Just under 70,000 fans packed into Kansas City Stadium to catch another FIFA World Cup match on Saturday, a figure that – remarkably – matched nearly half the entire population of one of the game's participants.
A self-governing island within the Kingdom of the Netherlands that sits just north of Venezuela, Curaçao – which tied Ecuador, 0-0, on Saturday – is just 171 square miles of land mass. For context, that's 17 percent the size of Rhode Island.
It makes up for its humble stature in heart, however, and following the first World Cup match in its young history last week, Kansas City turned out to be the perfect place for this unlikely story to continue.
"Not everything will be given to you," said midfielder Juninho Bacuna following Curaçao's opening match against Germany. "There are bigger countries than us – we're the smallest one – and we're the underdog, so you have nothing to lose."
This tale of defying the odds isn't just a matter of recent memory – it's historic. Curaçao is the smallest nation by population to ever qualify for the global tournament, shattering the record previously set by Iceland in 2018.
It's only fitting then that when the group play schedule was determined late last year, Curaçao landed a match in the location with the smallest metropolitan population of the 16 tournament hosts: Kansas City.
Like Curaçao, Kansas City's journey to becoming a World Cup host location was not an easy one. As Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan outlined in the summer of 2022, weeks following Kansas City's selection, the process was rooted in a trademark resilience that defines the Midwest.
"FIFA is a great partner, but they are a challenging partner. They challenge every single bit of you," Donovan said. "There were some days where [we wondered] how we were going to make this work, [but] it's the resolve [of our city] that was really the key that kept us going."
Donovan cited the efforts of numerous community leaders throughout Kansas City's years-long pitch to host the largest sporting event in the world, specifically recognizing the teamwork needed to land a spectacle of this magnitude.
Coincidentally, Curaçao's journey to this stage has been remarkably similar, making Saturday's contest an unlikely – but fitting – marriage.
"We want to show everyone why we're here and why we qualified," Bacuna said. "We want to make Curaçao as big as possible to the world, and since we qualified, you can see the impact. The support from everywhere that we're getting [has been amazing], and now it's on the players to show that we can do it, and we're a country that can play on the big stage."
Saturday's match pit Curaçao against "La Tri" of Ecuador as both teams sought their first point of the tournament. Ecuador, the No. 23 ranked team entering this year's World Cup, was widely considered a dark horse to make a significant run before dropping its opening match to Ivory Coast.
The Blue Wave, meanwhile – as Curaçao is affectionally known – was coming off a match in which the box score didn't begin to tell the full story. Curaçao fell to powerhouse Germany, 7-1, in its opening performance, but a goal by Livano Comenencia in the 21st minute briefly tied the Blue Wave with a true goliath of international soccer.
"Everybody in Germany watched the match, and now they know where Curaçao is," Curaçao Manager Dick Advocaat said last week. "They know what a beautiful island it is now, so we all benefit from this. It's only positive. If you see how far we've come – two years ago there was nothing at all, and we've come all this way. That already is an unbelievable performance."
Advocaat went on to chronicle the financial and logistical challenges that Curaçao faced early in his tenure as manager, from the lack of a competitive training facility to players having to pay for their own flights to matches. Just two years later, his team had scored an equalizer against the best of the best.
The tie held for roughly 17 minutes, and while Germany went on to win by a sizable margin, the fact remained that Curaçao – the No. 82 team in the world entering the tournament – had demonstrated that they belonged.
"I certainly watch the goal every single day, but I can't sit on it," Comenencia said. "I have to keep performing. We'll give the very best we have and show the very best we have. That's all we can do."
The Blue Wave certainly went on to do just that against Ecuador, notably 37-year-old goalkeeper Eloy Room, who logged a staggering 15 saves as Curaçao forced the draw.
"It means everything. It feels like a victory for us," said Room, whose 15 saves were the most through 90 minutes in World Cup history. "It's the first-ever point in the World Cup for us, so it's unreal. If you know the journey of where we come from, we're here now, and today we showed that we have real heart as a team."
Buoyed by that confidence, Curaçao has now captured the hearts of not only its 150,000 citizens, but the world at large. The World Cup is a tournament characterized by global friendship, after all, and Donovan's remarks from four years ago ring just as true for Kansas City as they do, in a parallel sense, for the people of Curaçao.
"The World Cup puts Kansas City on a map it has never been on before," Donovan said back in 2022. "It is an international event – it's going to be amazing when people see it, and it's going to be really exciting to be part of it."
Right on cue, Kansas City has now hosted two unforgettable matches as the World Cup rolls along, and for Room, it's a place that he – and the people of Curaçao – will never forget.
"I had never played in this stadium before," Room said with a smile. "I think this is going to be my favorite city now."
