“Millwall’s stadium in South London might seem a strange spot for the 2014 FIFA World Cup to begin, but that is the way that Ecuador sees it when it takes the pitch there against Australia on 5 March (Thursday morning AEDT). Ecuador coach Reynaldo Rueda is well aware that the World Cup comes with a level of mental pressure which can stew the mind and freeze the legs. Four years ago the Colombian coach took Honduras to its first World Cup since 1982. His players, then, belonged to a generation which had never experienced anything like it. The first two games passed them by. Only in the third match, by which time it was already too late, did Honduras display its true colours. The same thing happened to Ecuador on its World Cup debut in 2002. And the fear is, after missing out on South Africa 2010, a similar problem might strike Ecuador’s latest generation.” The World Game – Tim Vickery