Bacuna

[LA Bluebird]

Leandro Bacuna will be captaining his country at the World Cup, something no City fan ever would have thought they would see.

Curacao the smallest nation ever to compete at a World Cup by some margin over Iceland. Sealed it with a 0-0 draw in Jamaica. Obviously helped by the new format and the fact that the 3 biggest teams in CONCACAF qualified automatically, but still an incredible story.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Bacuna

Leandro Bacuna will be captaining his country at the World Cup, something no City fan ever would have thought they would see.

Curacao the smallest nation ever to compete at a World Cup by some margin over Iceland. Sealed it with a 0-0 draw in Jamaica. Obviously helped by the new format and the fact that the 3 biggest teams in CONCACAF qualified automatically, but still an incredible story.

That's great - their populatiion is 156,000 as of last year, that's 1.000 less than Newport's at the last census.

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Re: Bacuna

That's great - their populatiion is 156,000 as of last year, that's 1.000 less than Newport's at the last census.

The island's also smaller than the Isle of Man. Another record they'll be breaking is that their manager Dick Advocaat will be the oldest coach at 78. He claimed that we'd approached him to replace Riza earlier in the year.

Some interesting teams have qualified already - Curacao, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Cape Verde all making their debuts, and Haiti qualifying for the first time since 1974.

[BLUETIT]

Re: Bacuna

Do they know the rules ??

What was that African team who whacked the ball up the pitch on the opposition’s free kick

[Splott-light...]

Re: Bacuna

The island's also smaller than the Isle of Man. Another record they'll be breaking is that their manager Dick Advocaat will be the oldest coach at 78. He claimed that we'd approached him to replace Riza earlier in the year.

Some interesting teams have qualified already - Curacao, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Cape Verde all making their debuts, and Haiti qualifying for the first time since 1974.

Dick Advocaat just sounds like a weird Christmas tipple..

[Tuerto]

Re: Bacuna

Do they know the rules ??

What was that African team who whacked the ball up the pitch on the opposition’s free kick

Jesus.......

[Jimmy the Jock]

Re: Bacuna

Jesus.......

No, I think you have the wrong era, I am fairly sure it was post Jesus.

[TheBirchgrovePub]

Re: Bacuna

Think everyone is in for a surprise at how shit this World Cup is going to be. Going to be similar score lines to the club world club and the group stage is a waste of time essentially. 48 teams to 32 over a 3 week period, that’s a lot of football for little progress

[Joe Gillis]

Re: Bacuna

Do they know the rules ??

What was that African team who whacked the ball up the pitch on the opposition’s free kick

Zaire

[Rjk]

Re: Bacuna

That's great - their populatiion is 156,000 as of last year, that's 1.000 less than Newport's at the last census.

apparently none of the Curacao squad were actually born there - anyone from the Netherlands can opt to represent them if they want.

[jon1959]

Re: Bacuna

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/nov/19/curacao-fifa-world-cup-qualification-dick-advocaat

[LA Bluebird]

Re: Bacuna

apparently none of the Curacao squad were actually born there - anyone from the Netherlands can opt to represent them if they want.

Not true.. Tahith Chong was born in Curacao, for starters. And I can't find any source for the second bit either, lots of articles that contradict it. They did get a one time dispensation from FIFA to be allowed to recruit players who previously declared for the Netherlands when they were building their squad, similar to Kosovo did, but they still have to have heritage from the island.