masculinity, courage, firmness.

“The most luxurious possession, the most valuable treasure that anyone has is their personal dignity,” Jackie Robinson, the sports hero who broke racial segregation in Major League Baseball, once said. With drowning pains we grabbed a small point in Maturín, knowing that we lost three due to the irresponsible behavior of the head of the FEF in the case of Byron Castillo, accused by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) and the Federal Court of Switzerland. A point that is too big a reward for a team that leaves a trace of dignity in every game. This does not inspire confidence and creates many doubts that end in disappointment.

Most of those who make up our team are inheritors of ‘Alfarism’, a philosophy of the game based on huddling with the own goal, creating a spider’s web in midfield, defending in space, extending the bat to everything that comes, keeping the ball away for someone to grab and score another a shot in search of the only attacker lonelier than Robinson Crusoe. This is how we got to Qatar 2022, and when we had to show our power against Senegal, we acted like a deluded fifteen-year-old.

We failed in what could have been a great moment of our football because no player rebelled, because we lacked the character to stand up to Gustavo Alfaro and tell him: what you ordered us to play is not football and it degrades us. Now we will play as we want. In a way, Álex Aguinaga did it against Croatia in 2002, but Bolillo Gómez already delivered us against Italy and Mexico. Subversive, unruly people like Jorge Bolaños, Luciano Macías or Álex Aguinaga do not exist today, although they are worth a fortune to glance sideways at the planet.

The ones I listed didn’t have today’s fantastic quotes; Football and the market were different, but in masculinity and dignity they were worth much more than today’s. The player of 40 years ago, Laureano Rubial, recently said this in the Spanish press: “There are things I don’t understand, like that now the mentality has to be to keep a clean sheet. For me, you have to score one more goal than the opponent. And if score three, score four. The other thing is that everything is so tactical and the boys are now so obedient…”.

The ghost of Gustavo Alfaro haunts the locker room of the national team and his ghost appears on the field. “We must destroy before creating. Generating play is useless, and what’s more, there is no one who does it in all of Ecuadorian football. It is important to try to win by calling on luck and qualify for the World Championship. “Once in the Cup we will see what is done.”

It is a story taken from Alfaro’s thoughts; It’s not fiction. Today, Sánchez Bas is a clone of the current coach of Costa Rica. The two were hired by the FEF in a hurry because no one wanted to take over Ecuador. National leaders of the 21st century have a reputation for poor payers and call tampering. They fired Bolillo Gómez and had to pay him money. Then came the showbiz moment with Jordi Cruyff and the immortal sentence of Francisco Egas said on January 13, 2020 when he introduced him as the coach of the Tricolor to lead “the process that will turn us into a world football power”.

That soap bubble didn’t last more than a month. Cruyff left and never led a training session. Alfaro, kicked out of Boca Juniors, finally got his chance and brought his saccharine speech to Ecuador. Everyone knows what happened.

Sánchez Bas is closer. He was the worst coach of the World Cup in Qatar 2022 (he holds the record as the coach of the worst domestic team in the history of the World Cup) and they went in search of him, in the middle of the debt scandal that Alfaro claims before FIFA. Have they reviewed your resume? Did they interview him to find out if he has a good knowledge of the game and his ideas as a driver? Did you know that he is good at communicating and leading a group? Nothing. The Spaniard was cheap, he was unemployed and they had to bring him for the national team.

And so we go, hoping that everything will improve against the downtrodden Chile, who were left without a coach due to a bad game. There is always hope, even for unbelievers.

“Being a fan of a football team is a youthful disease that lasts a lifetime,” according to the director and incorrigible football fan. I have been one of those followers for 64 years, but I want to be represented with dignity. “I am nothing more than a beggar of good football. I go around the world with a hat in my hand and in the stadiums I pray for a nice show for the love of God. And when good football happens, I am grateful for the miracle regardless of which club or country offers it to me”, wrote the great Eduardo Galeano. (OR)