Cura\u00e7ao is preparing for its historic World Cup debut against four-time champion Germany with a sense of excitement and pride.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the island nation of 150,000 people will become the smallest country ever to compete at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Coach Dick Advocaat has done his best to keep his players focused and relaxed as they navigate this unprecedented experience.<\/p>\n
“Just be yourself, and don\u2019t be nervous,” defender Shurandy Sambo said Advocaat told them, just before the team left its Florida base camp for Houston. “Of course everybody is excited, but just be yourself, show yourself, because this is the biggest stage.”<\/p>\n
The Cura\u00e7ao players have worked hard to ensure they are prepared for their debut. Germany, making its 21st appearance in the World Cup, is a heavy favorite.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve watched a lot of clips of Germany. How they play, what they can do,” Sambo said.<\/p>\n
Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s squad is representing a country that rarely has a chance to have moments as big as this on international sports stages.<\/p>\n
Due to its strong Dutch ties, Cura\u00e7ao is not recognized in the Olympics as its own nation, and despite its impressive per-capita production of professional baseball athletes, Cura\u00e7ao players represent the Netherlands at the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
“We are not here to just be here,” midfielder Ar\u2019jany Martha said. “We want to show ourselves and get good results.”<\/p>\n
Despite the country\u2019s small population, Cura\u00e7ao will have plenty of supporters to cheer them on as they make history. Sambo said his own family will be attending, as will 21 families of other players.<\/p>\n
“I (would describe us) as one big family,” defender Livano Comenencia said. “If you see us on the bus or outside the bus, in the hotel, we are always with music, always happy. Everybody is around each other.”<\/p>\n
Reporting by the Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Cura\u00e7ao is preparing for its historic World Cup debut against four-time champion Germany with a sense of excitement and pride. On Sunday, the island nation of 150,000 people will become the smallest country ever to compete at the World Cup. Coach Dick Advocaat has done his best to keep his players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}