{"id":228351,"date":"2026-06-26T00:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/228351\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T00:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:21:12","slug":"fifa-world-cup-in-philadelphia-cote-divoire-defeats-curacao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/228351\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup in Philadelphia: C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire defeats Cura\u00e7ao"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story originally appeared on\u00a0WHYY\u2019s Billy Penn<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s fourth\u00a0FIFA World Cup game<\/a>\u00a0was its third-straight sellout, with the Ivory Coast cruising to a 2-0 win over Cura\u00e7ao, moving the African nation into the knockout rounds for the first time in its three tournaments.\n<\/p>\n

In the final game of the group stage games, both teams were trying to secure a spot in the round of 32. Ivory Coast coasted in with a win. Cura\u00e7ao, the smallest nation to ever compete in the World Cup, had to win to\u00a0pull off one of the biggest Cinderella stories in the tournament\u2019s history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The game was being played at the same time as the other Group E game between Germany and Ecuador in East Rutherford, N.J., where an underperforming Ecuador stunned the previously dominant Germans 2-1 to sneak into the next round.\n<\/p>\n

Ahead of the games, a blue wave of a couple thousand Cura\u00e7ao soccer fans marched down from Marconi Plaza to the Sports Complex, escorted by the Philadelphia Police officers and the team\u2019s superfan,\u00a0Captain \u201cBlue Face<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

As the wave reached the corner of Pattinson Avenue and South Darien Street, the captain led the group in a couple prayers in Papiamentu, the predominant language of Cura\u00e7ao.\n<\/p>\n

Aboucar Siddy Diallo, Oumar Bayo and Mamady Dram\u00e9 came in from Hackensack, N.J., and East Hartford, Conn., to support Les \u00c9l\u00e9phants, but they couldn\u2019t miss a chance to take a photo next to some Eagles history: the statue of Doug Pederson and Nick Foles calling the \u201cPhilly Special.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In the stadium were Henry and Dinaida Dossett, who travelled in from Amsterdam for the game.<\/p>\n

The native Cura\u00e7aoans said they never imagined their home country in the World Cup, and couldn\u2019t miss the chance to see them secure a spot in the knockout rounds.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one big dream come true,\u201d Henry said. \u201cOnce in a lifetime.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Tickets for the Dossett\u2019s cost around $270 each. In a tournament where fans have winced every time they were asked how much they paid for tickets, this turned out to be one of the more affordable games on the schedule. Beckham Sibiski (yes, he was named after David Beckham) managed to get his tickets early for $195 each, which is why he and his friends came down from Williamsport for this game.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be for real with you, It was one of the cheaper ones to get and then prices have gone up ever since,\u201d he admitted. \u201cBut I did always want to see the Ivory Coast play. Me and my friends played with them growing up on [the FIFA video game franchise]. And Didier Drogba, Chelsea. I\u2019m a life-long Chelsea fan.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n