Ecuador’s players are too calm, in everyone’s opinion. They really do not show any emotion before such an important event as the World Cup. Is this good or bad?

However, the mood in the camp during their final training session at the marvellous FIFA World Cup Stadium Gelsenkirchen on Thursday - some 24 hours before their first Group A fixture - seemed to be teetering somewhere between placid and oblivious.

“I am calm. I am always calm,” head coach Luis Suarez told journalists after Thursday’s training session, which looked more like a Sunday kick-around than the final workout for a team heading into their opening game at the biggest football tournament on earth. “Listen, it is just my mentality to keep cool. What’s the point of getting nervous? It helps nothing. I know we are prepared.”

Ivan Kaviedes, who is expected to start on the bench on Friday, with Agustin Delgado and Carlos Tenorio getting the nod up front, echoed his coach’s cool, collected approach when talking to FIFAworldcup.com after training.

“I don’t really see it as any different than any other game,” the Argentinos Juniors forward said. “I have to approach the game as just a normal game or else I will think too much about what is at stake and not about playing my best. Of course I know it is a World Cup match, so I am totally aware of the size of the event, but for me I approach it like any other game and if the coach needs me I will be ready.”

Source: WCoffsite