Curacao chase history: barefoot buildup, Advocaat’s oldest World Cup

Curacao smallest – Curacao, a Caribbean island nation of about 158,000 people, prepare for their World Cup debut with a fearless run of unbeaten qualifying, a viral school-bus journey, barefoot beach training, and the looming challenge of Germany at Houston’s 72,000-capacity sta

By the time Curacao’s players took their boots off on the beaches at home, it already felt like the tournament was carrying a story bigger than football.

The Blue Wave are six days away from making their mark at the World Cup as the smallest nation ever to reach the competition. Curacao’s population is barely 158,000, yet their build-up has been loud enough to cut through. There’s the warm chaos of training barefoot metres away from sunbeds and wooden seafront shacks—press-ups on the sand. improvised volley games. and the turquoise water as backdrop. There’s also the travel moment that went viral: a ramshackle school bus with no glass in its windows. the players leaning out and banging the side as they moved around.

On Sunday, Curacao face Germany at Houston Stadium—72,000-capacity, large enough to hold nearly half their population. Around 3. 000 to 5. 000 supporters are expected to follow them to North America. while the island—about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela—will gather at parties and in front of screens back home as the game comes on.

One of the clearest images from the island’s World Cup week comes from Brenton Balentien. who told The Athletic: “The island will shut down when the games are on. For us, it’s life. We are a tiny island. everyone here is like family. accomplishing something as big as qualifying for the World Cup. it means the world. Besides seeing the birth of my children, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”.

That sense of shared ownership—players hanging out with fans, taking selfies, holding meet-and-greets, signing shirts and balls—runs through their preparation. Curacao’s players don’t arrive like strangers. They feel, in their own way, like representatives of the place itself.

In qualifying, that connection was backed by a record that made their rise hard to dismiss. Curacao went unbeaten across their 10 matches, picking up results against the likes of Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. In November. they drew with Jamaica to book their place in the expanded 48-team tournament. sending the island into celebration so intense that even crowd control police joined in at full time.

The contrast was painful for Jamaica, managed by former England boss Steve McClaren. Jamaica’s World Cup dream ended in the play-offs, where they lost out to DR Congo.

Curacao’s Jamaica moment had its own drama. They played away from home and flew two planes packed with their most passionate supporters to make noise in the 35. 000-seater stadium in Kingston. even though much of the crowd was behind McClaren’s side. Curacao still managed to silence them. Leandro Bacuna. the team’s captain. later described it like a story guided by fate: “I think God was with us that night. Because you’ve seen the game, everyone’s seen the game. Couple of balls on the post … Everywhere. But our keeper was great, so I think it was meant for us. It was a story written for us.”.

It’s those margins—posts, saves, belief—that Curacao will need again if they want to disrupt the tournament’s hierarchy.

A manager who adds to the mythology, not just the clipboard

Curacao’s transformation is closely tied to the man now steering them into the tournament: Dick Advocaat. The 78-year-old Dutch veteran will become the oldest manager in World Cup history.

Advocaat stepped down in February so he could be with his sick daughter, and he was replaced by Fred Rutten. But Advocaat returned to the post in May 2026, taking charge for a debut run that has already surprised people who thought the island would simply make up the numbers.

The squad’s composition adds another layer to the “smallest on earth, big stage ahead” narrative. Only Tahith Chong was born in Curacao. The rest of the squad is Dutch-born, but connected to the island through their parents. Even the existence of a national team here is relatively recent—the island didn’t even have a national team until 2010. when they were included under the banner of the now-disbanded Netherlands Antilles. Curacao’s surge from that late start to World Cup football has turned into something the island seems to live inside.

There may not be a single global superstar in the group. The most recognisable name is Leandro Bacuna, who spent three years with Aston Villa. But Curacao’s World Cup campaign is shaping up to be a collective project rather than a reliance on one headline talent.

They enter the tournament as the third-lowest-ranked team in the competition, sitting 82nd in FIFA’s rankings. Only New Zealand and Haiti are lower. Still. Curacao are used to being the outsiders: a decade ago they were ranked 150th. and the gap between then and now is part of what drives their confidence.

The quiet insistence that they can actually win

There’s a belief inside this team that goes beyond qualifying. Right-back Livano Comenencia, who plays for Zurich in Switzerland, told FIFA: “We’ve been brought up playing the Dutch way and we’ve got real quality and excellent technique. We’re going to surprise a lot of people.”

Their group includes Germany, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador—an arrangement that looks forbidding on paper. Yet Curacao are already talking like they expect to compete for points. Comenencia’s message continued with a tournament mindset built on football’s volatility: “As soon as the game gets under way. anything can happen. It’s always 11 against 11, not five against 11. Anything’s possible, even against Germany. I think four points will be enough to see us through to the next stage of the competition. a win and a draw. We’ll do everything in our power to make it happen.”.

That intention isn’t restricted to interviews. It matches what’s been happening around the island since the qualification moment. Curacao’s build-up has treated the World Cup like a family event—something people do together, not something they watch from the outside.

One fan’s quote captured it as a life milestone rather than a sporting one. And for the team itself, the ambition has been just as direct. For qualifying. Curacao’s approach has been clear: “For us. qualifying for the World Cup is already a huge milestone. because we’ve never achieved anything on this scale before and we’ll be the smallest country in tournament history. A lot of people already see us as winners. But we’ve got a winning mentality and we’re not here to just make up the numbers. We’re going to the World Cup with the intention of winning it.”.

Even before kickoff at Houston, the stakes feel personal. Curacao’s tiny island—within the Kingdom of the Netherlands despite being located near Venezuela. with a total area of 444km squared—could fit nearly four times inside Greater London. It’s hard to overstate how odd. and how compelling. it looks to watch a place that small arrive for a tournament this huge.

On Sunday against Germany, it won’t matter that the crowd is expected to split in numbers, or that their ranking places them near the bottom. It won’t matter that their journey has been powered as much by beach training and viral bus rides as by football tactics.

What will matter is what they’ve been saying all week: that anything can happen, even here.

And for Curacao, history isn’t something they’re arriving to—it’s something they’re trying to break open.

Curacao World Cup Germany vs Curacao Dick Advocaat Tahith Chong Leandro Bacuna Livano Comenencia Steve McClaren Houston Stadium FIFA rankings