National coach Louis van Gaal knows for sure: this Dutch national team has ‘a great chance of becoming world champions’. To achieve that goal, the group must first be survived. In it, the the Dutch will play against Senegal, Ecuador and Qatar. Football zone looks ahead to the game together with experts of football in those countries and now it is the turn of Lucas Bertelotti, specialist of South American football on behalf of GOAL.
By Guy Habets
All South Americans are football crazy. The qualifying series of the CONMEBOL always guarantees spectacle, emotion and good football. Brazil and Argentina are ultimately assured of a place in the top four countries every time, but the battle behind the two superpowers is one for life and death. This time Uruguay and Ecuador were the lucky ones, keeping competitors such as Colombia, Chile and Peru behind them. It should be clear that there should be no question of underestimating Ecuador.
Bertelotti would like to emphasize that. He lists a list of players that he thinks the the Dutch and Van Gaal should watch out for. “Then you can think of Pervis Estupiñán, the fast left wingback who played at Villarreal and is now under contract with Brighton. The goals are scored by Enner Valencia, the current top scorer of the Turkish Süper Lig on behalf of Fenerbahçe. In addition, the team has access to the strong Piero Hincapié from Bayer Leverkusen, the trick Gonzalo Plata who is causing a furore in LaLiga with Real Valladolid and of course Moisés Caicedo. That’s a defensive midfielder from Brighton, where he’s a real sensation. Reportedly, Real Madrid is already after him! ”
However, the most important man for Ecuador is not on the field. “The coach, Gustavo Alfaro, is actually the key figure in this story,” says the journalist. “He is an Argentinian who took over from Jordi Cruijff in 2020 and is known as a very intelligent, wise and resourceful trainer. His teams will never sit back or look apathetic because he knows how to motivate players. It’s actually the perfect trainer for the underdog. Alfaro has coached a number of smaller teams and countries very successfully, but with a top club like Boca Juniors it didn’t want to work. In Ecuador, however, he is widely respected.”
Gustavo Alfaro, the national coach of Ecuador.
Alfaro has turned this Ecuadorian team into a fighting machine, says Bertelotti. “He has managed to create a formation of players who go through fire for each other and bravely go into battle. These guys were inspired by the generation with Antonio Valencia from Manchester United and Edison Méndez, who played for PSV in the Netherlands. Those players managed to survive the group stage in 2006 and the main goal is to repeat that trick. In Ecuador, everyone thinks that should be possible and that history can be made with these players and this coach.”
To reach the knockout phase, Ecuador must survive a group with Senegal, Qatar and the Netherlands. Especially the Dutch has commanded a lot of respect in South America. “The presence of the Netherlands in the group is the reason why the Ecuadorians are satisfied with a second place. That, they say, is the highest achievable. The realistic goal is to get the necessary points against Qatar and Senegal and who knows, maybe another point can be stolen from the Dutch national team. I can already reveal that Ecuador will be very defensive against the Netherlands. That will be Alfaro’s plan.”
This has to do with the presence of a number of big names in the Dutch national team. The people in Ecuador know exactly who they will face at the World Cup. “Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay are very well known in this region,” explains Bertelotti. “On the other hand, there is also the trainer. Van Gaal is famous, everyone knows him. He is widely respected for his ideas about football and for his own approach to coaching a team. We are all looking forward to it!”