Livano Comenencia wheeled away, slid on his knees, and for a brief, glorious moment, a Caribbean island of 152,000 people held the four-time world champions level. That's the image from day four at the FIFA World Cup.
Curaçao came into this tournament as the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup. Their population is roughly equivalent to Greater Darwin's. And when the 22-year-old Comenencia drove a piledriver past Manuel Neuer to level things against Germany midway through the first half, you can be certain every last one of those 152,000 was on their feet.
It ended 7-1. It doesn't matter. That goal exists forever.
The Oranje machine rolls into Dallas
While Curaçao were creating history against Germany, the Netherlands were busy putting seven past their own opponents — and their supporters were turning the walk to the stadium into a full-scale street carnival. The famous Oranje fan walk descended on Dallas in full force: an orange double-decker bus shipped across the Atlantic, a hype man conducting thousands of hi-vis clad supporters through Dutch anthems, and a 10-minute walk stretched to an hour of chaos. Some fans flew in from the Netherlands without tickets, purely to be part of it. That's a fanbase with no off switch.
On the pitch, the 7-1 scoreline speaks for itself. Any side facing the Dutch right now should be adjusting their defensive game plan — and the odds on Netherlands to progress deep into this tournament just got more interesting.
Small nations hit back at UEFA's Čeferin
UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin touched a nerve last week when he reportedly said the expanded 48-team World Cup creates "a huge number of matches that are completely uninteresting." The response was swift. Governing bodies from Curaçao, Cape Verde, Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and a string of African football powerhouses issued a joint statement pushing back.
"Football does not belong to a select group of nations," the statement read. "Its strength comes from its universality."
Hard to argue with that, particularly on a day when a nation of 152,000 people made the whole world stop and watch.
- Somali referee Omar Artan — denied entry to the US after arriving from Istanbul — will still receive his full tournament fee despite not officiating a single match. The amount will be determined after the tournament ends.
- Former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau skipped Canada's opening game against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto, opting instead to attend the USA vs Paraguay match in LA — because his girlfriend Katy Perry was performing in the pre-game show at SoFi Stadium. "Sometimes supportive boyfriend duties call," he tweeted. Canada's fanbase noted it.
Artan was named Africa's best male referee in 2025 and returned home to a hero's welcome. He's already targeting the 2030 World Cup in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
