by Kadeem Simmonds

WHEN Ecuador walk onto the pitch to play Switzerland in their opening game, one number will be missing — 11.

Christian Benitez passed away during the qualification stages last year and the national side respectively retired his shirt number.

Many of the players were close to the one they called Chucho and will be hoping to not only do their nation proud but their close friend as well.

Qualifying for the tournament was harder than expected. Beating every team at home and drawing against Argentina, they failed to win on the road and only qualified due to their superior goal difference over Uruguay.

Brazil 2014 will be their third World Cup — their best showing was in 2006 when they made it through to the last-16 before being knocked out by England.

Reaching the same stage will prove difficult with France the favourites to win the group and Switzerland bringing a very strong squad to the tournament — but anything is possible and a team ranked 10th last year have the quality to spring a few surprises later this month.

If they are to surprise the stronger teams then manager Reinaldo Rueda will need his key players on red-hot form from the off.

Rueda has picked the majority of his squad from the Ecuadorian league with five of the provisional 30-man squad playing in Europe.

Captain Antonio Valencia is currently playing for Manchester United but found it difficult to find form this season under David Moyes.

Ex-Manchester City striker Felipe Caicedo is another recognisable face in the side but don’t let the large number of unknown players make you think that this side are a pushover.

They showed in qualifying they are a difficult team to defeat at home, even if they failed to find that form away.

However, with the tournament taking place away from Ecuador, some worry they may leave Brazil without a point to show for their efforts.

VERDICT: Poor away form shows they don’t travel well. Will prove tricky to face but can’t see them having enough to make it out of the group stages.