Lemon Hill<\/a> ahead of a pivotal 2026 Men’s World Cup match against the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\nAttendance at the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill surpassed 250,000 visitors Wednesday, a figure larger than the entire population of Cura\u00e7ao.<\/p>\n
For many fans, simply seeing their country on soccer’s biggest stage is a dream come true.<\/p>\n
“This was a dream, a lost dream. But now it’s reality,” said Elvoy Isenia, who traveled roughly 2,000 miles from Cura\u00e7ao to Philadelphia. “We are so glad. We are so proud of this.”<\/p>\n
Isenia said making history by reaching the World Cup is already a victory for the island nation. Scoring a goal in the tournament, he said, would make the achievement even sweeter.<\/p>\n
“If we make one goal in this thing, we are the champions,” he said. “A lot of nations that go to the World Cup don’t make any goals. We make a goal and we’re a great team.”<\/p>\n
The party really ramped up with a performance by Cura\u00e7ao singer Raey on the main stage at Lemon Hill. Hundreds of fans sang and danced together as the festival turned into a showcase of national pride.<\/p>\n
“There’s a bunch of us here. We’re trying to get the most out of it. We’re enjoying it,” supporter Ruewen Leitoe said. “We blew all of our savings, though, but we don’t mind that. This is a good time to be alive. It’s a good time to be from Cura\u00e7ao. It’s great to be here.”<\/p>\n
Cura\u00e7ao enters Thursday’s match against Ivory Coast after earning a draw against Ecuador last week, setting up what many supporters view as the most significant match in the country’s soccer history.<\/p>\n
Fans said they plan to make their presence known in South Philadelphia, regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n
“We are very proud. Everyone is happy,” Nina Isenia Francisca said.<\/p>\n
She said the team has already exceeded expectations simply by qualifying for the tournament.<\/p>\n
“To be honest, we already won, because we are here,” Francisca said. “But if we are going further, we are happy to go further.”<\/p>\n
While Cura\u00e7ao still has a chance to advance to the knockout stage, supporters say the experience itself has already become a historic moment for the island nation. They add they’re happy to take on the underdog role in a city that truly appreciates one.<\/p>\n
\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n
In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia has long embraced underdogs, from the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa to the city’s passionate sports fans.\u00a0 This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,11868,2236],"class_list":["post-227552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}