Curaçao began its World Cup qualifying campaign under former Netherlands and Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink with a 5-0 victory over St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday at Willemstad on the Caribbean island that is a constituent country of the Netherlands.
Juninho Bacuna of Huddersfield scored in the first and 35th minutes, Anthony van den Hurk of Helsingborgs in the 17th, Jarchinio Antonia of Cambuur in the 45th and Elson Hooi of Qatar Muaither in the 87th.
The 74-year-old Hiddink was hired last August by Curaçao, which is ranked 76th in the world and eighth among nations in the North and Central American and Caribbean region.
St. Vincent is ranked 168th.
Curaçao plays Cuba on Sunday at Guatemala City, then faces the British Virgin Islands on June 5 and Guatemala on June 8. The Group C winner meets Panama, Barbados, Anguilla, the Dominican Republic or Dominica in a two-game playoff for a berth in the eight-nation regional finals, which will produce three teams for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Hiddink coached the Netherlands to fourth place at the 1998 World Cup and South Korea to fourth at the 2002 tournament, which South Korea co-hosted. He also coached Russia to the semifinals of the 2008 European Championship.
He also has coached PSV Eindhoven, Fenerbahçe, Real Madrid, Real Betis and Anzhi Makhachkala, and served as Chelsea manager and coach of China’s under-23 team.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
