Curaçao steps onto the World Cup stage for the first time on Sunday at 19:00, and the debut comes against Germany, a team built around experience, recovery and one major uncertainty. For Leandro Bacuna, 34, and his brother Juninho, it is the kind of night that turns a qualifier’s breakthrough into a global test.
That is why Armando Obispo is being searched now: Curaçao is not just appearing at a tournament, it is doing so as the smallest country ever to reach the World Cup finals, with about 150,000 inhabitants. Germany opens its campaign with Manuel Neuer back in the squad after leaving after Euro 2024, and the 40-year-old has become the oldest German international ever and the last remaining 2014 world champion in the group.
Curaçao’s route here was narrow and tense. In November, a late Jamaica penalty was overturned by the VAR, the match ended 0-0 and the point was enough to send Curaçao through. Most of the squad plays in the Dutch Eredivisie, which gives the team a shared rhythm, while Jearl Margaritha arrived off a season in which he scored seven goals to help SK Beveren win the Challenger Pro League title. The brothers add another layer: Leandro Bacuna, with more than 100 Premier League matches behind him, has the experience to steady a side that is otherwise making its World Cup debut together.
Germany, though, has its own reason to believe it can make the first night go its way. Lennart Karl missed out after a muscle tear in the final training session before Germany’s last practice match against the United States, and Assan Ouédraogo was called up on Monday as the replacement. Julian Nagelsmann still has Manuel Neuer and Jamal Musiala to lean on, but Musiala had been recovering from a broken fibula and his top fitness for the opener is still not fully clear.
There is a reason this match feels larger than a routine group opener: Curaçao has already proven it can survive the kind of moment that ends most underdog runs, but now it has to do it against a Germany side built to punish every mistake. If the debut is going to become more than a milestone, Sunday at 19:00 is where that starts to be answered.
