Clara Barrios loves to root for an underdog.
Dressed in blue Curaçao and maroon Venezuela jerseys, Barrios and her family waded through the yellow shirts – Ecuador fans – at Kansas City’s FIFA Fan Festival on Saturday afternoon. They had traveled from Roswell, New Mexico, to support the team.
Though they have Venezuelan roots, Curaçao is “just a swim away” from his home country, Luis Barrios, Clara’s father, explained. So the family is ready to “go wild” at the match, he said.
“It's just a sea of yellow out here and you get to see little trickles of Curaçao fans here and there so a [win tonight] would be huge for them,” said his son, also named Luis Barrios.
Curaçao fans were far outnumbered at the fan festival ahead of the team’s match against Ecuador on Saturday. But they stood out proudly, wearing and waving their largely royal blue national flag in a sea of yellow-shirted Ecuador fans.
Curaçao’s match against Ecuador is only their second-ever World Cup game. The team qualified for its first World Cup last year, the smallest nation ever to do so.
After the historic qualification, many fans felt it was almost mandatory to come to Kansas City to support their team. Elton Santiago flew twelve hours to Kansas City from the small island nation to see Saturday’s match, as part of a travel package that cost him $1,700.
“Of course it was worth it,” Santiago said while waving a large Curaçao flag. “[It’s] history.”
The decision to buy tickets was easy for Yefgheny Halmeyr, too.
“As soon as Curaçao qualified, I put my mind to it,” Halmeyr said.
Not everyone could get tickets to Curaçao’s games because finding flights to the U.S. can be difficult. Danny Braahaid said it motivated him to come even more.
“So many of the fans that wanted to come didn't get the possibility,” Braahaid said. “That's why we came to represent them.”
He hopes the blue wave of Curaçaoans will overwhelm competitors and help their team win.
Curaçao has garnered the spotlight as the smallest nation to play in this World Cup, and they're not expected to triumph.
But you’d never know it from the vibrant celebration of fans who arrived Thursday and Friday on flights from the southern Caribbean nation off the northern coast of Venezuela. And you would certainly never know by the ecstatic expression of devotion that Curaçao fans displayed Saturday afternoon.
When the Curacao artist Raey took the stage, the area suddenly was transformed into a sea of blue, with the number of Curaçao jerseys suddenly outnumbering Ecuador’s yellow. It was a manifestation of the “blue wave” fans hoped would come with a first-ever World Cup win Saturday evening.
