USMNT vs. Ecuador: What to know about La Tri before Austin clash

Strong young talent (and one unsinkable vet)

This Ecuador team is a who's who of young global prospects. Paris Saint-Germain's Willian Pacho (21), Club Brugge's Joel Ordonez (21), UNAM's Pedro Vite (23) and Anderlecht's Nilson Angulo (22) will all be available to face the USMNT. (Chelsea's Moises Caicedo and Arsenal's Piero Hincapie, two of the team's most famous players, will not—and that's good news for the USMNT, as they've been in spectacular form.)

While Ecuador's future will be driven by these up-and-coming athletes, its present is firmly at the feet of 35-year-old legend Enner Valencia of Pachuca. The decorated forward is Ecuador's all-time leading scorer with 47 goals. He's led his team through four different World Cup qualifying cycles, and he's successfully pushed it through to the finals in three of them. It was his well-taken penalty that felled Argentina in September. It will likely be his strong instincts in the box that challenge the USMNT this October.

A reputation for red

Ecuador is a committed attacking team, and it brings everything it has on the field: energy, creativity and, yes, a little bit of drama. You'd be hard-pressed to find another national team that draws more red cards than Ecuador, both for itself and for its opponents. In the 11 games of Beccacece's tenure, Ecuador has been involved in a whopping five red cards—three of which it earned itself and two of which it goaded its opponents into taking. As a point of comparison, the USMNT has been involved in zero in its last eleven matches and just one since the start of coach Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT tenure in 2024.

The USMNT's Copa America failure was driven by Tim Weah's avoidable red card against Panama in the second match of the group stage. This Ecuador match will be the ultimate test of whether the team has learned from that defeat: if it can avoid seeing red against Ecuador, it can avoid seeing red against anyone.