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▒ Category
[Awards Review]
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▶ Summary of an historic game. Ecuador vs. Uruguay
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[2001/11/21 ]
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"Summary": Minute 90...
Angel Fernández, one of the most regular ecuadorian players in the Ecuadorian team fails to score a goal, less than two meters away from the score line, with the goallie lying on the ground, everybody in Ecuador wants to see him score the final goal but that never happens. I was watching the final game on my TV, and I yelled and screamed just as I did when those type of mistakes occured more often, were those plays were very common in our team (only this time, I was not upset about the play, and belive me, it was a huge mistake)
Its funny, but after qualifying to the World Cup for the first time, our players have a tremendous support from the viewers (including me) and a lot more tolerance than before.
Ecuador went to Chile (the team that finished the road to world cup season in the last position) without the stress of one year and 6 months of intense competition, looking forward to show why they were in the third place of the tournament. On the other hand, the chilean team claimed that they will ruin Ecuador's celebration, but that was already too late. One week ago, I went to see Ecuador vs. Uruguay and I will like to write a brief summary of how I lived the experience that I dreamed of since I was a kid.
I wanted to write an article about that game, but unfortunaly this site wasn't open by that time. It was incredible, as an ecuadorian, I wish there would be other ways to transmit what I felt last wednesday. I promise that I will show EXCLUSIVE pictures of the stadium in the following updates. I went with my camera, and took as many pictures as I could. I was beneath the south america's largest flag (a HUGE Ecuadorian flag that covered around 5.000 people) and took a picture from there, I hope to publish that picture soon as well.
Well, the day started at 9 am. Its incredible, but even though the game started at 4:00 pm, at 9 am we already had to stand up in a line of about 5000 people already. We entered in the stadium at 10:30 pm, and read the papers, took pictures, eat, drink a few beers, make a few jokes... and the time passed SO SLOWLY. It was nothing but the desesperation of seing our nation in the world cup for the first time ever. By 12:00 pm, I had to go to the bathroom and took all the paint from my face (yes I painted my face, with a $0.5 service while I waited to enter the stadium) because the sun was so much that the paint started to itch. I waited for exactly 7 hours in the stadium, and believe me, that was nothing compared to the fanatism that I saw a few days before. Some of you won't believe me, but there were people that waited for ONE ENTIRE DAY to get the tickets for the stadium!
When the game finally started, everybody was so tired that our national team didn't got the support that I expected. Everybody was quiet, anxious, and VERY nervous. In front of us, we had one of the best teams in the world (if you count the individul qualities of each player) and one of the best free kick shooters (Alvaro Recoba)
Ecuador played as always, triyng to score from the very first minute, but leaving tremendous empty spaces in its defence.
I really didn't like how our coach, Hernan el Bolillo Gómez, decided to lineup the team. Ecuador needed the tie and our coach lined up a very offensive team. Ecuador felt the absence of its captain, Alex Dario Aguinaga, and the midfield was in a tremendous absence of creativity and leadership.
And as always, our team made us suffer one more time. Uruguay scored first, by a penalty that was correctly called by the mexican referee. I think that the penalty was not needed, but Ecuador showed that its players need to mature more in order to avoid doing mistakes such as this due to the pressure of the public. Our goalkeeper prayed before attempting to save the penalty, but soccer doesn't knows any justice. In soccer, the only thing that counts are the goals and Uruugay, for around 40 minutes, was the protagonist of the game.
As time passed by, the crowd started to cheer for Ecuador once again. One more goal, one more play... we were all waiting for one more hapiness from our team. And then, after the brilliant return of our captain Alex Dario Aguinaga, our team changed its attitude and pressured Uruguay with a great display of talent, organization and internal strenght. I think it was around the minute 30 of the second time, I'm pretty sure it was around those minutes.
15 minutes were all that we had, and the pressure was bigger every minute. Until finall, after a great individual play by Alex Aguinaga, I remembered watching the ball in a perfect center and I remember Kaviedes jumped lonely in front of all the defense. For a moment, the time stopped. There was an absolute silence, this was it. This was the play that all the stadium was waiting for. The silence was absolute, the time stopped, an entire country wathced and almost idolatrated the ball, the game, the passion that soccer makes us feel. After that moment that seemed like an eternity, I watched how the ball went to the goal, and in that sec, I knew that it was a goal. The goallie didn't even attempted saving the shot, all that he do was lift his hands hoping to fool the sideline, but nobody could change the reality by then
40 years of waiting, 40 years of disapoinments, 40 years of history that ended in a great game that turned our dreams into reality. As an ecuadorian, I can say that I am VERY proud and lucky to be part of the historic day were our country was only one. The city was empty, the streets were with no cars. The rating was the highest in all the history of our country, and I can say everyone of you.
If I would have the chance to go back in time, I would definitively repeat this experience. And that is what makes this game so valuable for me, that's a once in a lifetime experience. I will always remember that day and will always be thankfull to my team for the emotions that I lived in that historic day were we achieved our first World Cup qualification! :) |
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