Changes For Ecuador

Oscar Washington Tabárez’ side will only have three changes to that of the one he fielded against Colombia last Saturday. Barcelona defender Martín Cáceres will replace Jorge Fucile as the Porto man will be serving a one-match suspension after being booked against Colombia. Tabarez will not be as conservative as he was in Bogota as he will bring back the 4-3-1-2 at home.

Peñarol’s Carlos Bueno gets the nod from Tabárez over Luis Suárez as Diego Forlán’s attacking partner. This move alone give La Celeste a more attacking tendency and will allow Forlán to stay back and move around a little more. Bueno will most likely play out towards the left and not expend so much energy being at times the only point man up front. It will also take one marker off of him as the others will always have to have Bueno and Cristián Rodríguez on their radar. Rodríguez will play a more prominent attacking role alongside his two partners up front, but Ignacio González will have the role of generating the offense at the ten spot and keeping the frenetic pace to the Uruguayan attack.

The Ecuadorian backline is very fast and athletic, but if they have defect is in marking a man. They do have a tendency to fall asleep at times and allow a player to free up. Bolivia showed that propensity in an innocent cross that was put in the back of the net by a wide-open Joaquín Botero over on the back post. If this precendent is not fixed either tactically or with the replacements there could be lots of fireworks in store.

If Tabarez’ scouts were able to watch to Ecuador-Bolivia match in preparation for Wedensday, they realized that if there is a weakness in Ecuador’s armor it is found in one of its biggest strengths. Getafe’s Joffre Guerrón is a great player, but is still very green mentally. His ability to dribble the ball is great but it gets him in trouble. One of the strategies that would be have Guerrón out wide and force him out instead of giving him the crease to break towards the box- that will be the unenviable task of Bruno Silva.

For Ecuador, Christian Benítez, Néicer Reasco, Patricio Urrutia and Luis Bolaños did not make the trip to Montevideo due to injury, still Sixto Vizuete will still try to attack using a 4-5-1. Isaac Mina will be patrolling the left while Iván de Jesús will do the same on the right. Antonio Valencia will also be making his return to the Ecuadorian starting line up.

Starting XI

URU: Juan Castillo, Bruno Silva, Diego Lugano, Diego Godín, Martín Cáceres, Sebastián Eguren, Walter Gargano, Cristian Rodríguez, Ignacio González, Diego Forlán, Carlos Bueno

————————Castillo————————–
——Silva—Lugano—Godín—Cáceres—————
———————–Gargano————————-
————Eguren ———– Rodríguez————-
————————González————————
——————Forlán—-Bueno———————-

ECU: José Cevallos, Omar de Jesús, Giovanni Espinoza, Iván Hurtado, Isaac Mina, Walter Ayoví, Segundo Castillo, Antonio Valencia, Edison Méndez, Joffre Guerrón, Felipe Caicedo

———————-Cevallos————————
de Jesús—–Espinoza——–Hurtado——Mina—-

–Avoyí–Castillo—Valencia—-Méndez—Guerrón–

———————-Caicedo————————-