Curacao and its historic ticket to the World Cup along with the surprising Haiti
Curacao secured its historic qualification for the 2026 World Cup in one of the biggest surprises of the Concacaf qualifiers by drawing 0-0 with Jamaica
The Curacao national team achieved one of the most unexpected feats in the Concacaf qualifiers, becoming, along with Panama and Haiti, one of the three direct tickets to the 2026 World Cup, something unprecedented for a tourist destination. A nation with just 186,000 inhabitants.
With a squad based on players born in the Netherlands who had no chance of standing out in the team managed by former Barcelona star Ronald Koeman, they took a chance on representing Curacao under Dick Advocaat, former coach of the Dutch national team at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
The Curacaoan team managed to accumulate 12 points to top Group B of the final CONCACAF hexagonal with three wins and three draws, as well as zero losses, making them one of the revelations of the phase leading up to the competition that will be held in Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
Undoubtedly, the 0-0 draw in Kingston, Jamaica, demonstrated the ability of the team managed by Advocaat to resolve difficult matches and thus advance to a competition that had long been a mere dream for them and that now shows that Caribbean football has progressed. Enormous.
Haiti returns to a World Cup after 52 years
For its part, Haiti, as leader of Group C, eliminated none other than the favorites Honduras and Costa Rica, in a very commendable qualification, especially since the Haitians secured their place playing away from home due to the social and political problems in their country.
The direct qualification was largely due to the 3-3 draw that the Haitians achieved when they were down by two goals and ended up stealing the tie from the Costa Ricans, where the surprising story of the Haitians and the disaster of the team managed by the Costa Ricans began to take shape.
The rest was a gradual rise for the team that, in 1973, capitalized on Mexico's 4-1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago in the Haiti World Cup qualifiers to eliminate the Mexicans and reach the 1974 World Cup in Germany, where they lost to Italy 3-1, Poland 7-0, and Argentina 4-1, before returning home unexpectedly.
Thus, both Curacao and Haiti wrote the history of their surprising qualification for the World Cup, where it is hoped they will maintain their surprising run.