May 5, 2023, 4:59 PM
May 5, 2023, 4:59 PM
Ecuador will play friendly matches against Bolivia and Costa Rica in the United States next June, with a view to the South American qualifier for the 2026 World Cup that will begin in September, their coach, the Spanish Félix Sánchez, reported on Friday in Quito.
“They are going to be two good matches for us. to finalize the preparation for the qualifiers”, said the strategist at a press conference. The South American qualifier begins in September.
Sánchez, who for the last five years led Qatar, was hired last March to replace Argentine Gustavo Alfarowhich led to the tricolor in the ecumenical Qatari from which it was eliminated in the first round.
For friendlies played away against Australia that same month (with a 3-1 defeat and a 2-1 victory), the helmsman took into account the majority of the team from that World Cup.
Sánchez, who is carrying out a footballer observation campaign to build his own squad, stated that “we don’t have a closed list of players. Obviously, those who were to the World Cup is because at that moment I’m sure they were the ones who had to go”.
“We cannot close the doors to any player”added the coach, who in May will tour Spain, England, Turkey, Germany and Belgium to follow the work of Ecuadorians in clubs in those countries.
In English Brighton, for example, militants Moisés Caicedo, Pervis Estupiñán and Jeremy Sarmiento.
Likewise, he hinted at the possibility that Ecuador stops playing exclusively at the height of Quito (about 2,850 meters), in which he has managed to stamp a passport for his four World Cup participations (2002, 2006, 2014 and 2022).
Depending on the rival, it may be that “on some occasion we can have the decision to define if we play up or play on the plain“, pointed out the Spanish coach, who lost his three games in the initial phase in Qatar-2022, something that had never happened to a World Cup host team.
