CURITIBA, Brazil -- A little under a year after the sudden death of star striker Christian Benitez, Ecuador has unearthed a new goal-scoring dynamo. Enner Valencias two calmly-taken goals that secured a 2-1 comeback win over Honduras on Friday took his tournament tally to three and put the team in second spot in a group that is likely to be won by France. Valencia, who plays for Mexican club Pachuca, only consolidated his position in the Ecuador starting lineup after Benitez died from a heart problem last July. "He hasnt even celebrated a year with us, I think hes grown a lot, improved a lot," Ecuadors coach Reinaldo Rueda said of his new star forward. Valencia, who is no relation to his captain Antonio Valencia, hopes the "joy" that the win has generated will help inspire the team in its crucial final Group E match against France, which has tallied eight goals and conceded two in a pair of dominating wins. Ecuador has three competition points, level with Switzerland but ahead on goal difference after the Swiss lost 5-2 to France earlier Friday. Honduras, which has never won a World Cup match, isnt completely out of contention despite its two losses but it faces an uphill battle ahead of its last group game against Switzerland. "We still have that possibility, though it is remote and we will fight for it," Honduras coach Luis Fernando Suarez said. Rueda praised the Honduras team for its tenacity and expressed the hope that his former charges could do Ecuador a favour by beating the Swiss. Rueda steered Honduras at the last World Cup in South Africa. Should Honduras beat Switzerland, Ecuador would only need a draw against France to progress to the knockout rounds of the World Cup for only the second time. The first time Ecuador qualified for the second round was in 2006 and, coincidentally, the team was then was managed by current Honduras coach Suarez. Rueda conceded it was difficult to meet his former team in such a crucial match. "For me, its a mix of emotions, professional and personal," he said. Honduras took the lead in the 31st minute with its first World Cup goal in 32 years when Carlo Costly latched onto a long ball following a misjudgment from Ecuador defender Jorge Guagua. The goal ended a 511-minute drought that stretched back to the 1982 World Cup. Valencia equalized three minutes later, tapping in with his left foot from close range after sloppy Honduran defending failed to stop a cross in from the right. Honduras applied more of the pressure leading up to halftime and nearly took the lead. A fierce free kick in injury time from Victor Bernardez forced a good save from Ecuador goalkeeper Alexander Dominguez. Honduras got the ball in the Ecuador net seconds before the break when a Costly header rebounded off the post into the path of Jerry Bengtson, but it was disallowed -- apparently for a hand ball. The second half was far less frenzied than the opening 45 minutes and Valencias winner came in the 65th minute when he out-jumped the Honduras defence to head home a left-sided free kick from Walter Ayovi. "These are goals in the World Cup, this is something you dream of when you are a young kid and thank God that this dream is becoming a reality," said Valencia. Jarvis Landry Browns Jersey . Ellis had a season-high 37 points and two key assists late, Dirk Nowitzki led a fourth-quarter rally with 14 of his 35 points, and the Mavericks spoiled Howards best offensive night in Houston with a 123-120 victory over the Rockets on Wednesday night. Baker Mayfield Jersey .Lets go back to the Avs, who have become one of the funnest teams to watch in this years playoffs. http://www.brownsauthenticproshop.com/Youth-Jim-Brown-Browns-Jersey/ . The CFL club is making the move after holding its camp and regular-season practices at the University of Toronto campus in Mississauga, Ont. David Njoku Womens Jersey . Neither player was available Saturday for the Knicks 107-98 loss in Atlanta. "Were going in a different direction and weve got to figure out another spot or two for our ballclub," coach Mike Woodson said before the game. Austin Corbett Womens Jersey . -- Shanshan Feng was alone in her opinion about the pin positions in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. NEW YORK -- Major League Soccer hopes to place its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. "Were making progress in both of those markets. I wouldnt say were close," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday ahead of this weekends championship game between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City. Former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham is leading the Miami effort and has the right to an expansion team at a discount fee of $25 million. "We are very excited about the opportunity of David putting together an ownership group and finalizing a stadium site in downtown Miami," Garber said. "We cant go to Miami without the right stadium solution. David understands that. The city understands that. That is an indisputable fact." New teams have been announced for 2015 in New York City and Orlando, Fla., increasing the leagues total to 21. MLS began with 10 teams in 1996, expanded to 12 and then contracted to 10 in 2002 when Miami and Tampa Bay were eliminated. "The Miami today demographically, socially, politically is very different from the Miami of 2002 where we folded the Miami Fusion," Garber said. "So we believe Miami could work if we get the right stadium situation. We dont have that yet." Falcons owner Arthur Blank heads the Atlanta venture, which would play at a new stadium for his NFL team, a venue scheduled to open in 2017. "Weve been working on a downsizing technology that we think would be unique, would be the only one of its kind anywhere in the world," Garber said. "Weve got to continue to work hard with Atlanta to see if this whole project makes sense for them. But I am encouraged by the discussions and hope to be able to finalize something." They would give the league 23 teams, one short of the leagues goal for 2020. Garber said Tuesday that Minneapolis, San Antonio, St. Louis and Austin, Texas, are among the possibilities for a 24th team. MLSs regular-season attendance average increased from 15,504 in 2006 to a record 18,807 last year before dropping slightly this season to 18,594. Garber said the league is spending more than $20 million annually on player development and must grow revenue. "Major League Soccer still loses money as an enterprise, and weve got to find a way that we can get closer to being a break-even enterprise," he said. The league receives an average of about $28 million annually from its national broadcast contracts with ESPN, NBC and Univision, which expiire after the 2014 season.dddddddddddd In the first season after Beckham left the Galaxy, regular-season ratings dropped from an average of 180,000 viewers to 170,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. However, viewers for the playoffs not including the final have increased from 240,000 to 270,000. "We did a heat map of the MLS broadcast schedule against that of the EPL, two other European leagues and the four other major leagues in this country, and you get dizzy looking at the MLS schedule," Garber said. "What we need to have is a consistent game of the week or games of the week that run from the beginning of year to the end of the year as much as we can at consistent times. And if that can be a Friday or a Saturday or a Sunday, that would be a positive." In its first season televising the English Premier League under a $250 million, three-year contract, NBCSN is averaging 429,000 for games televised in the U.S. mostly on weekend mornings. Nine games on NBC are averaging 788,000. "I think what NBC did for the Premier League is unprecedented in the history of pro sports. They really took the Premier League and made it as important as anything that was going on in the NBC Universal family, and its paying off in ratings and its certainly making economic sense for them," Garber said. "So if were able to create that kind of a scenario with a broadcaster, I think it would be beneficial for us." Garber also went into detail on the leagues examination of whether to switch its March-to-December schedule to the international calendar, which runs from August until May. MLS discussed playing from July until December, taking a break and finishing from late February until May. "Its not just about are we going to play a few more games in cold-weather markets at an earlier time of the year. Its about what do we do with an extended break, because I dont care what market it is, were not playing in February and in January in places like Toronto, Vancouver," he said. "We went through some fairly extensive discussions as a league to figure out if we could do this sometime in the future. It wouldnt have been for 14. But thats not something that were going to do in the short-term." He also promised more transparency in the leagues complex and opaque player control rules, which make if difficult at times to determine which teams control rights. "We are still evolving," he said. "and we still are doing some of this stuff on the fly." ' ' '