The World Cup is rolling and the stories are writing themselves. Mexico is perfect through four games. Canada, the U.S. and Paraguay are overdelivering. But there’s another side of the coin, and it’s messy.
Turkiye and Ecuador walked into this tournament as two of the most intriguing dark horses. They had the names. They had the momentum. They had the kind of talent that makes you circle their group-stage games and think, ‘Watch out.’ And then they played the games.
Let’s start with Turkiye. The Crescent Stars came in with a midfield general in Hakan Calhanoglu who’s been one of Europe’s best at Inter. They brought Kenan Yildiz, a 21-year-old about to carry Juventus for a decade. They brought Arda Guler, another 21-year-old who’s found real minutes at Real Madrid. That’s not nothing. That’s a legit core.
But in their first match against Australia, Turkiye had 30 shots and 72 percent possession and lost 2-0. Patrick Beach made eight saves and Turkiye left every chance on the field. Then came Paraguay. Within 100 seconds, Matias Galarza scored a long-range goal and Turkiye spent the rest of the night chasing the game again. Thirty-two shots. Seventy-nine percent possession. Paraguay played a man down for the entire second half after Miguel Almiron’s red card. And still, no goals. Orlando Gill made five saves. That’s it. Five. That stat alone tells you something about how little Turkiye actually challenged him.
It’s not like they’re thin up front either. Yildiz and Guler are joined by Galatasaray vets Kerem Akturkoglu and Baris Alper Yilmaz, plus Frankfurt kid Can Uzun and Porto’s Deniz Gul. The pieces are there. The execution isn’t.
Ecuador’s story reads like a mirror image with slightly different details. Moises Caicedo is one of the best defensive mids in the world. Willian Pacho has been leading PSG’s backline to back-to-back Champions League wins. Piero Hincapie is a key piece for an Arsenal team that finally won the Premier League. That’s a spine any country would take. But in their opener against Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador lost to a 90th-minute Amad Diallo goal and barely threatened the keeper all night.
Then came Curacao. Curacao had just lost 7-1 to Germany. This was the get-right game. Ecuador had 75 percent possession, 27 shots, 15 on target. Moises Caicedo completed 100 passes and created six big chances. And the final score was 0-0. Curacao’s goalkeeper Eloy Room, who plays for Miami FC — not Inter Miami, but USL Miami FC — made 15 saves. That tied Tim Howard’s record against Belgium in 2014. Howard made those saves against a golden generation. Room made his against a team that couldn’t finish against a nation of 150,000 people.
So what’s going on here? For Ecuador, part of it is management. Sebastian Beccacece is in his first senior national team job. He was an assistant to Jorge Sampaoli for Chile in 2014 and Argentina in 2018, but being the guy in charge of a major tournament is different. He took over two years ago and the team still looks disjointed in the final third.
There’s also the forward situation. Ecuador started a 36-year-old Enner Valencia and winger Gonzalo Plata up front against Curacao. Pervis Estupinan, a fullback by trade, played left wing. John Yeboah, whose club resume includes Venezia, Polish club Rakow, Duisburg and Almere City, started on the right. That attack should be able to score one goal against a team ranked 59 spots below them in FIFA’s rankings. It couldn’t.
Underdogs underperform. That’s part of the World Cup’s charm. In Qatar, Denmark and Uruguay were supposed to make runs and both went home early. Denmark managed one point in three games. It happens. But it stings more when the talent is real and the results are this brutal.
The upside for both teams is that their best players are young. Guler and Yildiz are 21. Can Uzun is 20. They have another decade. Caicedo, Pacho and Hincapie are 24. Joel Ordonez is 22. Kendry Paez is 19 and already at Chelsea. These tournaments are scar tissue. They’re also education. The hope is that next time, the shots go in.
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