Throughout their surreal march to the World Cup’s round of 32, Cape Verde’s coach and players have not missed an opportunity to remind everyone theirs is a small country of people with big hearts. Chances are, anytime they’re not making that point, it’s only because they’re saying nothing is impossible.
But even amid this — ok, improbable — march to a meeting with Argentina, Pedro Leitao Brito, the Cape Verde coach better known as Bubista, seemed blown away when it was pointed out that his country has become the smallest nation to ever advance out of the group stage of a World Cup.
“That is us?” he said. “I didn’t even know that. In that case, we have become an example that small countries also can achieve big objectives. Of course we represent our country, but we also represent Africa.”
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Africa is being represented, all right. A record 10 African teams qualified for the 48-team field. Nine advanced to the knockout stages, with only Tunisia missing out. The best story among them continues to be the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde, which has a population of about 525,000. The only smaller nations to ever reach a World Cup were Curacao and Iceland, neither of whom survived the group stage.
Their reward: A date Friday night (July 3) at Hard Rock Stadium against defending champion Argentina and Lionel Messi.
“I’ve always seen Argentina on the television whenever I was young,” Cape Verde midfielder Deroy Duarte said. “So yeah, for me, it’s a dream coming true.”
Which doesn’t necessarily mean Duarte and his teammates will spend Friday evening focusing on who’ll get to swap jerseys with Messi when it’s over. They feel they can compete with anybody.
“We played against Spain, Uruguay, we draw, so why not?” Duarte said.
Cape Verde is unbeaten in the tournament. It’s also winless after drawing all three group-stage matches. Behind 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha, who became an overnight sensation by shutting out co-favorite Spain in the opener, Cape Verde has allowed two goals in the World Cup. That defensive record is matched or surpassed by only six teams.
“Spain was not able to do it,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “Uruguay wasn’t able to beat them either. Especially how everything is happening and moving here at the World Cup, you have to be careful. It’s a very good team. It’s a very fast team. I can guarantee you, believe you me, that’s a team that’s going to make it difficult for us.”
That would be a case of little brother being a pain for big brother, in the eyes of Bubista.
“We are proud to be able to play Argentina,” he said. “That is also a country with which we have longstanding ties. Many Cape Verdeans have immigrated to Argentina from the very beginning. But above all, it is our will of doing things with our identity, regardless of who the opponent is. And we will play our game with attitude and with responsibility, knowing that Argentina has some of the best players in the world, plus Messi, who to many people is the best of all times.”
Cape Verde remained alive in the group-stage finale on the strength of a scoreless draw against Saudi Arabia, then had to sweat out whether Saudi Arabia could leapfrog the Blue Sharks to claim second place in Group H. Cape Verde’s players grouped around a phone to watch the final couple of minutes of Spain’s 1-0 victory over the Saudis and broke into celebration at the final whistle.
“I almost wanted to cry, like so much emotions came,” Duarte said. “I saw everybody watching the game. You were just praying and you were just hoping. And eventually, the joy that came out is something I never felt before on the pitch. And I hope to feel it again against Argentina.”
Cape Verde coach Bubista confident this day would come
Bubista, an international player in his day, said — with an important qualifier — that he was confident this day would come for Cape Verde, located off the west coast of Africa.
“I had the conviction that this would happen — maybe not on my time as a player or as a coach,” he said. “But I was sure that one day Cape Verde would be on this stage. And here we are.”
None of the other Blue Sharks is on a stage quite like Vozinha’s. A player who had around 50,000 Instagram followers before the World Cup is now up to 17.3 million. Fans worldwide gravitated to a story that includes his tearful wish that his mother could see him perform in this tournament. His plea was answered when authorities rushed her visa process through, allowing her to fly to Miami and see Cape Verde play Uruguay to a 2-2 draw at Hard Rock.
“Maybe for many of you, you think, like, the Cape Verdean player is not good enough,” Vozinha said. “But we come here to show that we have a lot of quality and we are here to compete and our players can play anywhere in the big competitions, in the big leagues.”
The singular cloud for this team is the status of forward Ryan Mendes, the team captain. He is under investigation for rape in New Zealand, according to Brazil’s Globo and the New Zealand Herald. He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman who was a team translator in New Zealand in March. He has not been charged.
Thomas Partey, a midfielder for Ghana, faces five counts of rape in London, where he formerly played for Arsenal. Although he has denied wrongdoing, Canada would not grant him a visa, so he missed Ghana’s opener vs. Panama in Toronto.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Can World Cup Cinderella Cape Verde shock Messi, 2022 champs Argentina?
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
