KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.
Ecuador and Curacao fans packed the FIFA Fan Festival on Friday night ahead of their Saturday night FIFA World Cup 26 match at Kansas City Stadium.
The celebration featured an Ecuador banderazo that drew a large crowd of supporters.
"It's a gathering of all the Ecuadorian fans are coming here to celebrate, to share some of our culture," Christopher Ruiz said.
After years of being apart, Christopher and his brother Christian are together to attend FIFA World Cup 26 in Kansas City.
Christian still lives in Ecuador and Christopher lives in the United States. The brothers were happy to be together.
"It feels home," Christopher said. "It's like bringing a little piece of your home here. It's just like you never left the country."
Fans at Friday's event said it was amazing to see how many people came to show their support.
"I've never seen that many Ecuadorians in one place," Ignacio Jara said.
Jara lived in Ecuador before moving to the United States six years ago. Jara said his family are loyal fans of Ecuador's World Cup team.
"I like that we're passionate and we have a really good defense, and yeah, we just leave it all on the field," Jara said.
His younger brother, Federico, had a specific goal to reach for the match.
"Try and get a signed shirt from an Ecuadorian player," Federico said.
Ignocio hopes to be on Ecuador's national team and is working toward his goal as a midfielder on his soccer team in Dallas.
While the FIFA Fan Festival may have featured lots of painted Ecuador flags and colors, that didn't stop Curacao fans from dropping in.
Curacao, the smallest country with a team in the World Cup, also brought passionate supporters to FIFA Fan Festival.
"Believe in yourself, you know, you have to go for it and we're here to win," Hans Kruithof said.
He's from the Netherlands, but has lived in Curacao for decades.
"I’ve been living there for more than 31 years and it's my country by now, you know," Kruithof said. "And last week in Houston, to see our anthem and our flag, it was amazing. And tomorrow we're going to relive it again."
Curacao made headlines after Germany defeated Curacao 7-1 in their first World Cup match. Despite the loss, that one goal was enough for fans to celebrate.
"I've never felt something like this before," Evelyn Kruithof said. "I mean, seeing our flag, hearing our anthem, and seeing our people there and our first goal against Germany. Come on. Oh, that's an amazing feeling."
Ana Granados flew into Kansas City from Orlando for the game. She said the event brought people together.
"I feel that soccer just brought all of us together and right here we see a lot of people from Curacao, from Ecuador, from England, from the US," Granados said. "I saw a lot of Australians too, so it's like really happy to be with everyone and experience the same thing, you know."
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