MEXICO CITY, June 29 : Ecuador coach Sebastian Beccacece dismissed concerns over travel fatigue and his team’s underdog status on Monday ahead of their World Cup round of 32 match against co-hosts Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ecuador advanced from the group stage after a 2-1 comeback win over Germany, having earned one point from their opening two matches. They face a Mexico side who won all three group games, scoring six goals without conceding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 “Predictions were burned a long time ago,” Beccacece said. “They counted us out … Predictions in football don’t exist, what exists is what happens on the pitch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Ecuador endured a nine-hour travel day ahead of Tuesday’s match. “The team had planned to arrive at 5 p.m. However, we arrived at 8:20 p.m. We don’t know the reason for the delay,” Beccacece said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Despite the logistical issues, the coach declined to use the journey as an excuse. “We go, we compete, and we play \u2014 no complaints or excuses. I am grateful. We might have tired features, but how could I be upset about being in a World Cup?” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The Azteca Stadium’s high altitude and a hostile home crowd add to Ecuador’s challenge in breaking down Mexico’s defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 “Mexico has a great fortress in this mythical stadium … Things are always difficult for us, so we take it as a beautiful challenge,” Beccacece said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEXICO CITY, June 29 : Ecuador coach Sebastian Beccacece dismissed concerns over travel fatigue and his team’s underdog status on Monday ahead of their World Cup round of 32 match against co-hosts Mexico. Ecuador advanced from the group stage after a 2-1 comeback win over Germany, having earned one point from their opening two matches. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418712,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418711\/revisions\/418712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}