December 15, 2025
This weekend saw round 6 of this season’s top flight league in Aruba, which commenced on October 24th , with this match being the third of the day in the same stadium.
Aruba
Aruba is situated in the Caribbean 29 kilometres north of Venezuela and 80km north-west of Curacao. It is a constituent country in the Kingdom Of The Netherlands together with Curacao, St Maarten and The Netherlands, so all citizens of Aruba have Dutch nationality. The other Dutch islands in the Caribbean, Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius, are deemed to the special municipalities.
Together with Bonaire and Curacao, Aruba forms part of the ABC islands.
Aruba has an area of 179 square kilometres and a population of around 110,000. The capital is Oranjestad, and whilst the national languages are Dutch and Papiamento, English and Spanish are widely spoken. The currency is the Aruban florin but the US Dollar is accepted just about everywhere.
Since the closure of its large oil refinery, the main industries on Aruba are tourism and off-shore banking. Aruba is on track this year to have 1.4 million visitors who stay at least one night on the island, and the number of visitors is much higher when day visitors from docking cruise ships is taken into consideration. 75% of the visitors come from the USA, attracted by the all-year round good weather, the beaches and casinos ! Around 15% of the visitors come from Latin America with the rest nearly all coming from Europe, mostly the Netherlands.
Aruba National Team
The Aruba national team are currently 191st in FIFA’s ranking, having been as high as 112th in 2014 and as low as 205th in 2021. Good results in the recent CONCACAF Series competition, where they drew 0-0 with Antigua and Barbuda, and beat Barbados 3-0, both of whom were ranked 20-30 places higher than Aruba, saw them rise three places in the rankings.
In the recent 2026 World Cup qualification process, Aruba finished 4th in their 5 team group. They started with two away draws, 2-2 in St Lucia and 1-1 with Barbados, but were beaten in their two home matches, 0-2 to Curacao and 0-5 to Haiti, both of whom went on to qualify for the Finals in Canada, Mexico and the USA. The attendance for the Haiti match was 673.
In the earlier 2024/25 CONCACAF Nations League B, Aruba lost all 6 matches, going down to Haiti ( 1-3 & 3-5 ), Puerto Rico ( 0-1 & 1-5 ) and St Maarten ( 0-1 & 0-2 ). A crowd of 1,011 attended the Haiti home match.
Like Curacao and Suriname, Aruba have been tapping into their diaspora in the Netherlands, and only 5 of the 23 players in their most recent squad played their football in Aruba. Their all-time leading goal scorer is Dutch born midfielder Rovien Ostiana ( 15 caps ) with 8 goals, and he started in the youth teams at Brentford, Queens Park Rangers and Cambridge United, and is now playing amateur football in the Netherlands. Striker Terrence Groothusen ( 22 caps ) has scored 6 times for Aruba and has played for Dordrecht, 3rd Division football in Germany and for two sides in Malta, but is now playing in the 4th level in the Netherlands.
Midfielder Isai Marselia ( 11 caps ) plays for eighth tier Sutton Coldfield Town in England whilst left-back Bradley Martis ( 2 caps ) had played for Sparta Rotterdam and Cejle in Slovenia, but is now playing in the Dutch Third level. Record cap holder centre-back Paul Nickenson ( 35 caps ) had a short spell with Third Division Paros in Greece, but is now back home playing for Dakota.
Aruba Division di Honour
The top flight of football in Aruba consists of 10 sides who play each other once. The top six then split to the Gold group for 10 more fixtures, after which the top 4 play each other again in a play-off league, and the top two then play a final to determine the overall Champion. Simples !
The bottom four form two groups with the sides in the second division, with the top 3 in each group then playing off to determine the four sides to make up the Division di Honour for next season, with the two group winners automatically securing places.
All matches are currently being played at the Sports Complex Guillermo Prospero Trinidad, Dakota, which is commonly abbreviated as CDGT, or referred to as the Trinidad Stadium. It is the national stadium located in the Dakota district of the capital Oranjestad, and named after a local politician rather than the Caribbean Island ! The stadium has an artifical pitch surrounded by an Athletics track, and depending on which source you refer to has a capacity of either 2,500 or 5,000 !
The first two rounds of the league were played at another ground in Oranjestad, the smaller Sports Complex Frans Figaroa.
SV Britannia have won the last two Division di Honour titles, and 6 championships in total but the record title holders are SV Dakota with 17, although the last was in 2021/22, and SV Racing Club Aruba ( RCA ), also with 17. RCA won the 2022/23 title.
The champions of Aruba qualify to play in the CFU Club Shield, the second-tier club competition in the Caribbean. The 2025 edition, held over a two-week period in Trinidad and Tobago was bizarrely structured with 24 sides playing in 4 groups of 6, but playing only two matches, with just the group winners going through to semi-finals. SV Britannia drew 1-1 with Paradise SC International from Grenada and then beat St Paul’s United of St Kitts and Nevis 2-0 to finish joint second in their group behind Moca of the Dominican Republic, who went on to win the tournament.
RCA participated in the 2024 CFU Club Shield and only played one match, losing 1-2 to Arnett Gardens of Jamaica in a game played in Curacao. The 2023 competition was held in St Kitts, and Dakota got to play three group matches, beating SWA Sharks of the Turks and Caicos Islands 3-0 and Solidarite-Scolaire of Guadelupe 1-0, but lost 0-3 to Club Sando of Trinidad, who won the group.
2025/26 Season
After 5 rounds of fixtures, Dakota led the table with a 100% record, with Britannia in second placed having drawn 1-1 with newly promoted Sporting, who were 5th.
SV La Fama, who are based in the town of Savaneta in the south of the island, were in third place with four wins but had lost last time out 1-2 to Dakota. Their victories had been 2-1 against Estrella, 3-2 over Deportivo Nacional, 2-0 against Bubali and 2-1 over RCA.
La Fama had won the league championship on one occasion, in 2012/13.
La Fama had a cosmopolitan squad. Canadian centre-forward Timothe Makanzu-Tinadio was the top scorer with 3 goals and was one of four Canadian in their squad along with captain and midfielder Anthony Walsh, midfielder Gregory David and full-back Abdelatif Taleb. There were also two Dutch players ( forwards Delayno Jansen and Bas van der Weij ), two from Colombia ( midfielder Dixo Ordonez and forward Lewis Bermudez ) and one from Haiti ( Caleb Jean-Baptiste ) and one from Jamaica ( Kenroy Ranger )
SV River Plate Aruba are based in the capital Oranjestad and are not to be confused with the team of the same name in Argentina, or the teams in Uruguay, Paraguay or Ecuador for that matter !
River Plate had two titles to their name, but the last was back in 1997. Last season River Plate were the Silver champions, winning the competition played to determine the sides that either stay in the top division or get promoted. In River Plate’s case they stayed in the Division di Honour having finished 7th in the regular season.
River Plate started the season with a 3-0 victory over Real Koyari but then lost 1-5 to Dakota and 1-2 to Britannia. They then beat Deportivo Nacional 2-1 and drew 2-2 with Estrella to start the weekend in 6th place in the table.
They had an all-Aruban squad and Shakeme Stamper and Johndrick Kelly had both found the net three times this season.
Matchday Information
The weather at the 20.00 local time ( midnight UK time ) was dry and 27 degrees.
The match was streamed live on FIFA, as were all the other round 6 matches, but with no commentary.
River Plate played in the same colours as their Argentinian namesakes, with white shirts with a red diagonal sash, black shorts and red socks. La Fama were wearing lime green shirts, with white shorts and socks.
River Plate made five changes to the side that started against Estrella whereas La Fama made four changes to the team that narrowly lost to Dakota
Match Report
There was a dramatic start to the game, as La Fama should have opened the scoring in the opening 20 second. A curling shot from David from the edge of the area struck a goalpost, and with the goal at his mercy and the River Plate keeper on the deck, Jansen shot tamely at the keeper Elias Croes, whose hairstyle made him look like Taylor Swift’s ugly sister. Croes was able to block for a corner. When the ball bounced around in the penalty box from the corner, Makanzu-Tinadio put the ball high and wide.
The game settled down after that early rush, with La Fama having the lion’s share of the possession and the bespectacled Jermaine Carty and Jansen being prominent on their right-hand side but the next chance didn’t arrive until the 10th minute, when Jansen took the ball off team-mate Ranger, who had his back to the goal, to burst into the River Plate area, but Jansen sliced his shot horribly wide as River Plate centre-back Carlos Quandt came over to cover.
River Plate’s first real foray into the La Fama half saw Ajeem Morales win a free-kick, which Kelly sent long and the La Fama defence shepherded the ball out for a goal-kick.
With 14 minutes played Jansen teed up David, but the shot from just inside the area was straight at the River Plate keeper, who held onto the effort.
Rafael Karamantana made an important tackle to stop Ranger at the expense of a corner after he had run into the River Plate area. However, Rangel’s delivery sailed straight out of play for a goal-kick.
A long pass out of the La Fama defence found David just inside the River Plate area, and although the Canadian took a good first touch, Karamantana was able to shield the ball and keeper Croes came off his line to dive on it.
River Plate centre-back Elian Samper was shown the first yellow card of the match, for tripping Makanzu-Tinadio as the striker was about to enter the River Plate area, and conceded a free-kick just outside the area on the right-hand side. David sent the free-kick to the far post, where Makanzu-Tinadio dived to head the ball into the opposite corner of the goal. It was 0-1 with 25 minutes on the clock.
Three minutes later the River Plate defence failed to deal with a David corner, and La Fama defender Tyrone Boasman slammed the loose ball into the roof of the net with his left foot from 2 yards. 0-2 with 28 minutes played.
River Plate’s reaction to falling two goals behind was to bring on joint top-scorer Stamper, who was perhaps surprisingly dropped for this game, and also surprisingly, the player to make way was Brayan Villalobos, who had looked neat and tidy at left-back.
With 35 minutes played, Jansen made an outrageous dummy to fool Samper and run on to the ball, but neither David or Makanzu-Tinadio could take advantage of his low ball into the River Plate area. A lengthy delay soon followed when the ball hit River Plate’s Yan Gomez flush in the face from short range after a clearance from Kelly, but fortunately Gomez was able to continue after a concussion test.
Whilst Gomez was briefly off the pitch, Carty was forced to concede a corner to prevent Stamper getting on the end of a long ball from Kendrick Poulina for River Plate’s first corner. However, the corner was played short and wasted, and La Fama won a throw-in.
Carty then controlled a long cross-field pass and skipped past Samper, but his cross from close to the byline was poor and went high over the bar for a goal-kick.
With 40 minutes played, River Plate had a sniff of a chance. La Fama’s backline failed to react when a long throw from Poulina went over their heads in to the penalty area, but Stamper could only get a toe to the ball on the stretch, and the ball hit keeper Faro, who gathered the loose ball.
David went on a mazy run across the field and fed Jansen, but midfielder Paulina was back helping his defence and made a block to concede a corner to La Fama.
With half-time approaching, Rangel’s flicked pass enabled Jansen to push the ball past Quandt to get to the byline and his low ball across the goalmouth presented a tap-in for Ranger at the far post. La Fama now led 3-0 after 43 minutes.
La Fama’s Boasman received his side’s first yellow card as he needlessly brought down Morales as the River Plate forward ran towards the La Fama’s penalty area but didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Kelly could only fire the 25-yard free-kick into the wall, and Gomez smashed the rebound nearer to the corner flag than the goal, and which brought an end to the half
Behind by three goals at the break, River Plate looked to be in big trouble and La Fama’s play looked to be a class above.
River Plate began the second half by stringing together a few passes a couple of times without making much progress, until Ranger clattered into Quandt just inside the La Fama half to receive the second yellow card of the game for La Fama.
In the 50th minute, River Plate worked a nice move as Juan Diego Croes, perhaps the shortest player in any top flight division anywhere in the World and whose large shorts made him look like Stanley Matthews, threaded a pass for Stamper to run at the La Fama backline. After being closed down, Stamper laid the ball back to Gomez, whose mis-hit shot went to Kelly, who passed to Gonzalez, who in turn put centre-forward Morales in space on the left inside the La Fama area. Morales rounded keeper Faro but with nearly all the goal open, his close-range shot was blocked by Maduro on the line. It was a golden chance squandered.
Shortly after, a River Plate long-throw was launched into the La Fama area, and Gomez attempted an acrobatic volley at the rebound, but his effort went narrowly over the bar.
River Plate were now looking a different side and La Fama were under the cosh. However, against the run of play, Makanzu-Tinadio picked up possession near half-way and surged forward. He played in Jansen, who ran into the River Plate area and sent a fierce shot in roof of the net at the near post. It was now 0-4 after 54 minutes and it felt like game over.
River Plate had other ideas though, and Stamper delivered a delightful left-footed cross, and Kelly hung in the air to head into the opposite corner from 8 yards, with Faro wrong-footed. The score became 1-4 with 55 minutes played.
River Plate defender Karamamtana then appeared to pull a muscle running back to escort the ball back to his keeper and needed to be replaced after treatment. Once the game resumed, La Fama were quickly on the attack. Jansen ran from half-way and found substitute Bermudez in space on the right, and the Colombian substitute played a ball across the area to the unmarked David, rather than going for goal himself. Although the pass went slightly behind David, he was able to stick a leg out behind himself, and cleverly flicked the ball in to the empty goal. 1-5 after 62 minutes.
Almost from the restart Poulina sent a free-kick into the La Fama area, and the ball fell to Stamper, but his left footed effort lacked power, and keeper Faro managed to kick it away as he fell to the ground going in the wrong direction, and Morales sent the rebound high and wide.
La Fama substitute Jean-Baptiste showed good pace to run away from Qyzjon Rodriguez on the left wing and played in Bermudez but the shot from close to the penalty spot was blocked by forward Morales tracking back.
An under-hit back-pass put the La Fama keeper under pressure but his sliding clearance found Makanzu-Tinadio in space just inside the River Plate, and the powerful striker charged into the opposition area. With just the keeper to beat, he put his left-footed finish inches wide of the post. The Canadian couldn’t believe he hadn’t scored !
The game fizzled out as a spectacle after a raft of substitutes were introduced by both sides, although Jean-Baptiste managed to wriggle free inside the River Plate area but his drive from a tight angle was pushed away by keeper Croes. At the other end, Stamper got ahead of his marker to get to a low ball in from the right byline, but his ambitious back-flick went wide of the near post.
Unexpectedly, River Plate pulled a goal back after some dreadful defending by La Fama. First, substitute centre-back Davidson Kaarsbaan, who could be a candidate as a prop for an Aruba rugby team, let a pass go under his foot and had to concede a corner. Siljean Vrolijk took the corner and would have been happy as Faro fumbled the cross under pressure under his crossbar and Quandt headed home from a yard. 2-5 with 85 minutes on the clock.
La Fama hit back straight away, and after Croes had punched away a cross, Maduro threaded a pass to Anderson Ceballos, who turned and hammered into the top corner from the edge of the area. It was now 2-6 after 87 minutes.
With the result a foregone conclusion, the referee blew for full time exactly on 90 minutes, there was no need for an unnecessary added time !
Overall, this was an enjoyable game to watch, with an absence of cynical play, diving, gamesmanship and cheating, as both sides played in a good spirit. La Fama were deserved winners, and looked to have some decent attacking players.
SV River Plate : E Croes – Karamantana ( D. Morales ), Quandt, Samper ( Rodriguez ), Villalobes ( Stamper ) – Gomez, Gonzalez Poulina, J. Kelly ( Nadall ) – J.D Croes ( Vrolijk ), A. Morales ( R. Kelly )
SV La Fama : Faro – Carty, Maduro, Rangel, Boasman ( Kaarsbaan ), Panneflek – Ordonez, David ( Jean-Baptiste ) – Jansen ( Farro ), Ranger ( Bermudez ), Makanzu-Tinadio ( Ceballos )
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