Ecuador's record so far at the World Cup speaks for itself -- two wins, five goals scored, none conceded and a place in the second round of the tournament for the first time in their history.

Even though their 2-0 victory over Poland on the opening day is now described a surprise rather than a shock and their 3-0 win over Costa Rica on Thursday did not raise many eyebrows, the way in which they won both games was still impressive.

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Ecuador now face Germany [Images] next Tuesday to decide top spot in Group A and following that game, a real assessment will probably be made of the South Americans, playing in the finals for only the second time.

In 2002, they failed to get out of their group.

Going in to the tournament, Ecuador's chances were dismissed by many who said they could only win at high altitude, including Brazil [Images] coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Ecuador won seven of their nine qualifiers at home, played 2,800 metres above sea level. Two of those victories were against Brazil and Argentina. They lost six away matches, so many began to believe the criticism.

But judging by the style in which they won their two games so far in Germany, the altitude excuse used by Parreira and others may also have been tinged with a touch of sour grapes.

"I am not surprised by our performances and people seem to forget that we play in South America, against supposedly the best teams in the world on a regular basis," Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez told Reuters.

"We have continued to learn from playing in the last finals and then in qualification for Germany and any country that does that deserves credit."

Germany will find it hard to break down Ecuador's confident four-man defence which is marshalled by midfielder Edwin Tenorio who acts as a buffer just in front of them.

Up front, both of their main strikers, Carlos Tenorio and Agustin Delgado have scored in each game, something many teams could only dream of so early in the competition.

Add to that the fact that substitute forward Ivan Kaviedes came on to score against Costa Rica, Ecuador might continue to surprise some and prove others wrong.