By Paul Kennedy
Managing Editor
Soccer America
Ecuador looks beyond smuggling scandal
This should be a time of celebration for Ecuadoran soccer.
Ecuador, which never qualified for the World Cup finals before 2002, is headed to the World Cup for the second straight time.
But the Ecuador national team, which faces Colombia tonight in the nightcap of a Giants Stadium doubleheader after the Red Bulls-FC Dallas MLS game, was rocked last month by the arrest of team coordinator Vinicio Luna on charges of illegal immigrant trafficking.
Luna and team doctor Patricio Maldonado were detained on April 10 for allegedly seeking U.S. visas for at least two people not connected to the squad after charging them thousands of dollars for the visas. On April 21, a judge issued another arrest warrant for the team's public relations director.
Ecuador’s Colombian coach, Luis Suarez, was undetered by the smuggling charges.
"Everybody laments what happened,” he told Reuters, “but the players know that there is something more important, that there is the World Cup.”
Ecuador’s goal is to reach the second round, and Suarez says his players’ biggest shortcoming is their chronically low self-esteem.
"Ecuador still shows that lack of confidence," he said, "because when the team wins many say it is not because of our strengths but because of our rival's shortcomings."
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