While many managers like to moan about scheduling and having to play on two or three days' rest, those complaints pale in comparison to what Independiente Del Valle boss Pablo Repetto is dealing with on Wednesday.

The upstart Ecuadorians, who eliminated both River Plate and Boca Juniors, are in the final of the Copa Libertadores and will face Colombia's Atletico Nacional in the first leg on Wednesday night.

So one would think that the folks who run and schedule Ecuador's Serie A would be inclined...

The Wright brothers, of course, were pioneers of aviation -- while a pair of siblings by the same name were responsible for getting Ecuadorian football off the ground.

Juan Alfredo and Roberto Wright came back to the country at the turn of the 20th century after a few years studying in England -- and part of their intellectual baggage was a knowledge of and passion for football. They got the game underway in their native city of Guayaquil, Ecuador's Pacific port.

Over a century later Ecuadorian...

Superman is up and running, flying and scoring goals. Enner Valencia opened his West Ham account with a splendid shot in Monday's 2-2 draw away to Hull City.

Back in his native Ecuador, meanwhile, his old club were missing his power to produce the unexpected. Emelec lost 1-0 to Barcelona in the latest installment of the country's biggest local rivalry, the "shipyard derby" in the port city of Guayaquil.

Ecuador has two major cities: Guayaquil and the mountain capital of Quito. These days, in...