CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Ivory Coast has found a home for success in the Philadelphia area.
The West African team was trained and in the region. A friendly match was also held that attracted approximately 10,000 fans. And Ivory Coast defeated Ecuador in their first World Cup match.
Ivory Coast is on the brink of history as they prepare for Game 3 and Game 2 of the final group stage at Lincoln Financial Field. With Thursday’s win over Curaçao, Les Elephants booked their place in the knockout stages for the first time in four tournaments. world cup exterior.
“If we can get past the first round, we will be very proud,” coach Emerse Faye said on Wednesday. “But I think we have ambitions beyond that. If that happened to us tomorrow, we would be very happy.”
Amad Diallo scored in the 90th minute Last week, Ivory Coast defeated Ecuador 1-0. Ivory Coast lost to Germany 2-1 in Toronto on Saturday.
Les Elephants can either win against Curaçao to take second place in the group, or draw and advance as one of the third in the group.
“The players realize they are close to making history by advancing to the next round of the World Cup,” Faye said.
Les Élephants was expected to Striker Elie Wahi I’m back in the lineup.
Wahi is under investigation for gambling-related offenses while playing for Nice, but did not feature in the game against Germany. He started in the win against Ecuador.
Last week, France’s Ligue 1 announced that an “extraordinary amount of bets” had been placed internationally over Wahi’s yellow card in the match between Nice and Metz on May 17. The league was alerted by its betting market monitoring partners to suspicious betting activity related to the match, which ended in a 0-0 draw and in which Wahi played. It showed yellow.
The league said it shared the information with police, gambling authorities and the French Football Federation.
Asked if Wahi had been investigated by police, the Marseille public prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press: “A 23-year-old professional soccer player who played in the French Ligue 1 championship was arrested on May 29, 2026 as part of an investigation.”
“I’m on the field, so I don’t care about that,” Wahi said. “The federation and my collaborators did everything they could to keep me in Canada. It was possible. I’m very happy.”
Wahi answered questions in French Wednesday before practice at Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union’s suburban stadium. He did not comment on the controversy, saying he was focused on the match.
“I’m focused on the game,” he said. “Those are things outside of sport. The most important thing is Ivory Coast and its football federation and that’s it.”
Senegal and Ivory Coast Added in December It was added to the list of countries partially restricted from entering the United States by President Donald Trump’s administration, and travel plans for the World Cup were changed.
Les Elephants still draw a loud and proud crowd in Philadelphia and could have home field advantage on Thursday night.
“It’s great to have the fans together,” forward Evan Gessand said. “Unfortunately, some of them cannot travel. But we can feel the support even from a distance. Even if they are not here, even if they are in a small group. We can hear their voices. It is good that some of them are here, although not very many.”
Curaçao shows the guts of an underdog behind their history-making goalkeeper
In a town where a bronze statue of a fictional weak warrior stands. rocky balboa It has become a popular rallying point for fans, but perhaps no team is more conventional than Curacao.
Eloy Room represented the small Caribbean nation with a historic performance on Saturday night, making 15 saves against Ecuador’s relentless attack and helping the Blue Wave earn their first points in a 0-0 draw.
Room, 37, has bounced back from a slump after shutting out Jamaica last November to send Curacao to its first World Cup appearance. We lost to Germany 7-1. His saves were just shy of the tournament record of 16, set by Tim Howard of the United States against Belgium on July 1, 2014, since saves became an official statistic in 1966.
Curaçao is an autonomous territory of approximately 156,000 people within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean Sea. The team relies almost entirely on players born and raised in the Netherlands.
In order to advance, Curacao will need at least a win and a better goal difference than Ecuador.
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup
