The Ecuadorian left-back Byron Castillo was left out of the 20 summoned by the Ecuadorian coach, Gustavo Alfaro, for the World Cup in Qatar 2022, this despite the controversy in which he was involved with doubts about his nationality and the lawsuit filed by Chile and Peru for this reason.
Within the group, the youth and experience of Alexander Domínguez, Carlos Gruezo, Ángel Mena and Enner Valencia stand out a lot.
However, what is new is the absence of Castillo, protagonist of the Chilean lawsuit and Peru who sought to leave Ecuador out of the World Cup for their alleged improper alignment in eight qualifying games, which in the end resulted in a slight penalty of points in the next World Cup qualifying round by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). .
Although the CAS confirmed that there was no irregularity in the calls of Castillo c on the Tricolor, considered that his registration as an Ecuadorian was made with false information.
In addition, the Mexican León footballer withdrew injured from the friendly match played last Saturday against Iraq in Madrid, although the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) has not provided details on the extent of the injury.
Without Castillo, Ecuador will resort to the World Cup experience of goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez, midfielders Carlos Gruezo and Ángel Mena , and striker Enner Valencia, to strengthen a squad full of youth.
These four men have sustained themselves in the team led by Alfaro, after their World Cup debut in Brazil 2014, where Valencia scored three goals and leads the table of all-time top scorers with 35 annotations.
Precisely with Valencia at the helm, the Tricolor has the mission of breaking in the World Cup a scoring drought accumulated in the friendlies that he played with a view to his performance from the next 20 of November in the opening match against Qatar for Group A, completed by the Netherlands and Senegal.
This will be Ecuador’s fourth World Cup participation, so Alfaro, along with the players, do not say anything other than trying to make the best tournament that Ecuador has ever played, which means overcome the round of 16 in Germany 2014.
The 20 players summoned by Alfaro are the following:
Goalkeepers: Moisés Ramírez (Independiente del Valle), Alexander Domínguez (Liga de Quito) and Hernán Galíndez (Aucas).
Defenders: Piero Hincapié (Bayer Leverkusen-GER), Robert Arboleda (Sao Paulo -BRA), Pervis Estupiñán (Brighton-GBR), Angelo Preciado (Genk-BEL), Jackson Porozo (Troyes-FRA), Xavier Arreaga (Seattle Sounders-USA), Diego Palacios (Los Angeles FC-USA), Félix Torres ( Santos Laguna-MEX) and William Pacho (Royal Antwerp-BEL).
Midfielders: Carlos Gruezo (Augsburg-GER), José Cifuentes (Los Angeles FC-USA), Alan Franco (Talleres-ARG), Moisés Caicedo (Brighton-GBR), Ángel Mena (León-MEX), Jeremy Sarmiento (Brighton-GBR), Jhegson Méndez (Los Angeles FC-USA), Ayrton Preciado (Santos Laguna-MEX), Gonzalo Plata (Real Valladolid-ESP) and Romario Ibarra (Pachuca-MEX).
Forwards: Djorkaeff Reasco (Newell’s Old Boys-ARG), Kevin Rodríguez (Imbabura), Michael Estrada (Cruz Azul-MEX) and Enner Valencia (Fenerbahce-TUR).