Did you know about Cape Verde before this year’s FIFA World Cup? If you did not, you are in the majority. Now, thanks to the extraordinary run of the nation’s football team, the Blue Sharks, at the competition, awareness of and interest in the country have skyrocketed. For instance, Google searches related to Cape Verde have increased by over 5,000 per cent.
Officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, Cape Verde is an archipelago in the central Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa, comprising 10 volcanic islands. With its small population of approximately 530,000 and making its World Cup debut, the country, ranked 64th in the world, was not expected to make much of an impact. Instead, it became one of the tournament’s biggest stories, and its goalkeeper one of its brightest stars.
The team captured global attention from the outset when it drew its first match 0-0 against third-ranked Spain, the reigning European champions and former World Cup winners. What made the result significant was not just that a minnow held off a giant, but also the stellar performance of the team’s 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha (Josimar José Évora Dias), which was superlative. Vozinha kept a clean sheet against a relentless Spanish offence that registered 27 shots, making seven saves, including six from inside the box. His performance earned him the Player of the Match award for that game and a nearly perfect Sofascore rating of 9.7. (A Sofascore rating is an objective, numerical score, from 3.0 to 10.0, that measures a player’s performance in a given match or over a full season.) He also led FIFA’s official ‘In Possession’ goalkeeper power rankings following the first round, earning a score of 8.03 out of 10. (‘In Possession’ rankings evaluate goalkeepers based on distribution, line-breaking passes, and composure under pressure.)
The Blue Sharks then drew 2-2 with Uruguay, with midfielder Kevin Pina scoring the country’s first-ever World Cup goal and earning Player of the Match honours. In their final group-stage match, they kept a clean sheet for a second time, drawing 0-0 with Saudi Arabia, with another of their midfielders, Deroy Duarte, named Player of the Match. Their unbeaten run placed Cape Verde in second place in their group, sending them into the knockout round.
Cape Verde’s round-of-16 knockout clash against defending champions Argentina was an instant classic and one of the most epic battles in World Cup and football history. The fixture between the number two and the 64th-ranked teams was a mismatch on paper but turned out to be a thriller. Cape Verde pushed the reigning champions to the brink with two equalisers before a late header decided the game.
Lionel Messi, the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer and, at the time, the leading scorer in this year’s tournament, opened the scoring for Argentina in the 29th minute. Deroy Duarte restored parity in the second half at 59 minutes, and the match remained deadlocked at full time, sending it into extra time. Lisandro Martínez put Argentina ahead again in the 92nd minute, only for Sidny Lopes Cabral to level the score once more in the 103rd minute. With a penalty shootout looming, Argentina scored the final and winning goal of the match in the 111th minute, in the second half of extra time, when Cristian Romero’s header deflected off Cape Verde defender Diney Borges for an own goal, sealing a dramatic 3-2 victory and bringing the Blue Sharks’ unforgettable World Cup campaign to a close.
Although Cape Verde finished without a win (three draws and one loss), its achievements as a tournament debutant were remarkable. The team, ranked 64th, with the oldest goalkeeper and oldest starting eleven in the knockout round, representing the smallest country to make it to that round, played four countries ranked above them, including three former World Cup winning nations, Spain (2010), Uruguay (1930 and 1950) and Argentina (1978, 1986, and 2022) and none could beat them in 90 minutes of regulation time. The only nation to defeat them was the current champion and the world’s number two-ranked team, and they required extra time to do so.
Cape Verde also etched its name into the World Cup record books. In their opening match against Spain, they committed only one foul, in the 15th minute, when Lopes Cabral collided with Marcos Llorente and received a yellow card, setting a record for the fewest fouls in a World Cup match since those statistics began being recorded in 1966. The Blue Sharks also committed the fewest fouls (10) of any team in the opening round in the history of the contest. The solitary yellow card from a single foul also makes it the team with the highest penalty card-to-foul ratio, 100 per cent, in a match in the tournament’s history. It is also the only country to score against three former champions in its debut and set a record by fielding the oldest starting eleven ever in the knockout phase. In addition, no other team has ever had one of its players named Player of the Match in all three first round matches at their first appearance at the World Cup. Meanwhile, Vozinha’s Instagram following exploded from around 45,000 to 50,000 before the tournament to more than 25 million at the time of his team’s exit, making him the most-followed goalkeeper on the platform.
Cape Verde did not win the World Cup, but it won the hearts and respect of millions worldwide. While some feared that expanding the tournament from 32 to 48 teams would dilute the competition, the inclusion of the Blue Sharks proved the opposite: they made it sweeter.
Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator, and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X @mikeyabrahams.
