World Cup 2026: Despite the whipping, a shared prayer between Germany and Curaçao players

Players from the German and Curaçao teams came together to pray at the end of their World Cup 2026 match on June 14 - PictureAlliance / Icon Sport

This is an exception to FIFA's well-known rule 'no politics or religion': at the end of the match, players from the German and Curaçao teams gathered in the central circle to pray together.

Felix Nmecha, the first scorer of the Mannschaft, explained what led to one of the strong images of the World Cup start. 'During the match, we are opponents and after the match, we are all Christians and brothers,' the Borussia Dortmund midfielder said. 'We simply had a small prayer together, because we are still very grateful.'

No resentment from the Curaçao players despite the 7-1 loss to Germany, which showed no mercy during the 90 minutes of the match. 'It's not a shame' to lose 7-1 to a team of superior level, Curaçao's coach Dick Advocaat said in a press conference on Sunday.

Receiving such a score, 'it's not a shame against such a team. This team is worth 850 million and Curaçao is worth 25', the Dutch coach said in a press conference.

Borussia Dortmund's coach Nagelsmann praised the patience of the German players. The Mannschaft played very well in the first quarter of an hour, then Curaçao 'equalized on their first shot, a little deviated ball', the young coach rewound in the press conference.

'It was interesting to see how the team would react to this because, well, we have the two last tournaments in our hands', he said, referring to the eliminations in the first round of the tournament in 2018 and 2022. 'For 5-6 minutes, the opponent took an enormous amount of confidence, we were a bit too static, but then we recovered very well.'

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