Defending the Roster of Curacao's Gold Cup Squad

Defending the Little Bit of Hate Toward the Dutch Island

As the group stage of the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup is winding down, we have seen some performances and results that have left us excited or wanting more. We see two nations that either don't belong or are on the trajectory to becoming a strong footballing island in the Caribbean, like the Dominican Republic and Suriname.

This confederation has always been in a huge predicament, having multiple national teams not as strong as they should be in the Caribbean Zone, and a few within the Central American Zone, including Canada at the time, had been a huge problem.

Mexico was the top dog until US Soccer finally got its act together to push the program forward and slowly made improvements. In Central America, we have seen Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica showing why they are difficult to battle against, but now things are looking up inside CONCACAF.

There is this one Caribbean side that continues to show growth and positive play on the international stage, as they are on the verge of the possibility of qualifying for their first World Cup, but are currently still holding on to a quarterfinal birth in Group B.

Curacao, which came out of nowhere in the 2019 Gold Cup under then-head coach Remko Bicentini, took these players from the island originally called Netherlands Antilles into a magical run until they lost to the US Men's National Team in the Quarterfinals and had a magical group stage.

Since then, Curacao went from a high to a low, then acquired the services of current Men's National Team Head Coach, famous Dutchman Dick Advocaat, and he has truly turned their fortunes around. While a scoreless draw against El Salvador wasn't pretty, getting a draw against Canada was vital to staying alive for this coming Tuesday's simultaneous matchups.

But after writing my recap from this past Saturday's Group B matches, a comment was made about how Curacao is considered a Recreational Side. Sadly, the continued disrespect of these nations along the Caribbean Sea is sad to read about.

Now I understand that the islands of the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Aruba, and so on are truly weak and not developing players who would be considered worldwide known talent and that's fair, but when you see the level of quality from these players of Curacao, that disrespect should be thrown out the window.

Some of these islands are under the rule or control of their European owners. Every time you see a flag from a nation with the Union Jack or if their currency has an English monarch on it, they still have ties to England.

When it comes to these French islands like Martinique, Saint Martin, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana, they are not FIFA members as they are still under the jurisdiction of the French Government as overseas territories. Including the French Football Federation.

If a player like Florent Maluda, who is a native of French Guiana, was selected for France, he no longer represents his native island, but once he retires from the F.F.F., he can do so if he chooses to. When it comes to those from Curacao, they have the chance to represent the Netherlands.

These players also play in leagues across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and one was selected from the Curacao first division league, and one currently plays for Phoenix Rising in USL Championship. So I don't believe these players are playing as a rec league team.

2025 CURACAO CONCACAF GOLD CUP ROSTER

It's not just Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago that have professional players across the globe performing at top clubs in Europe and the United States, but Curacao has been doing this for a very long time. Maybe the quality wasn't there, but now it's starting to get better.

It started with Bicentini to elevate the level of play, but now there is purpose and better tactical decisions from Advocaat. Just like John Herdman gave belief to Canada until Jesse Marsch came with better tactics to elevate their play, Thomas Christiansen has done the same for Panama. These nations can no longer be ignored or made fun of.

While I do agree that there are too many minnows within the confederation, and some of them aren't full-time FIFA members, we can't ignore the improvements or their progress any longer. Since the creation of the Nations League, these teams have been taking advantage of their situation. Still slow for some, but others are using it to their advantage.

Once this Gold Cup ends, we will look toward this fall when the final round of World Cup Qualifying begins, and we will see who will advance to the World Cup and which best two of the three second place teams gets one more chance to qualify for the biggest party in World Football.