Tiny Curacao is making huge history

Blue Wave: unifying force

The hope, politically, is that the team will be a unifying force.

At 171 square miles (443 square kilometers), Curacao has roughly as much land mass as New Orleans. There are at least 125 US cities with larger populations than the entire island. Its population is about the same as Hollywood — no, not the one in California, but the city in Florida that sits between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Curacao's Prime Minister, Gilmar Pisas, sees this World Cup as an opportunity. The team is known as the Blue Wave — a nod to the shimmering turquoise water that surrounds the island — and blue is a theme for everything in the country, right down to the Blue Curacao liquor that is popular around the world (even though it has an orange flavor).

For the next few weeks, Pisas wants the nation to be the Blue Nation as well.

"We will become part of something larger than ourselves, something that, despite our differences, brings us together," Pisas said."We share a single anthem and a single flag... rather than being divided into separate camps. We are, finally, truly united. It is a project dedicated to the construction of a nation. It acknowledges that your people, and you yourself, are an integral part of this collective mission — the 'Blue Nation'."

This will not require Brenton Balentien to change much about his regular day-to-day routine.

If you see a bald, bearded, muscular man with his head and face painted blue for Curacao games, you've likely found Balentien — simply known around the island as "Blue Face". He's a longtime soccer fan who took notice of how fans in Brazil, Colombia and other places would show up at matches in wigs and elaborate costumes.

"I said, 'Curacao needs that,'" Balentien said. "Curacao is a very passive island. We watch the games and clap, sure, but we're not the kind of fans who go out there and scream for the full 90 minutes. And I said,'No, we have to change that'."

So, in 2015, Blue Face — someone who began chanting in largely empty stadiums and now has a huge following — was born. He applies the paint himself before every match. He's basically a national mascot; a bartender, influencer and event organizer in real life, a soccer superfan when the paint comes out. He's become a motivational speaker, someone whose home overlooking Willemstad has Curacao's flag waving in the wind and whose car has two more flags attached to that.

"We do this for this island," Balentien said,"so the world knows who we are."

Underdog hopes to be giant

If the world doesn't know yet, they'll see soon enough.

Curacao, currently ranked No 82 in FIFA's global rankings, opens World Cup play against global power and 10th-ranked Germany. It then plays No 23 Ecuador in Kansas City on June 20 and finishes group stage play against No 34 Cote d'Ivoire on June 25 in Philadelphia.

It will be the underdog in all three matches, barring something very unusual.

No problem. The Blue Wave is coming, the pressure is off and confidence is high.

"For us, this is the biggest World Cup because our flag will be there in America," said Ricardo Martinez, a radio broadcaster who calls the matches. "Germany, watch out. Curacao is coming. We are small — but giants in the World Cup."