As World Cup fever sweeps the world once again, with the first match about to begin in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, I am sure most soccer aficionados have already picked their favorite team to walk away with the iconic, golden 2026 FIFA World Cup Trophy at the end of the 39-day “biggest sporting spectacle on earth.”
For most people, as is for this writer, the choice is easy and obvious: One’s native or adoptive country.
But that doesn’t mean that, with 48 countries participating in 104 matches across the U.S., in Canada and in Mexico, there will not be other teams to cheer for.
But there can be some “quandaries.”
Take this writer: Born in Ecuador; brought up during his early youth in Curaçao, then part of the Dutch West Indies; educated in the Netherlands and with Dutch ancestors; finally, a naturalized American.
To make things more interesting, the author’s bride of 65 years is a native of England.
Of course, I will be rooting for the USA team from their very first match against Paraguay on June 12, until they hopefully reach the finals five weeks later at the “New York New Jersey Stadium.”
And I’ll be rooting for Ecuador when they play Côte d’Ivoire this coming Sunday in Philadelphia. And for Curaçao in their match against Germany the same day. And for the Netherlands in their game against Japan, also the same day. And for England in their match against Croatia on June 17.
Those are easy calls. Things get more interesting and complicated when these latter four countries play against each other.
For example, Ecuador plays against Curaçao in Kansas City on June 20.
Let us look at these two countries and their teams.
Ecuador, my native country is, in my opinion, the most beautiful country in the world. I have frequently acclaimed its beauty, a paradise stretching from the emerald Amazon rainforest (El Oriente), across the majestic Andes Mountains (La Sierra), into the tropical Pacific lowlands (La Costa). Even then, there is more beauty, for six hundred miles from its sun-kissed beaches, across the azure Pacific, lie the enchanted Galápagos Islands.
Ecuador, a small country with a rich in diversity population of nearly 19 million, secured the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualification after a (scoreless) draw against its southern neighbor, Peru, in June 2025.
The Ecuador team members can proudly call themselves “¡Somos mundialistas!” (We are World Cup Participants) as this will be the fifth World Cup appearance this century for the “La Tri” (La Tricolor) team.
I lived on the Caribbean island of Curaçao — then part of the Netherlands Antilles — from ages ten to fourteen. Just as in Ecuador, life on this small sun-drenched island, with shimmering turquoise waters surrounding dozens of powdery-white-sand beaches, pristine coral reefs and a magnificent marine life, was idyllic…a life, a country easy for a young person to get attached to and to fondly remember for the rest of his/her life.
Today this small, “autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands” is defying the oddsmakers and is, for the first time, participating in the World Cup, after an unbeaten CONCACAF campaign (“the premier annual continental club football competition in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean”) and after a hard-fought scoreless draw against Jamaica in November 2025.
The achievements of Curacao’s “Blue Wave” team with its rallying cry, “Nos ta e Ola Blou” (“We are the Blue Wave” in Papiamento), become even more amazing when one considers that Curacao is the smallest country, both by land area and population, to ever participate in the World Cup.
There are countries orders of magnitude larger than Curacao (in area and population) that, despite their size and passionate fan bases, have never qualified for the World Cup. One of them, with a population of more than 1.4 billion people.
On June 20, Ecuador and Curaçao will be facing each other in Kansas City.
I’ll be there is spirit rooting for both countries, knowing that only one will triumph and hoping it will be “my team.”
With the first of a trilogy of World Cup 2026 opening ceremonies taking place today in Mexico City, I am sure you already have your favorite team(s) selected.
I hope your choice(s) wasn’t/weren’t as cumbersome as mine and, as always, may the best team win.
