Soccer-Copa-Ecuador go from World Cup success to Copa failure

By Brian Homewood

PUERTO LA CRUZ, Venezuela, July 5 (Reuters) - Less than one year after surprisingly reaching the last 16 of the World Cup, Ecuador have been knocked out of the Copa America at the first hurdle.

Coach Luis Fernando Suarez, in charge of the team on both occasions, said he was at a loss to explain the sudden decline in his team's fortunes as they lost all three games in Group B.

Suarez, whose future with the team is uncertain, said Ecuador had played as well as their opponents in every game but had not got the breaks and had been let down by poor finishing.

"We have a good team but we didn't get the results," said Suarez.

"We seem to have created the idea in our conscience that things aren't going to turn out well in the Copa America."

Ecuador have reached the last two World Cup finals but have fallen at the first hurdle in the last four Copa America tournaments. They last made the quarter-finals in Bolivia in 1997.

This time around, Ecuador lost their opening game 3-2 to Chile, having led 2-1 for nearly one hour and missed several chances to finish off the game, and then went down 2-1 to Mexico.

On Wednesday, they unluckily lost 1-0 to Brazil.