Actually, It Has Been a Deeply Sad Week

Actually, It Has Been a Deeply Sad Week

June 26, 2026

Not because the Blue Wave gave the match against Ivory Coast away within seven minutes. Germany also scored in the sixth minute. I honestly thought the team had learned by now that during the first fifteen minutes, every ball simply has to be cleared out of the penalty area. But in the end, it is only a sport, a game.

Nor because I came down with a stomach virus or food poisoning on Father's Day and spent the entire week feeling weak and nauseous. That certainly did not help either.

But across Europe, heat records are being broken, and I find myself thinking about the people there. What can they do? What can we do? What can I do?

And then, less than 24 hours before the Blue Wave match, Venezuela is struck by at least two major earthquakes. That breaks your heart. At that moment, my World Cup is over.

And so I am not surprised by the rumor that the team simply wants to return to Europe, to go home, rather than take part in a parade and celebration in Curaçao. Our neighboring country is mourning, and many people have been left homeless. At a time like this, a major celebration simply does not feel appropriate to me. I just do not feel like celebrating.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this World Cup, and I am incredibly proud. I will continue watching the tournament. I will follow the Netherlands and the other teams. I will enjoy watching the players for whom this is their final World Cup, and I will look forward to seeing the next generation of stars prove themselves.

At the same time, we continue to wrestle with the question of how we can begin to reverse the human-made disaster of poverty on our own island. If there is one lesson the Blue Wave has taught us, it is that together we are capable of far more than we often believe. If that lesson stays with us, then this World Cup will not have been in vain.

Miguel Goede