Ecuador's Failure on the Wings Allows for Switzerland's Comeback

Ecuador ended up losing a game in which they couldn’t hold on to a 1-0 lead in their World Cup opener against Switzerland. The lack of concentration, fueled by overconfidence and irresponsibility from Ecuador’s wingers, played a huge role in the South Americans' fall.

Enner Valencia’s goal within the first 25 minutes of the match, as odd as it might sound, wasn’t beneficial for the South Americans. It relaxed Ecuador and didn’t allow them to find a way to exploit the best of their offensive strengths.

The best from Ecuador’s attack should have come from the wings. Walter Ayovi and Jefferson Montero should have dominated the left side of the field, and Antonio Valencia should have done the same on the right side. That never really happened, nor was there any rush to figure it out, in part due to the commodity of being ahead on the scoreboard.

Themba Hadebe/Associated Press

To make it worse, these irresponsible Ecuadorian players cared less about Switzerland full-backs cautiously adding themselves to the European attack. And again, why would they care? They were winning, after all.

Felipe Caicedo and the late Christian Benitez were the main weapons during the World Cup qualifiers. Now against the Swiss, Caicedo was almost a ghost, but that was in great measure due to the lack of support he was getting from the wings. Reinaldo Rueda thought otherwise and substituted Caicedo.

When Switzerland tied the game with a header from Admir Mehmedi coming from a corner kick, Ecuador still neglected their failure on the wings as they saw Mehmedi’s goal as a distraction on a set piece.

Carlos Gruezo’s poor coverage and lack of concentration deservedly earns most of the blame on Switzerland’s equalizer, but the poor concentration on Antonio Valencia’s defensive header didn’t help either. Valencia could have easily cleared the corner but miscalculated his jump when he didn’t even have a Swiss attacker to hassle him.

Only seconds before Switzerland found the winning goal in stoppage time, Ecuador could have won the match with a play finally coming from the wing. The low cross from the right side left Michael Arroyo, Caicedo’s substitute, with a clear chance to score, but he ended up missing. It was then that a chain reaction of irresponsible decisions added up for Ecuador’s heartbreaking loss.

Arroyo could have been Ecuador’s first defender once he lost the ball, but instead he decided to lament without bothering to defend. As Switzerland started its counterattack through the middle, Ecuador’s right-wingers decided to walk and didn’t come back either.

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Contrary to the Ecuador attackers' arrogance, Switzerland’s left-back Ricardo Rodriguez decided to make a run. It was Rodriguez who made the cross from the left side for Haris Seferovic to send it to the back of the net. And we can also add the awful coverage from Ecuador’s back line to the list of problems which led to the dramatic winner.

Switzerland had full concentration through the 90 minutes and made Ecuador pay. To make it even more cruel, the Europeans scored the winning goal with a counterattack that took advantage of using the wings—that was supposed to be Ecuador’s way to damage the Swiss defense.