PHILADELPHIA — After Curacao’s first World Cup appearance concluded Thursday, manager Dick Advocaat exited the tournament impressed by his side’s effort and called on the Caribbean nation’s recruitment efforts to continue.

With a population just north of 150,000, Curacao is the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup finals. And after a 7-1 tournament opening loss to Germany, they responded with a credible effort in a 0-0 draw with Ecuador before exiting on Thursday’s 2-0 loss to Ivory Coast.

“I’ve lived through such tournaments before, so I knew what to expect by and large,” said the 78-year-old after managing at his third World Cup. “But still, this team has really exceeded, excelled.

“The way they played against world teams, Germany, Ecuador, Cote d’Ivoire. These are world-level teams. We should bear this in mind. And they’ve been playing full of enthusiasm. It was a lot of guts. That was really important.

“And this is something that we have to benefit from by turning even better, by trying to see whether we can find some more players willing to play for Curacao.”

The overwhelming majority of Advocaat’s squad is born in the Netherlands with family roots in the island nation. Much like regional rivals Jamaica, who have heavily recruited eligible English-born talent, Advocaat believes there are more players in the Netherlands and elsewhere who could help.

“I have a very positive view (of the future) certainly,” he said. “Yet, at the same time, some of the positions need to become better.

“We need to find these players, allowing us to play more freely. It takes so much work to get to results, something we see in the opposing team. Their football was just easier, lighter. That’s something we’d have to improve.”

Advocaat, who also coached the Netherlands at the 1994 World Cup and South Korea at the 2006 edition, said he hadn’t considered whether this might be his last major tournament.

“No, I didn’t think about this for a minute,” he said. “I was focusing on the match. I was trying to achieve the maximum result with the means we have.

“So I was trying to see without any respite how it could get better.”

Asked again, he insisted it hadn’t crossed his mind.

“No. It may when I leave the room,” he said.

–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media