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The giant flags are out, the players are in the tunnel, kick-off looms!

What are you all thinking will happen here? Can Curaçao pull off a gigantic upset?

From the early looks at Kansas City Stadium, this looks like it’ll be a heavily pro-Ecuador crowd.

Not entirely surprising, as Curaçao has about the population of Macon, Georgia and Ecuador has, uh, way more than that.

Two changes in the Curaçao lineup: Joshua Brenet replaces Riechedly Bazoer at center back. Juriën Gaari also comes in at center back, with forward Sontje Hansen making way.

Two changes as well for Ecuador: Pervis Estupiñan replaces Joe Ordoñéz in defense, while Alan Minda makes way for Jordy Alcívar in midfield.

Reader Eric writes in:

Was the point to annoy all of Texas with the BBQ dig?

What dig?! Texas BBQ is great. All BBQ is great. It’s just that Kansas City’s is better, in the opinion of this not-at-all biased native Kansas Citian.

The lineups are in!

Ecuador:

Hernán Galíndez; Piero Hincapié, Willian Pacho, Pervis Estupiñan; Alan Franco, Jordu Alcívar, Pedro Vite, Moisés Caicedo, John Yeboah, Enner Valencia, Gonzalo Plata

Curaçao:

Eloy Room; Joshua Brenet, Jurien Gaari, Armando Obispo, Sherel Floranus, Deveron Fonville; Tahith Chong, Livano Comenencia, Leandro Bacuna, Juninho Bacuna; Jürgen Locadia

The referee tonight is Ma Ning from China, where he has amassed quite a large fanbase (for a referee) owing to the country’s failure to qualify for any World Cup since 2002. He’s a big enough deal to have attracted sponsorships from the likes of Lenovo and Hisense, according to the BBC.

Nicknamed the “card master” owing to his strict approach, this will be Ma Ning’s World Cup debut – the first game officiated by a Chinese referee since the 2002 edition.

Updated

Elsewhere in Group E…

Germany left it late but escaped with an important win against Côte d’Ivoire, thanks to a late goal from Deniz Undav.

Read Leander Schaerlaeckens’ match report:

Preamble

Hello folks! Alexander Abnos here, and I’m thrilled to be able to follow this match along with all of you.

Curaçao enters the game on the back of a 7-1 drubbing by Germany. The lopsided scoreline was perhaps expected, what with Germany’s status as a world power and Curaçao being the smallest country ever to qualify for a World Cup.

But then there were those 17 minutes. Those glorious, glorious 17 minutes. That was the amount of time between Liviano Comenencia’s equalizer and Nico Schlotterbeck’s goal to make it 2-1. In that period, Curaçao allowed their fans to party and to dream. If you love football and aren’t an Ecuador fan, you’ll be hoping for similar tonight.

If you’re an Ecuador fan, though, you’re probably feeling pretty confident, despite a World Cup-opening loss to Côte d’Ivoire. La Tricolor hit the bar twice in that match and only lost due to a last-gasp finish from Amad Diallo. They have one of the strongest spines in the tournament and can get a dark horse campaign underway with a solid result today.

The setting: Kansas City, the home of the four-time Super Bowl champion Chiefs and the best barbecue in all the land. Kansas City Stadium was rocking for its first game, hosting Argentina v Algeria. I’m excited to see how it looks today.