As the 2022 World Cup opener came to an end, news of Ecuador's victory over host Qatar swirled. Before the game, there was grapevine news that Qatar had bribed Ecuadorian players to play match-fixing, which was proved to be fake in the opening three minutes. Although the goal was blown offside and controversial, it did not prevent Ecuador from winning the next two goals.
And the local tyrant Qatar team did not even have a shot on target in this game, even if the referee wanted to release water to the host, it was useless for Jesus to come. After the competition, Ecuador suddenly changed from a small Latin American country to a big Internet celebrity. In fact, there are many small countries in the world that have always been unknown, and if it were not for the sudden appearance of some eye-catching news and appeared on the hot search, it seems that we live in a parallel time and space, and there will never be an intersection.
Where is Ecuador?
Ecuador, the full name of Ecuador, is located in the northwest of South America. It is bordered by Colombia to the north, Peru to the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. With a total area of about 256,000 square kilometers and a population of 17.94 million, it is a little larger than mainland Guangxi, with a population of 1/3 of Guangxi and the capital Quito. It is a relatively backward country in South America, with a per capita GDP of $6,325 in 2021, less than one-tenth of Qatar. Because the equator passes through the northern part of the country, Ecuador means "equator" in Spanish and is also known as the "country of bananas".
Early history
Before the 15th century, Ecuador was inhabited by primitive Indians, with more than a dozen tribes such as Chibcha, Chimu, Kitto, Rupuya, and Cala, engaged in primitive agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing. In the 14th century, the kingdom of Cusco in the Andes in southern Peru began to expand outward, occupying southern Peru, northern Chile, northwestern Argentina and conquering the Ecuadorian region of Quito in the second half of the 15th century, a huge empire known as the Inca Empire.
In 1492, Columbus arrived on the Caribbean islands, and this new continent attracted countless subsequent European colonists. The collision between advanced civilization and primitive society produced a dramatic scene. In 1532, the Spanish colonist Pizarro led 168 soldiers to invade the Inca Empire, and the Indians called these white-skinned and armored horsemen as ambassadors of the gods (the Indians did not know how to domesticate horses at this time), and the Inca king Atapalva hosted a banquet to welcome these invaders, but fell into a trap and was kidnapped. After extorting a room full of gold and two rooms of silver, Pizarro killed the king.
After that, the Spaniards launched a fierce attack on the Incas who still used primitive weapons, and although the number of colonists never exceeded 200, it was enough to break up the vast Inca Empire in two years. For more than 200 years, Quito remained a Spanish colony. In 1717, Spain formed Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela into the colonial government of New Granada. The colonists spread Catholicism here, exploited it in the name of the Church, and forced large numbers of Indians to mine as labor. In 1809, a group of rebels declared an uprising in Quito and fired the first shots of resistance, and although suppressed by the colonizers, the movement against the Spanish colonists in Ecuador was surging.
In 1819, Simón Bolívar defeated Spain at the Battle of Poiaca, subsequently liberated most of New Grenada and began to help Ecuador in its independence movement. With the agreement of the organizations of the New Grenada, a resolution establishing the Republic of Colombia was adopted in December of the same year. In August 1821, the Republic of Colombia was established, and in May 1822, Bolívar sent troops to liberate Quito, after which Ecuador declared itself the Republic of Colombia. In 1830, Bolívar died, the Republic of Gran Colombia was divided, and Ecuador was formed after its withdrawal.
Modern development
After independence, Ecuador actually played the traditional crafts of the African region, and by 1979, there had been 19 military coups in more than 100 years, and 10 presidents in 1930-1940 alone. It was not until the 1979 election, when Roerdos was elected president, that the military junta was finally stabilized by the people.
More than a century of chaos has severely damaged Ecuador's economic foundation and missed the best period of development, so Ecuador's industrial base is still quite weak. Before exporting oil, it was a poor and backward agricultural country, exporting cash crops such as cocoa in exchange for foreign exchange earnings. In the 50s and 60s, banana exports replaced cocoa exports as the backbone of Ecuador's economy, and since then it has been the world's largest banana exporter, and by 1992 it was the world's first.
In 1972, Rodríguez Lara began a series of social and economic reforms under his administration and joined OPEC in 1973. Ecuador began large-scale extraction and export of oil, replacing banana exports as the number one pillar of the economy. Although there are some improvements from before, due to the weak industrial base, all aspects are extremely dependent on imports, and the foreign exchange earned is basically spent very little, and there is almost no ability to resist financial risks.
After 2015, the continuous decline in international crude oil prices has greatly damaged Ecuador's single economic structure, and the Ecuadorian government has had to rely on debt to survive. OPEC has called on members to cut production in order to maintain oil prices, but Ecuador's huge fiscal deficit simply cannot be achieved, and in 2020, Ecuador withdrew from OPEC and increased crude oil production several times to increase revenue.
In 2016, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, directly causing $3.3 billion in damage, or 3% of GDP, and billions of dollars to rebuild, exacerbating Ecuador's poor economy. As of February this year, Ecuador's foreign exchange reserves were only $8.427 billion, but its debt was as high as $78 billion, considering that Ecuador's GDP in 2021 was only $108.9 billion.
Football in Ecuador
Once in 2002, the name Ecuador was also popular for a while, but because the domestic Internet was not very developed at that time, it was not as well-known as it is now. That year's World Cup in Korea and Japan saw four teams reach the finals for the first time: Senegal, Slovenia, China and Ecuador. In that World Cup, the Chinese team's goal of "scoring one goal, drawing one game, and winning one game" was not achieved, and they lost 9 goals and went home in disgrace. Looking back now, it was actually the pinnacle.
The iron fell
Ecuador, on the other hand, not only achieved these three goals, but also reached the final round again in 2006 and set a good result in the round of 16. It is also worth mentioning that in the "darkest" game of that year, South Korea VS Italy, known as the "shame of Asian football", referee Moreno from Ecuador ignored a series of violent fouls against Italy by South Korea, and ruled Italy's equalizing goal invalid, which eventually led Italy to lose the game, and Moreno also became the most famous "black whistle".
Moreno
Twenty years have passed, and the level of the national football team has gradually declined, while Ecuador has steadily risen. Years of experience with Latin American football powerhouses have turned them into a tough team, reaching four of the six World Cups of the 21st century, and also defeating Colombia, Chile and other South American giants in this World Cup qualifiers, and are currently ranked 44th internationally.
Ecuador's players have also played in the five major leagues, with a total value of 104 million euros. In the opener against Qatar, Ecuador shattered the myth that the host of the previous 21st World Cup was unbeaten in the first match. Ecuadorian striker Enna Valencia formed a circle with 10 team-mates after the goal, kneeling on the ground and pointing their fingers in memory of their former teammate, former Ecuadorian international Christian Benitez.
In this World Cup qualifier, it was Benitez who scored four goals to help the team win four games and qualify. However, on July 29, 2013, Benitez died of cardiac arrest at the age of 27, just after making his debut for Qatari Army Football Club. He was replaced by Enna Valencia, who almost scored a hat-trick in the opener and eventually beat the hosts Qatar with two goals.
Benitez