Juan Riquelme Angulo, Angulo Mk. II or ‘Juangulo’, as he is now affectionately known in the Roker Report group chat, scored his first senior international goal for Ecuador on Monday 5th October against Panama in an international friendly. A huge moment for our new youngster and what could be a defining moment in a promising career.
Juangulo came on in the 46th minute for Alan Minda, alongside Nilson Angulo, who replaced John Mercado, and just 12 minutes later made his first impact for La Tricolor.
In the 58th minute, Ecuador came forward in numbers, playing the ball in behind and then across the 18-yard box. Juan picked up space by dropping back from his man undetected – the movement of a striker far older than his 18 years – and side-footed the ball past the Panama keeper and into the back of the net to equalise for Ecuador.
Hopefully this goal can provide Angulo with a load of confidence to bring back to Wearside, where he may well be needed once we discover the extent of Brobbey’s injury. Wilson Isidor will already be coming back full of confidence after scoring three goals and picking up two assists during this international break, and having two strikers coming back confident after strong showings could be massive if Brobbey is out for an extended period of time.
Unfortunately for Angulo, however, he did go on to miss the crucial penalty in the shootout that followed the 1-1 draw and resulted in a Panama win. But, given this was in a friendly match, hopefully there has not been too much pressure put on him by the Ecuadorian fans and press. We all know if this happened to a young English player the press would have a field day, but let’s hope the Ecuadorian media are a bit more level-headed in their approach to this.
Regardless, Angulo should come back to plenty of game time with the U21s, possibly including in the newly named Jersey Mike’s Trophy, where he’ll get to play against League One/Two sides and test his physicality in the men’s game in this country. Potential minutes against Brentford in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup could also be there for the taking, especially given the sheer number of games the Lads face leading up to yet another international break in November, although this one might be more welcome for the players and for all of our bank accounts.
All in all, a very successful international break for Juan Riquelme Angulo – a first international appearance and now a first international goal. Hopefully he can now kick on and start scoring goals for the U21s and, who knows, maybe we’ll see a first-team breakthrough before the season is out. This is just the start of a young career, and we hope it will be a very successful one for the Ecuadorian.
