Livano Comenencia has no idea what to do, so he just runs to the corner flag. Even during training, the FC Zurich midfielder never actually scores. And now he has scored the first goal ever for Curaçao at a world championship, the equalizer against four-time world champions Germany.
As Sheffield United midfielder Tahith Chong runs after Comencia, he thinks of his father’s generation, who never dreamed that the small Caribbean island would play in a World Cup. And he thinks about the younger generation, who are now living the dream. Then he jumps on top of his teammate.
For a moment it seems like there may be a stunt involved, one that would be in the same category as historic matches such as the American victory over England in 1950 and North Korea’s victory over Italy in 1966. But then things still go completely wrong: 7-1.
NRC followed the smallest participant in a World Cup ever (158,000 inhabitants) in the weeks before the first match the island ever played at that tournament, at training camps in Noordwijk and Florida and around the match, and spoke to several players there. They are, they realize, writing history – regardless of the results.
Noordwijk, end of May
On the bus to the training field it was said this way: no fans were allowed on the field after training. But training has barely ended when the children of striker Bradley Kuwas climb over the boardings to play football with their father, after which the stands steadily empty. Fans hunt for autographs and photos, some kick a ball with players. A staff member looks at it with a smile. “It was not the intention. But everything that was not the intention still happens here.”
The preparation for the World Cup starts in Noordwijk, on the field of amateur club SJC and in the rooms of the Huis ter Duin hotel. At the first training there are hundreds of fans, a brass band, and media from all over the world who want to know how the smallest participant ever ended up at the World Cup. But tension?
During training, staff members feel free to talk to acquaintances they meet on the field. The exercises are led by assistants Giovanni Franken, Dean Gorré and Angelo Cijntje. National coach Dick Advocaat walks among the players, shouting encouragement and instructions.
The players know they are on the cusp of history. They have all experienced qualifying – some as refined players, others playing on the fringes of club football. In Houston, in the first match against Germany, they will face the biggest and most expensive players in the world.
“It may be strange to say,” says defender Joshua Brenet a few days later in Huis Ter Duin, “but we do not have the quality like other European countries. So we have to come up with our own plan.” But in Noordwijk, Germany is still far away. “We look at it per match. First practice against Scotland, then on Curaçao against Aruba. Also strange: that match may be more important, that is like Ajax against Feyenoord.”
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Brenet played in the Champions League with PSV and even played twice for the Dutch team. For a long time he hoped for more international matches. But when, even after a good season at Twente, in which he scored seven times as a right back, a call-up was not forthcoming, he chose the country of his parents. Going to the World Cup, he says, “is a boyhood dream.” Other players chose Curaçao early in their careers; that is the success of the search that the association launched for players with roots on the island.
He remembers Advocaat from his time at PSV, where the coach made his debut there. He has become calmer, he notices, gives players more freedom off the field, but demands the same discipline on it. The team can handle that responsibility, Brenet feels. Simple: “This group is family.”
Boca Raton, June
Everything is bigger here, says Jurien Gaari. The defender is standing along the field of the Florida Atlantic University Stadium, a football stadium that can seat thirty thousand people. It is the team’s home base in the city of Boca Raton, an hour above Miami. It is Thursday, four days before the match against Germany – but that is hardly noticeable. The players dance on the field, have fun with each other.
A few thousand people watch from the stands at the ‘community training’, a public training. One by one the players are introduced and applauded. Assistant national coach Franken leads the training and tells the audience via a headset what exactly they see: “High intensity!” There are American families in the stands, with children in Arsenal and Barcelona football shirts. And there are hundreds of Antillean fans: some have traveled especially from Curaçao, others live in Florida.
After the training camp in Noordwijk, they practiced in and against Scotland (4-1 loss). Curaçao did win against Aruba; 4-0. As the plane took off for Florida a few days later, the purser announced that they represented not only the team, but “the pride and unity of our people. With every pass and every goal, you show the world the strength of our nation.”
In Florida the players are amazed, they say along the edge of the training field. “This stadium is bigger than where I play with Telstar,” laughs midfielder Tyrese Noslin. “It is a very big tournament,” realizes Gaari, who only started playing professional football at the age of twenty-four and now plays at the second level of Saudi Arabia.
They talk about the five police motorcycles that accompany the Curaçao players bus when they drive to and from the hotel and the training field, about the security in the hotel, where everything is shielded from the outside world. About FIFA’s media day, where all players were extensively photographed and filmed while they danced, cheered or looked seriously into the camera.
About the app that they could download and where FIFA will use all their individual images immediately after the match. About the attention of foreign journalists, at the public training there are up to ten camera crews from all over the world along the field – some journalists then ask each other which player exactly they spoke to.
But although everything is bigger, one thing is the same: the group feeling. The players hang out together all day long. In the hotel they play dice games or table tennis, or dance to the music from the large box with the Curaçao flag on it. They ask goalkeeper Eloy Room, who plays in Miami, questions about the US. That solidarity, staff members tell each other, is the strength of the team. Ask the players and they all say what Brenet already said in Noordwijk: “We are family.”
“You speak each other’s language,” says defender Roshon van Eijma, defender of RKC Waalwijk. “You understand each other’s norms and values. You have the same food. The parents grew up the same. And family members on the island appear to know each other.” He even found out that midfielder Godfried Roemeratoe and striker Gervane Kastaeer are his second cousins.
Germany? A good team, no one has any illusions about that. But we, says Van Eijma when they start tactical training two days before the match, “also have our weapons, such as speed at the front.” Dick Advocaat says it often: if amateur club Hercules could beat Ajax in the KNVB Cup, then Curaçao can beat Germany.
Houston, Sunday
7-1, the players feel after the match, is too big a result. Curaçao made it difficult for Germany for at least half an hour and after the equalizer they thought: is it possible? But all hope turns out to be an illusion when Germany first makes it 2-1 and makes it 3-1 shortly before half-time from a penalty. The 4-1 immediately after half-time was the final blow.
They belong here, says Kenji Gorré after the match in the press room, who remains on the bench for the entire match. Because it wasn’t as if Curaçao was bad. Sometimes they even came out very well. But Germany was faster, smarter and more careful in everything. So afterwards, pride and disappointment prevail, players say, with players who play at a lower level more often talking about the former and players who play higher more often talking about the latter. But they all enjoyed it: the anthem that was belted out before the match, the thousands of fans, the wave that went through the stadium.
That’s why they lingered on the field for a long time afterwards, the Germans were already gone. They thanked the fans again. And took it all in one more time.