Curacao’s first match at a Fifa World Cup finals delivered a brutal reckoning on Sunday, as the island nation of just 150,000 people was overwhelmed 7-1 by four-time champions Germany in Houston. Yet the scoreline, which briefly flickered with the possibility of a fairy tale when Livano Comenencia cancelled out Felix Nmecha’s opener, was immediately reframed by manager Dick Advocaat as a milestone to be cherished, not a humiliation to be mourned. The 78-year-old Dutchman, who broke the record for the oldest head coach in tournament history, admitted he was moved to tears before kick-off by the weight of the occasion.

From Jakarta, where the story was picked up by several news agencies and met with sympathetic fascination, the narrative centred on the dignity of participation. The Indonesian-language reports stressed Advocaat’s insistence that his players had ‘no need to be ashamed’ and that the tournament could still be turned into a ‘beautiful World Cup’. Across Latin America, the 7-1 scoreline carried a particular resonance, evoking memories of Brazil’s traumatic semi-final collapse against the same opponent in 2014. The Brazilian press noted with a touch of empathy that Advocaat, too, was urging his team not to let a single result define their campaign. Indian coverage, meanwhile, spoke of a dream still alive, underscoring the global reach of this tiny Caribbean squad’s story.

Advocaat’s analysis was clinical. He pointed to defensive errors that gifted Germany a slew of second-half goals — Kai Havertz struck twice, and Jamal Musiala, Nathaniel Brown, Nico Schlotterbeck and Deniz Undav all added their names to the scoresheet — and acknowledged that the quality gap was unbridgeable once the match tilted. But the veteran coach, who has managed national teams on four continents, argued that the group stage still offers platforms for redemption. ‘We can still create surprises in the second and third matches,’ he said, a line that reverberated from Houston to Southeast Asian newsrooms.

With matches against fellow group opponents to come, Curacao’s path to the knockout stages is now desperately narrow, likely requiring at least four points from the remaining fixtures. Analysts in London note that the emotional buoyancy Advocaat projects may prove as important as tactical recalibration, given the psychological fragility of a debutant side after such a drubbing. For Curacao, the World Cup has already delivered a historic goal and a vivid reminder of the sport’s hierarchy. Whether it yields a result that alters that hierarchy is now the challenge that Advocaat, the unflappable septuagenarian, must meet.