While the vanquished Costa Ricans hung their heads in bewilderment, Ivan Kaviedes pulled a Spider-man mask from his shorts -- in Ecuador's team color of yellow, of course -- stretched it over his head and ran around like a schoolboy.
If anyone deserved to celebrate, he did, after scoring two minutes into injury time and putting an exclamation point on a 3-0 victory that put Ecuador in the second round of the World Cup for the first time.
His masked-man stunt was a tribute to Otilino Tenorio, a teammate killed in a car crash in Ecuador in May last year, just three days after he played for his country in a friendly.
PHOTO: AP
"He is a partner, a friend, a brother who was with us and is a part of us," Kaviedes said.
"He was with us a long, long time, and he transferred to us this joy that was very contagious," Kaviedes added.
Tenorio, whose nickname was "Spider-man," used to pull the mask from his shorts during his goal celebrations.
"We had a feeling that he was present with us," Agustin Delgado said.
Carlos Tenorio, who is not related, and Delgado scored their second goals of the tournament for Ecuador, a country with few international sports triumphs. In the Olympics, its only medal came at the 1996 Atlanta Games, when Jefferson Perez won the gold in the 20km walk.
Back in Quito, the streets filled with celebrators. Ecuador and host Germany claimed the two berths from Group A and will meet England, Sweden or Trinidad and Tobago in the second round.
"We're now thinking about being group leaders, we think about winning every game," Delgado said. "We want to win the next game, even though we're in the second round."
"I think it'll be the most beautiful game to play, even more so because we already advanced," Delgado said after the players dedicated their success to "Spider-man."
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