"I am overwhelmed. This is history - Trinidad and Tobago, we going to Germany, Oh God!" said David Frederick, a 37-year-old construction worker.
Thousands of people left work and school after the victory - many chanted "Germany, Germany, Germany!" and celebrated on nearly every corner in the capital, waving their country's flag, doing acrobatics and dousing themselves with beer.
Some merrymakers gathered in pubs, while motorists punctuated the carnival-like atmosphere by blowing their horns.
"This is madness. I am starting my German lessons now," said Joel Williams, an accountant who was draped in a Trinidadian flag and celebrating on a street corner with a few colleagues.
The twin-island nation of 1.3 million is only the second country in the English-speaking Caribbean to qualify in the tournament's history, after Jamaica's Reggae Boyz in 1998.
Trinidad's Prime Minister Patrick Manning interrupted parliamentary deliberation to congratulate the Soca Warriors.
He promised a "proper" welcome to the 21-man squad on their return home on Thursday (17 NOV 2005).
Nutor Blair, 30, a Guyanese man celebrating the victory outside of a pub and holding a Trinidad flag, said: "I am Guyanese but a win for Trinidad is a win for the Caribbean."
