{"id":61463,"date":"2025-11-18T23:03:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/?p=61463"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:03:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:03:05","slug":"curacao-becomes-smallest-team-ever-to-qualify-for-the-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/curacao-becomes-smallest-team-ever-to-qualify-for-the-fifa-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Cura\u00e7ao becomes smallest team ever to qualify for the FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Cura\u00e7ao has qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time in its history, becoming the smallest country or territory ever to reach the tournament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team secured its place after a 0\u20130 draw against Jamaica on Tuesday in the final match of Group B in the Concacaf qualifiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The result put Cura\u00e7ao at the top of the group with 12 points, finishing one point ahead of Jamaica and ahead of Trinidad and Tobago and Bermuda. The team went unbeaten through all six matches, earning three wins and three draws, including a decisive 7\u20130 victory over Bermuda last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The island nation has a population of about 150,000 and is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It becomes the smallest team ever to qualify for the World Cup, surpassing Iceland, which held the record after reaching the 2018 tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cura\u00e7ao will make its World Cup debut in 2026. The expanded tournament will be hosted across the United States, Mexico, and Canada and will feature 48 teams instead of the previous 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cura\u00e7ao will learn its group-stage opponents when the World Cup draw takes place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/46997321\/curacao-become-smallest-ever-nation-qualify-world-cup\">ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cura\u00e7ao has qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time in its history, becoming the smallest country or territory ever to reach the tournament. The team secured its place after a 0\u20130 draw against Jamaica on Tuesday in the final match of Group B in the Concacaf qualifiers. The result put Cura\u00e7ao [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":61464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[4017,4018,79],"class_list":["post-61463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-curacao","tag-netherlands"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cura\u00e7ao becomes smallest team ever to qualify for the FIFA World Cup - BNO News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/curacao-becomes-smallest-team-ever-to-qualify-for-the-fifa-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cura\u00e7ao becomes smallest team ever to qualify for the FIFA World Cup - BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cura\u00e7ao has qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time in its history, becoming the smallest country or territory ever to reach the tournament. The team secured its place after a 0\u20130 draw against Jamaica on Tuesday in the final match of Group B in the Concacaf qualifiers. 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