Eloy Room was the hero as he produced an inspired performance to help Curacao earn a first ever point at a World Cup with a goalless draw against Ecuador.
The 37-year-old goalkeeper made an incredible 15 saves during the contest - equalling the World Cup record set by Tim Howard against Belgium in a game that went to extra time back in 2014.
Room set the tone extremely early on as he arguably made his save of the match after just three minutes as Enner Valencia raced through on goal.
With Ecuador's record World Cup goalscorer bearing down on him, Room somehow anticipated where the header was going to stoop to his left and claw the ball around the post.
After making six first-half stops during the first 45 minutes, the Miami FC man was called into action even more as the game headed towards its conclusion.
Calm and composed, the oldest member of the Curacao squad used all of his experience to keep a clean sheet that will go down in history.
The island nation, whose population of 155,000 is smaller than that of Rochdale, and whose landmass is smaller than the Isle of Man, were ranked 90th in the world at the start of the qualifying campaign, and were ranked outside of the world's top 150 less than a decade ago.
In June 2026, Curacao now head into their final group game with a chance of making it through to the knockout stages and continuing their magical journey if they can beat Ivory Coast in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Ecuador v Curacao Match Stats
Ecuador | 0-0 | Curacao |
74.6% | Possession | 25/4% |
3.05 | Expected Goals | 0.48 |
27 | Shots | 10 |
15 | Shots on Target | 3 |
7 | Fouls Committed | 10 |
9 | Corners | 0 |
644 | Total Passes | 227 |
19 | Tackles | 17 |
17 | Clearances | 32 |
1 | Yellow Cards | 5 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
