Curacao was in a celebratory mood after advancing out of the group stage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The old saying goes; just give yourself a chance.
That must have been going through the minds of the Curacao team, especially as its final Group C match with Jamaica wound down and Curacao trailing by a goal and another group stage exit in the CONCACAF Gold Cup looking more and more likely.
However, Curacao got one more look at a goal and the point it needed in the match to give themselves a chance to advance, and it was Jurrien Garri that kept those hopes alive for Curacao, as his long strike deep in stoppage time earned Curacao the draw with Jamaica at Banc of California Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Garri’s moment for Curacao came in the 94th minute. Leandro Bacuna held the ball on the left side of the field, dribbled in between two Jamiacan defenders, played a ball to Garri, who fired a one-time blast from about 23 yards out that sailed past keeper Andre Blake and defender Alvas Powell, who was guarding the far post. The ball went in-between the two of them and into the back net and Garri raced to his bench to celebrate the occasion with his teammates. Curacao’s fans were not the only ones celebrating, as the pro-El-Salvador crowd who were awaiting the later match with Honduras was also jubilant, as the result at the time left Jamaica just one-point ahead of El Salvador in the group, meaning El Salvador had a chance to win the group with a win in its match.
However, it was Curacao that would get to celebrate, as they took in the later match, and saw their hopes realized. Honduras defeated El Salvador to send Curacao through to the nockout rounds, and the Curacao team and the fans who had taken in the match in a suite on the stadium’s South end celebrated the achievement, at times with the Honduran fans.
