The South Americans will attempt to improve on an unremarkable debut in Japan and South Korea, when they fell at the first hurdle but at least managed to beat Croatia to record their first win.

A good display this time will help to allay suspicions that Ecuador, who face Germany, Poland and Costa Rica in their first-round group, qualified only thanks to the advantage of playing their home games at 2,800 metres above sea level in Quito.

It is a claim made by a number of people, including Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira who was dismissive about Ecuador's success.

"Ecuador qualified by winning their games at altitude," he said recently. "That's the only reason."

Clearly they needed to do more than that but the facts do show that they won seven of their nine home qualifiers, with Brazil and Argentina among the victims, and drew the other two.

On the other hand, their away games produced six defeats, two draws and just one win, also achieved at high altitude in La Paz in Bolivia.

Their recent form appears to be proving Parreira right too.

Ecuador crashed 3-0 to group rivals Poland in a friendly in November -- when ironically they blamed the playing conditions for their display -- and have this year gone down to 1-0 defeats away to Japan and Netherlands.

Their only success came in a 1-0 win over Honduras in January.

As in 2002, Ecuador will be led by a coach from neighbouring Colombia, Luis Fernando Suarez having replaced Hernan Dario Gomez after a poor display at the 2004 Copa America.

Suarez has kept their 4-4-2 formation, built around Ulises de la Cruz, Giovanny Espinosa and Ivan Hurtado at the back, Edison Mendez and Edwin Tenorio in midfield and veteran striker Agustin Delgado in attack.

Mendez, with his long-range shooting, is regarded as their most dangerous player.

Alex Aguinaga, their elegant playmaker, has quit international football but Suarez had uncovered some new talent, including 20-year-old midfielder Luis Antonio Valencia and attacking midfielder Cristian Lara.

They remain heavily dependent, however, on Delgado, who has been plagued by injury in the last three years and had a miserable two years at premier league Southampton.

Updated on Monday, May 22, 2006 10