WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — In his 78 years of life, Dick Advocaat has enjoyed some major achievements throughout his football career. However, none may compare to qualifying Curacao for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and he’s plotting to take down Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz to do it.

Curacao meet the Boyz at 6:00 pm Jamaica time at Ergilio Hato Stadium as they seek to move top of Group B in the final round of Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers.

Though unbeaten, Curacao sit second on four points after their goalless draw with Trinidad and Tobago and their 3-2 win over Bermuda last month. Jamaica, on the other hand, are on top following consecutive wins over Bermuda and Trinidad last month.

Curacao, since its split from the Netherland Antilles, is yet to make an appearance at the World Cup following the team’s failed attempts in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

With a sold-out crowd of over 10,000 people expected at the Hato Stadium, Advocaat told the Jamaica Observer exclusively that they intend to use their home conditions to their benefit, especially knowing they’ve been unbeaten at home in their last nine games.

“Jamaica is a team who can play on results. They showed that now and they showed it in the past as well, so we will see,” he said.

“They play away so we will see the way they will play. And we play at home so that’s an advantage and hopefully for us, we can show that.”

Advocaat, though, has hailed the strength of the Reggae Boyz as he seeks to outsmart his opposite Steve McClaren, who have experience going head to head in the Eredevisie in the Netherlands.

“I have seen not many weaknesses, otherwise, they don’t get the results,” he said. “Jamaica have some very good individual players as well. A lot of them, they are playing in England on a high level so we will see what we can do against that.”

“We are playing now against a team with six points and with two wins so they started very well. We have four points, that’s also good and now we will see what will happen against Jamaica,” he added.

Advocaat led the Netherlands to the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup and the sem-finals of the European Championships in 2004. He’s also won titles at the club level in the Netherlands, Scotland and Russia.

However, he knows the significance of getting an island with less than 200,000 people to the biggest stage in world football. He wants his players to create history for Curacao, despite the Jamaicans looking to do the same.

“We are a very small island compared with the other islands so in that way, it would be sensational if we will go but we have still four games to go,” he said. “If we have results in the four games, they have a possibility to go to the World Cup and the players from Curacao, from Jamaica, from Trinidad, from Bermuda – they know that as well. In four games, you can prove what you want.”

In their previous two meetings, Curacao failed to beat the Reggae Boyz including a 2-0 defeat at the 2017 Concacaf Gold Cup.

ADVOCAAT… we play at home so that’s an advantage and hopefully for us, we can show that