Ecuador’s first goal at the 2026 World Cup came with an old song and a long memory. During the celebration, the stadium sounded with “Sí se puede, sí se pudo, sí se puede y siempre se podrá!”, the anthem created by Damiano and still attached to the national team’s biggest moments.
That return matters because Ecuador had entered the tournament with three other songs proposed by the Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol for FIFA’s review: “Quiero amanecer soñando” by David Cobo, “La Tri” by Jombriel, Jotta and Javier Neira, and “Vuelvo a nacer en Ecuador” by Javier Neira. FIFA studies submitted themes for positive content before choosing the official celebration music, but the first goal in Ecuador’s debut was marked by a different track, one that had already outlived its original title.
The song was first called “Nunca te vas a ir” and was later reshaped into “Sí se puede” by Damiano, whose real name is Nelson Fernando Proaño Guerra. He wrote it in his studio after the violent attack on Hernán Darío “El Bolillo” Gómez in Guayaquil in May 2001, when Gómez said he would abandonaría el país after being hospitalized in a clinic. What began as a support song in a moment of crisis became a football refrain that, 24 years later, still rides with Ecuador.
That is the friction in the story: the federation went through the formal process and sent FIFA three modern options, yet the celebration reached back to an anthem with older emotional weight. Damiano later refreshed the structure of the theme for the decisive stretch of the tournament, but the choice heard after Ecuador’s first goal showed that the song’s bond with La Tri still runs deeper than any submission list. The unanswered question is not whether the anthem still matters; it is why, when the moment arrived, this was the one that fit.
