Germany arrived at MetLife Stadium having already topped Group E. Ecuador arrived needing a win or an early flight home. That much was clear before kickoff. What followed was less predictable.
It was only the second time in five World Cup appearances that Ecuador have reached the knockout rounds. The first was 2006. The three tournaments in between — 2002, 2014, 2022 — all ended in the group stage. This one nearly did too.
The loss to Ivory Coast was a gut punch. Curacao was the one that truly stung. Fifteen attempts on goal, each denied by Eloy Room. No team had registered that many shots without scoring at a World Cup since 1966. They went into the Germany game having spent 242 minutes at this tournament without a goal.
Then Florian Wirtz found Leroy Sane in the box two minutes in. Sane’s left foot, misfiring for much of this tournament, found its mark. His first World Cup goal. Manuel Neuer, 40, who had come out of international retirement for one last tournament, had his clean sheet. What the referee missed, and VAR chose not to act on, was Pavlovic catching Pedro Vite on the head in the build-up.
Sebastian Beccacece has built Ecuador as a defensive unit first. Fourteen goals in eighteen qualifiers tells the story. They finished second in CONMEBOL behind Argentina on the strength of five conceded across the entire campaign. The attack had been the anxiety throughout this tournament. The midfield never was.
Seven minutes after Germany scored, Vite recovered the ball deep in the German half and found Nilson Angulo on the left. Angulo’s shot went between Pavlovic’s legs, the same man who had escaped punishment minutes earlier, and past Neuer from twenty yards. Ecuador’s first goal of the tournament. The 242 minutes were done.