A ruined game trip turned into a free World Cup invite

Christian and Mathi Ott flew from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to Houston to watch Curaçao, the tiny Caribbean nation making its World Cup debut, play Germany. About an hour before kickoff, an email told them their resale tickets wouldn't work. They waited outside the stadium, then paid dearly for last-minute replacements and squeaked in. The day was a stressful, expensive mess. The turn came the next day, when their delayed flight home stranded them at an airport bar beside a friendly man and his wife. The Otts told the couple their nightmare saga. Then the wife murmured something, and the man looked back. "He looks at her, then back at us, and says, 'Well, I'm the prime minister of Curaçao,'" Mathi told WPDE-TV. Gilmar Pisas offered them an all-expenses trip to a future match on the spot. Mathi called his mom to check. Her verdict, per Christian: "Of course you're going."