They played on the first day. Curaçao won 6-0.
Japan hasn't lost since.
Willemstad vs. Tokyo, Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET on ABC, for the international championship and a spot in Sunday's Little League World Series final.
How to watch
Date: Saturday, Aug. 29
First pitch: 12:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Howard J. Lamade Stadium, South Williamsport, Pa.
TV: ABC
Streaming: ESPN+ and the ESPN app
The U.S. championship follows at 3:30 p.m. ET, also on ABC. Winners meet Sunday at 3 p.m. on ABC.
Curaçao is 4-0
Pariba Little League has beaten Japan 6-0, South Korea 1-0, and Nicaragua 12-3. Thirteen scoreless innings to open the tournament, then a ten-run second inning to bury León on Wednesday.
Fourteen players, nine of whom pitch: Giendry Ryan (10), Jaymiel Antonia (7), Jaymiëll Martina (16), Jordan Richards (8), Juriënsly De Windt (17), Naeem Angel Coeriel (14), Nathanael Jansen (5), Q'Jeaume Valks (12), Raymiel Antonia (13), Ruendrikson Leuteria (15), Shardijon De Lanoi (9), Steven Felix (24), V-dien Ignacio Lindo (22), Zha-djir Janga (6).
Ryan and De Windt combined for the shutout of South Korea. Raymiel Antonia's bases-loaded single cleared them against Nicaragua. Leuteria, listed at 4-foot-11 and a half, doubled in that same inning — and pitches.
This is the first year Curaçao received a direct berth into the international bracket. No regional tournament, no play-in.
Japan took the long way and hits it hardest
Joto Little League lost the opener and won five straight: 10-1 over the Dominican Republic, 3-2 over Czechia, 3-1 over Mexico, 7-3 over Canada, 4-1 over Nicaragua.
Thirteen players: Ayumu Hasegawa (2), Hiroto Yokote (16), Kei Kawanishi (7), Rui Tobata (12), Ryoji Sasaki (3), Ryosuke Takaoka (10), Ryunosuke Maeda (8), Shinnosuke Ijima (13), Sou Koyama (1), Taiga Yumitori (14), Takeru Yorozu (15), Tensei Yazawa (21), Yunosuke Yabe (22).
Hasegawa and Sasaki, both listed at 4-foot-8, are the shortest players in the tournament.
Tobata doubled twice against Nicaragua and won the Canada game. Yumitori homered against Canada. Ijima threw all of Thursday's win, 87 pitches to 23 batters.
Japan has hit six home runs here. No other team has more than three.
Karl Ravech is calling his last Little League World Series for ESPN. The network laid him off in July after 33 years and gave him this tournament as the final assignment.
Asked on Foul Territory for his best memory from twenty years here, he didn't name a team. He talked about the first time he came, in 2006.
"Baseball is a universal language."
Then he complicated it. Speaking the same language doesn't mean preparing the same way. Watch the Japanese team take infield — the discipline of it — and you understand that a bat and a ball and four bases are the shared part, and everything else is culture.
He pointed at Canada. When he started, Canada went 0-2 and flew home. This year Vancouver made it to Thursday. Australia has gotten better too.
"That's ultimately the goal, is to grow the game."
They've done this before
Curaçao and Japan met in the 2019 international championship. Curaçao won 5-4 on a two-run Curley Martha homer, with Jurickson Profar's youngest brother catching all six innings.
Willemstad has been in three of the last five finals — runners-up to Honolulu in 2022, runners-up to El Segundo in 2023. Its only title came in 2004, on a team that included Profar.
An island of about 158,000 people. Andruw Jones was elected to the Hall of Fame in July, the first player born there to make it. Ozzie Albies sang the Curaçao national anthem in Williamsport this week and, by Ravech's account, had tears in his eyes.
Full LLWS schedule, scores and every team's hometown. Rosters via Little League and GameChanger.