In Ecuador, a Thriving Game and Prospects Galore It has been a difficult couple of weeks for teams named Barcelona in continental competition. Last Wednesday the Spanish version dropped a 2-0 decision to Milan in the Champions League. On Feb. 12 the Ecuadorean namesake - Barcelona Sporting Club - was denied three points in its Copa Libertadores opener when Nacional's Álvaro Recoba set up Iván Alonso for a late equalizer in Montevideo, Uruguay. That Alonso's goal came in the third minute of second-half stoppage time was not the worst part. Throughout the night there was a feeling Barcelona was not only going up against the Uruguayan champion, but the Chilean referee, Enrique Osses, as well. In the 77th minute, with Barcelona still leading by a goal, Osses issued a second booking to Nacional's Alejandro Lembo, but somehow forgot to eject the defender until the 83rd minute. At that point Barcelona was also a man down - José Perlaza having been given his marching orders with 15 minutes to play - and just when it seemed the referee could not possibly hurt Barcelona any more, Osses overlooked a Barcelona penalty in the 90th minute. Unsurprisingly, the Ecuadoreans were furious when the final whistle blew shortly after Alonso's header, as they believed they had been the better team at Estadio Gran Parque Central. But their anger, their righteous expectation of winning probably also said something about the state of soccer in Ecuador. It is at a high standard, perhaps the highest in the barely 60 years the game has been played professionally in the country. The signs of progress are easiest to spot at international level, where La Tri trail only Argentina in 2014 World Cup qualifying. Ecuador's 17 points from nine games has it five points ahead of the three-team tie among Venezuela, Uruguay and Chile. The top four gain automatic berths to the finals in Brazil, with the fifth-place team entering a playoff with a team from Asia for another spot. For Ecuador, after losing, 4-0, in Buenos Aires last June, has gone unbeaten in five matches - a streak that ncludes a 3-1 home win over Chile and 1-1 draw at the Copa Amárica holders, Uruguay. Earlier this month Ecuador transferred that regional success to Europe, beating Portugal, 3-2, in an entertaining friendly in Guimarães. And Ecuador did it with a squad that included 11 domestic-based players, including nine who play for the country's three best clubs: L.D.U. Quito, Emelec and Barcelona. Ecuador's robust club game has provided the backbone of its national team (all the goalkeepers and defenders named for the Portugal match play domestically) and now poses a challenge for clubs from Brazil and Argentina in the Copa Libertadores. A vigorous economy has also had an impact. Ecuador's Central Bank reported that the country's gross domestic product doubled between 1999 and 2007, and even though growth has declined because of sagging oil prices (oil makes up nearly half of Ecuador's economic output) economic expansion of four percent is expected when the data from 2012 is tabulated. Unemployment, meanwhile, remains under six percent, according to a report from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. These factors have helped to prop up a healthy domestic league, which in recent years has become a popular destination for players from Paraguay and Argentina. The Paraguay international Enrique Vera plays for L.D.U. Quito - the only Ecuadorean team to have won the Copa Libertadores - as does Argentina's Ignacio Canuto, who has three caps for his country. Emelec, the current league leaders, has two Argentines and two Paraguayans on its books, including the former River Plate star Cristian Nasuti and Alibirroja striker Pablo Zeballos. And Barcelona, the reigning champion, got their two goals against Nacional in the Copa Libertadores from the Argentine playmaker Damian Diaz and his countryman Ariel Nahuelpan - both in their mid-20s and spending their primes in Ecuador's Serie A. But Ecuador has been busily developing its own players, many of whom have been scouted by some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Foremost is Frickson Erazo, the Barcelona center back who might be the country's best defensive prospect in years. Tall, elegant and mature at 24 years old, he has a good command of the box, will take the ball off an opponent without breaking his legs and plays the sort of perfectly weighted long pass that can turn defense into attack in a matter of seconds. Erazo said both Manchester United and Real Madrid had scouted him recently, and in an interview with the Daily Mail last week he acknowledged that there had been "initial contact" with United. There are other Ecuadoreans attracting interest. Last month Juventus snapped up the 18-year-old midfielder José Francisco Cevallos Jr. (the son of the former Ecuador goalkeeper of the same name) from L.D.U. Quito, and Fortuna Düsseldorf recently reached an agreement with Independiente's Cristian Ramírez that will see the highly rated left back play in Germany next season. They paid less than $700,000 for him. Though Ecuador's clubs cannot command big transfer fees for their talented young players, the strength of the development system augurs well for the domestic game, and for Ecuador internationally. Follow Jerrad Peters on Twitter.