Curaçao’s 1st World Cup goal sparks belief before Germany’s floodgates open

HOUSTON (AP) — For 37 minutes on Sunday, Curaçao stayed with four-time champion Germany, with the World Cup first-timers daring to believe they could pull off the unimaginable.

Livano Comenencia tied it with his left-footed shot through traffic from the center of the box in the 21st minute to give Curaçao its first goal in the tournament and send fans of the Blue Wave into a frenzy.

But Germany broke a 1-1 tie in the 38th minute and overwhelmed this tiny Caribbean nation after that, running away with the game for a 7-1 victory in the group stage.

“This is not a disgrace,” Curaçao coach Dick Advocaat said. “I think we can still be proud.”

It was an emotional day for the 78-year-old Advocaat, a World Cup veteran who previously coached the Netherlands in 1994 and South Korea in 2006. He wept before the game as his team from a country of just 158,000 made history with its debut in the tournament.

“This is related with the joy of the people in Curaçao,” he said. “It may be a matter of my age, but this is when the emotion comes to the surface. I don’t really like it… (but) the joy of the people is fantastic.”

He became the oldest man to ever coach a World Cup game and did it against Germany’s 38-year-old coach Julian Nagelsmann, who is the youngest in this year’s tournament.

Comenencia’s goal gave Curaçao confidence early and was yet another milestone in the team’s historic run.

“The goal was absolutely fantastic for all of us, for the nation as well,” winger Kenji Gorré said. “It’s more history being made. The first goal ever scored on the world stage, it’s just phenomenal and we’re all grateful that we were here to experience it (with) all the people in the stadium.”

Nagelsmann was impressed with the fight shown by Curaçao and noted that it can be dangerous when an underdog gets confidence.

“The opponent played better than many had expected in Germany,” he said. “They played with a lot of courage.”

While Curaçao was proud to have stuck with a powerhouse like Germany for most of the first half, there was disappointment at the final score. Curaçao had the biggest goal difference in a defeat of a nation making its World Cup debut since South Korea lost 9-0 to Hungary in 1954, according to Opta.

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“Mixed emotions, mixed feelings, on one side you think, ‘Wow, we’ve made history by coming to the World Cup,’” Gorré said. “On the other it’s like, ‘Wow, we wish that we could have got some points.” But we’re playing against the world’s best and the world’s best punish you at every opportunity they can, and you see that they punished us seven times from mistakes that we made.”

Curaçao hopes that the experience gained Sunday will help as it continues in the tournament against Ecuador on Saturday in Kansas City.

“We still have matches to go and things can still end up differently,” Advocaat said.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup