Hear
A duel between two American teams, but with European coaches. A match surrounded by emergencies, after the defeat of both in the premiere in the B Group of the America Cup from United States. Ecuador and Jamaica They enlivened a game that left no room for hesitation, because a new setback complicated the hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals. With this scenario, it was the tri the team that showed the best credentials and with the 3-1 victory maintains the hope of advancing in the continental competition, in addition to break a series of 10 unsuccessful matches in the Copa América. The youth Kendry PaezAs in his debut with Venezuela, he broke a new record with the Ecuadorian shirt: he scored the second goal from a penalty at the close of the first half, and He became the youngest player from his country to celebrate with the national team. The defeat also left a statistical fact for the Jamaicans: Michail Antonio’s goal will be immortalized for being the first of the Reggae Boyz in the contest that saw them debut in 2015, in Chile.
The Spanish Felix Sanchez Bas, 48 years old, he is the technical director of Ecuador and with his success he made history. A product of Barcelona, where he coached in the youth team for a decade -1996-2006-, before making a move to the Qatar national team. In the emirate he retraced a unique history by commanding the Under 19, 20, 23 and Senior teams in the first World Cup in the history of the World Cup, in 2022, which took place in Qatari territory. Qatar suffered three defeats in the ecumenical event and the first was against… Ecuador; Senegal and the Netherlands, the remaining winners. Enner Valencia was the scorer of the match with two celebrations, one a penalty; The attacker was an executioner as a rival and a villain on his team, because he was sent off after 22 minutes in the loss with Venezuela in the first game of the current tournament.
Jamaica, which is playing the Copa América for the third time -Chile 2015 and the United States 2016 as its predecessors- has as coach Icelandic Heimir Hallgrímsson, who led his country’s team in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and who tied 1 to 1 with Argentina in the debut, who missed a penalty taken by Lionel Messi. These were Leo’s unfortunate times with the national team, a curve that changed in 2021 with winning the Copa América in Brazil and a year later, by winning the World Cup. Under his tutelage – he took over in 2022 – the Jamaicans finished third in the Concacaf Nations League and have had an auspicious start in the qualifiers, with victories over the Dominican Republic and Dominica. The Copa América, however, turns its back: it fell with Mexico and now with Ecuador.
The summary of Ecuador’s victory over Jamaica
From that premiere in Qatar 2022, a squad selected by Gustavo Alfaro – now coach of Costa Rica -, Sánchez Bas maintains some footballers. Piero Hincapie It is one of them; The Bayer Leverkusen defender, with whom he won the recent Bundesliga and while passing through Talleres, from Córdoba, paved the way for victory over Jamaica. A trick, because the defender threw a cross, the ball deflected off Kasey Palmer’s foot and fell to the back of goalkeeper Jahmali Waite. It was also a reward for the Ecuadorian ambition, which at the start put pressure on a rival who insisted on being careful to play the ball from the back, but the errors caused hot flashes: Páez had the chance, but he scored high; Di’Shon Bernard almost converted into his own goal.
At 17 years, 1 month and 23 days, Páez added another milestone to his marks. He is the youngest player to wear the national team shirt –he made his debut against Uruguay, in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and beat an Ecuadorian legend like Álex Aguinaga-, he is also the youngest footballer to play in the Copa América and with the penalty goal, after a handball from Greg Leigh, who reviewed the VAR and sanctioned the Chilean referee Christian Garay, He presents himself as the youngest gunner in the Three and the second in the history of the continental championship, behind the Colombian Johnnier Montaño (16 years, 5 months and 21 days).
The talented number 10 has already been transferred from Independiente del Valle to Chelsea, and in hot Las Vegas – where the temperature climbed to 42 degrees – he showed flashes of his class and also received some recriminations from his teammates, who claimed passes in actions in which Páez opted to finish or try a dribble.
The fall sinks Jamaica, which still has not won the Copa América, although it did so in the World Cup, where it only played in France 1998 and beat Japan 2-1 in a match corresponding to Group H; There they faced Argentina, who won 5-0 with two goals from Ariel Ortega and three from Gabriel Batistuta. Robbie Earle was the scorer of the Jamaicans’ first goal in that World Cup, in the 3-1 defeat with Croatia; Antonio, a forward who was born in London and who plays in the Premier League, will be remembered for being the one who broke the thread of seven matches without celebrations in the Copa América.
Ecuador could not seal the victory and even saw it threatened when referee Garay was called again to review a handball in the area, which was finally not sanctioned with a penalty in favor of Jamaica, when the result was 2-1. Only in the first minute of injury time and After a race and perfect definition by Alan Minda, relief came.
The victory marked the end of an uncelebrated 10-game series for Ecuador in the Copa América. The oddity is that The last three wins were against Concacaf rivals: Mexico, in 2015; Haiti, in 2016 – 4-0, which started the negative streak – and now Jamaica. They have not triumphed against a Conmebol team since 2001, when they beat Venezuela 4-0. The tri will close the group stage against Mexico and Argentina will be awaiting the definition, because the second classified in the area will be the rival of the winner of the group that leads the team in the quarterfinals.
THE NATION
