{"id":36431,"date":"2026-06-15T00:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/36431\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T00:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:02:08","slug":"curacao-vs-germany-world-cup-how-tiny-islands-fans-celebrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/36431\/","title":{"rendered":"Cura\u00e7ao vs. Germany World Cup: How tiny island’s fans celebrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of Cura\u00e7ao fans<\/a> gathered after Sunday’s match against Germany in Helix Park to celebrate the country’s first FIFA World Cup<\/a> appearance and cheer on the Netherlands as it played Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many supporters, the moment was years in the making. Fans described the atmosphere as jubilant, electric and emotional as they watched their nation\u2019s World Cup journey begin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Cura\u00e7ao supporters have traditionally rooted for the Dutch national team at World Cups. On Sunday, however, the blue of Cura\u00e7ao dominated Helix Park despite splashes of Dutch orange throughout the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event, Blue Wave Village, was organized by the Cura\u00e7ao tourism board to celebrate the accomplishments of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(To) showcase how we celebrate life, how we celebrate sports, and get to know our island a little bit better, get to know our people a little bit better, that\u2019s the most important part,\u201d said Muryad de Bruin, the managing director of the Cura\u00e7ao Tourism Board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Netherlands fan said it was surreal to watch Cura\u00e7ao take the field in Houston. On an island with a population of about 158,000 people, the close-knit nature of the community was evident throughout the day.<\/p>\n

As people filed into the event, greetings took place across the park. Friends embraced, neighbors greeted one another and supporters exchanged hugs and kisses as they celebrated a moment decades in the making.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That sense of community carried over from the stadium and to Blue Wave Village\u00a0<\/p>\n

Supporters waved flags, sang chants and erupted whenever Cura\u00e7ao created a scoring chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the result did not go Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s way,\u00a0 many supporters said the goal represented something bigger than the scoreline. It was proof that their country belonged on soccer\u2019s biggest stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s World Cup journey is not over. The team still has group-stage matches remaining in Kansas City and Philadelphia; their fans and community plan on traveling and sticking with the team till the very end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEuphoric. That\u2019s the word, that\u2019s the main thing,\u201d de Bruin said. \u201cWe\u2019re euphoric when it comes to our participation and the feeling (is)\u00a0 happiness. Seeing our flag on the pitch, and our national anthem, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Cura\u00e7ao fans gathered after Sunday’s match against Germany in Helix Park to celebrate the country’s first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,32935],"class_list":["post-36431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-germany","tag-tsn-dynamo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}