The fastest-progress team in the world in the 21st century - never scored in the World Cup in the last century, and became one of the representative teams in the continent this century, and was shortl

The so-called fastest progress has two indicators. First, there must be a qualitative leap. Some people may have seen Greece create a championship-winning myth in the 2004 European Cup, but in fact, Greece participated in the European Cup as early as 1980, and they also scored in the World Cup in 1994. So since the 21st century, Greece has only had its ultimate glory, but overall, they are not much better than the last century. Teams that have truly made great progress must have an obvious stage from scratch.

Second, it must be continuous. In the 2004 European Cup, Latvia was shortlisted for the first time. But since then, Latvia has continued to remain silent and returned to the ranks of European football. It can be seen that they have not made continuous progress. Only those who are unknown in the last century, suddenly rise in this century, and stabilize in this ranks can be considered as continuous progress. Let's focus on the World Cup that is being held these days. Since the World Cup is playing in the World Cup on a global scale, basically every team with decent strength in the world has been shown in the past few days. Yes, those fish that have been eliminated have been automatically excluded and are mainly concentrated in Asia, North America, and Oceania. I won’t mention the names. There are many teams in Europe and the competition is fierce, so it is difficult for you to find out the teams that have made rapid progress since the new century at a glance. They either lack qualitative leaps or sustainability. South America is easy to find in this regard. After all, there are only 10 teams, and it is clear who will advance and who will retreat at a glance. Many people are sure to be confused about Chile's ranking at the bottom when they see the current South American World Cup qualifiers. Obviously, ten years ago, Chile made Messi cry and the finals of the Copa America, but now, Chile has become the bottom of South America? The top spots in the standings are pretty good, with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay all in the list. However, it is easy to find out which team is not the same as the traditional top three, which is the protagonist we are going to talk about today - Ecuador. Ecuador is definitely the fastest-progress team in the world since the 21st century. In the last century, they had never scored into the World Cup, but since 2002, how many times have they scored in the six World Cups? 4 times. Moreover, in the 202 World Cup qualifiers, they ranked second, second only to Argentina, surpassing Brazil. In this World Cup qualifier, their actual points are actually second, but they ranked fourth because of their penalty points. But in the first few rounds, they once ranked second with the burden of minus 3.

Ecuador participated in the World Cup four times, and although he only reached the semi-finals of 16, compared with their World Cup results in the last century, this is a huge improvement. In fact, Ecuador's foundation is really weak. There are only two teams in South American football, and they have never won the Copa America championship, one of which is Ecuador. The other is Venezuela. Venezuela is the only team in South American football that has no World Cup experience. So in terms of foundation, Ecuador is really the second-last in South America. Today, Ecuador's top players are mainly concentrated in the midfield and backcourt, such as Kesedo, William Pacho, etc., which also makes Ecuador's defense extremely stable. In this World Cup qualifier, so far, they have conceded only 5 goals in 17 games. This is also the foundation for Ecuador to settle down in South American football. In the 2026 World Cup, I wonder if Ecuador can make a breakthrough. But no matter what, Ecuador has been one of the representative teams in South American football since the 21st century.