Adaptable right-sided player who can feature either in defence or in midfield, de la Cruz will be hoping for a good tournament to make up for some problems at club level in recent times. De la Cruz has suffered a nightmare spell with Aston Villa, being only a fringe player for the Premiership outfit since joining from Hibernian after some impressive displays in Japan and South Korea four years ago. Made his international debut more than a decade ago against Japan and is his country's second highest-capped player behind Ivan Hurtado. Has played club football in his homeland for Deportivo Quito, Barcelona, LDU Quito and Emelec.