In Ecuador, They Found It Tough to Concentrate

American national team players Alexi Lalas and Mike Burns are spending part of Major League Soccer’s off-season playing for Emelec in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The New England Revolution duo soon learned that soccer is taken more seriously in the equatorial port city than in Boston. Perhaps too seriously.

To prepare for the playoff round, the entire Emelec team was confined to the club’s stadium. Players were not allowed to leave for any reason. The confinement, or concentracion, as it is called, is intended to focus the players’ attention.

It lasted 10 days. Not hours, days.

“I came down here to improve my game, which I’ve done, but also to play somewhere where the culture and mentality are different,” Lalas told Soccer America magazine. “But I’ve never seen anything like this, not when I played in Italy and certainly not in the States.

“It’s ridiculous, but I’m just a gringo. It’s not my place to say if it’s wrong or right. It’s just a different way of doing things.”

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So, how’s the water? Adding to Lalas’ tropical depression, his arrival in Ecuador was greeted not long thereafter by an attack of--not to put too fine a point on it--stomach trouble.

“It was the worst I’ve ever had,” he told Soccer America. “It was like my entire body said, ‘OK, there’s something really bad inside, and we have to get it out.’ And it was on the radio that afternoon and in the newspapers.”

And what a delightful image that conjures up.

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Trivia time: Who was the first All-American to be coached by John Wooden at UCLA?

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Unbearable: Pulling no punches while suggesting that the Chicago Bears not blame their woeful season on quarterback Erik Kramer, Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune outlined what the Bears are not.

They are not, he wrote, “good tacklers, good blockers, good runners, good defenders, good receivers. The Bears are not quick, not smart, not deep, not ready. And whatever is being done next to fix all of this, quarterback is not the place to start.”

So there.

Unappetizing fare: TNT’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Nagano will include Japanese cooking segments from a Tokyo-born gourmet sushi chef who owns a restaurant in Atlanta.

Reaction: The Olympic athletes must be thrilled by this waste/misuse of air time. Raw fish by any other name is still raw fish, not sports.

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Trivia answer: George Stanich in 1950.

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And finally: Bad as the Bears’ season was, defensive lineman Jim Flanigan at least ended the year on a positive note. He won $22,000 on a special edition of “Wheel of Fortune” that is scheduled to be shown during Super Bowl Week.

For those who care, Flanigan was on the program with Herschel Walker and Daryl Johnston of the Dallas Cowboys, and teammate Chris Zorich.