{"id":487936,"date":"2026-06-21T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/487936\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T04:12:10","slug":"fifa-world-cup-curacao-earn-incredible-draw-with-ecuador-after-eloy-room-makes-15-saves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/487936\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Curacao earn incredible draw with Ecuador after Eloy Room makes 15 saves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Ecuador fans turned the Arrowhead Stadium, the home of NFL team Kansas City Chiefs, yellow, hugely outnumbering supporters of Curacao.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">But Curacao had royalty on their side in the form of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. The island is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Out of their 26-strong squad, managed by vastly experienced Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, 25 were born in the Netherlands, and most play their football there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The match started at a fizzing pace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Ecuador seemed certain to open the scoring in the third minute when former West Ham forward Enner Valencia burst through the middle but Room tipped the ball around the post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Sherel Floranus fired over at the other end as Curacao showed their pace on the break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Valencia failed to beat Room from close range before Jordy Alcivar had an effort as Ecuador continued to dominate possession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The South American team ended the first half with 65% possession but nothing to show for their dominance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">They went close to breaking the deadlock just before the hour mark but Room kept out a Gonzala Plata header, before a flurry of Curacao chances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Ecuador, more than 50 places higher than Curacao in the Fifa rankings, looked increasingly frazzled as they pressed for a goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">As the match neared its end, chances continued to come thick and fast but Room stood firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Ecuador substitute Angelo Preciado mishit a cross that bounced off the top of the crossbar and went behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The Curacao players swarmed around Room at the end of the match, celebrating an extraordinary point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Earlier, four-time champions Germany came from behind to beat Ivory Coast 2-1 in Toronto, ensuring their qualification for the round of 32. Curacao\u2019s draw ensures Germany will top the group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Ecuador will play Germany on Friday while Curacao take on Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\">TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ecuador fans turned the Arrowhead Stadium, the home of NFL team Kansas City Chiefs, yellow, hugely outnumbering supporters&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[23968,74,9092,5831,211832,17092,2741,10542,233177,40671,7491,58595,244692,6440,36862,1888,193218,244693,5838,12811,3012,19689,29137,26522,22946,5338,13611,111,139,69,45642,423,13608,16784,54552,50376,213,1361,165,44263,102,377],"class_list":["post-487936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-23968","tag-after","tag-against","tag-alive","tag-barrage","tag-caribbean","tag-claim","tag-cup","tag-curacao","tag-draw","tag-earn","tag-ecuador","tag-eloy","tag-ever","tag-fifa","tag-first","tag-goalkeeper","tag-goalless","tag-help","tag-hero","tag-hopes","tag-incredible","tag-keeping","tag-keeps","tag-knockout","tag-makes","tag-nation","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phase","tag-point","tag-reaching","tag-room","tag-saves","tag-shots","tag-sports","tag-that","tag-their","tag-tiny","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}