Published on 6/21/2026
Goalkeeper Eloy Rom led the Curacao national team to grab its first point in its first participation in the FIFA World Cup, by stopping 15 balls against Ecuador (0-0) on Saturday in Kansas, in the second round of Group E for the 2026 World Cup.
This match witnessed 18 shots on goal, the most in a single World Cup match since 1966, without any team being able to score, according to the Opta network.
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While seven of Ecuador’s last 12 official matches ended in a 0-0 draw, including this World Cup and the South American qualifiers, including five of the last seven matches.
In their match against Curacao, Ecuador registered six shots on target and 340 successful passes in the first half, both the highest number of shots in the first half of a World Cup match in Ecuadorian history.
Ecuador’s 15 shots on target against Curacao are the most for any South American team in a World Cup match since 1966, and the second-most overall this century, after Belgium’s 17 shots on target against the USA in 2014.
Ecuador has an expected goals rating of 3.05 against Curacao, the highest number for a team that has not scored a goal in this World Cup match.
Of this value, 1.7 expected goals came from Ener Valencia’s shots, which is also the largest expected goals value for a single player who did not score any goals in the 2026 World Cup. Valencia himself played his eighth match in his career with Ecuador in the World Cup, tying with Edinson Mendes as the player who played the most matches with the Ecuadorian national team in its history.
Historic match
Eloy Rom’s 15 saves equaled USA goalkeeper Tim Howard’s saves against Belgium in 2014 (which went into overtime) as the most saves in a single World Cup match (since 1966).
Eloy Rom is the fifth CONCACAF goalkeeper in the past 50 years to record nine or more saves in a single World Cup match, joining Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico and Tony Meola, Tim Howard and Brad Friedel of the USA.
Curacao included five starting players aged 32 or over in this match, the third team to include five or more starting players from this age group in a single World Cup match this year (Iran with six players, Brazil with five players).
