Ecuador

Home; 1999-2002

To me, this is the most iconic shirt that Ecuador have worn in my lifetime. With its vibrant colours and nice use of the national flag in the two vertical stripes on the front, it is instantly recognisable as an Ecuador shirt. Not only is it a visually appealing design, but also was the shirt associated with some historic milestones for La Tri. It was used for three years, starting in 1999 and then being worn through the entirety of the nation’s first successful qualification for a World Cup in 2002. But not just that, it was also worn by the team as they lifted a rare bit of silverware. Yes, you guessed it: I’m talking about the 1999 Canada Cup (also sometimes called the Maple Cup). This was a four-day, four-team round robin tournament played in Edmonton, Canada, for no known good reason. An opening draw with Iran was followed by wins over Guatemala and the hosts, which was enough to see Ecuador top the group and take the title. This was the second and last edition of the cup, so I would like to think the trophy was kept by the Ecuadorians and has pride of place in the trophy room. They certainly looked delighted to have won it.

Given this historic success in The Great White North (or maybe due to the World Cup qualification, who knows), this particular shirt is fairly plentiful on Ebay and the usual retro shirt stores. I had decided this was the shirt I wanted for Ecuador in my collection, but planned to hold out for a while because of its ready availability. But then I saw it at a ridiculously good price and jumped on it, which I’m sure is a familiar feeling for my fellow collectors.

There is only one difference that I can tell between this replica and player versions, and that is the crest. On replicas, this is a raised material which had generally gone out of fashion in the early 90s with manufacturers. Marathon gave the players fully sublimated crests (and numbers in at least some games), which may have been for more comfort. From what I can tell from pictures, the same shadow-weave material was used for replicas and player shirts. In my opinion, this shirt looks more like a mid-90s shirt than one which saw in the new millennium, and perhaps that is also a bit of its charm. I think South American shirts at this time generally did belong to a slightly earlier era, with plenty of bagginess and big collars. This shirt’s lifetime ended with that qualification for 2002, and in that tournament La Tri wore an altogether more modern looking kit.