Wow, just wow. At 1.57pm, Atlanta time, 3,291 miles from home, the final whistle went on Cape Verde’s first World Cup game, and they had only gone and done it and what they had done was madness – they had only gone and held the favourites. Bubista had said that he wanted the world to see who and what they are and, boy, did they see. Cape Verde’s coach had insisted that getting here was was more than football – it was music, it was culture, it was everything. So what was this? This was wonderful. What a moment and what a noise greeted the moment when the impossible had become real.
An Atlantic archipelago of 600,000 people. A Shamrock Rovers centre-back from Crumlin, Dublin, who had been found on LinkedIn. A goalkeeper from Portugal’s second division, another Josimar leaving his mark on the history of this competition and a million minds, to be talked about for generations. All of them. They had come to the US, faced Spain, and resisted them, their bodies on the line and their hearts on their sleeves. Even the introduction of Lamine Yamal, the teenage icon cast as Spain’s saviour couldn’t defeat them.
Cape Verde got a point from Atlanta but they got a whole, whole lot more. They might have literally got more. As this game entered the final, dramatic, tense minutes with the score at 0-0, it was they, not Spain, who actually got the best chances. Amazingly on 90 minutes Diney Borges leapt inside the Spain area, rising to meet a header and his moment of immortality only for Unai Simón to save. Three minutes later Ryan Mendes had his opportunity too. Dani Olmo had to block from Kevin Pina too, an incredible story on the edge of getting even more absurd. But this will live for ever.
And if those were huge moments, so too was the astonishing block from Pico Lopes, diving in on 88 minutes to deny Olmo. Lopes, born in Dublin, the man whose coach contacted him on LinkedIn and who had ignored the first message – it was in a language he doesn’t understand and he assumed it was spam – has made history. Behind Lopes, 40-year-old Josimar “Vozinha” Dias had too. They all had; what heroes they have become. A starting XI that plays in eight different leagues, none of them the elite, an entire 26, had held off Spain. Nothing does stories like football, like the World Cup.
Spain had 24 shots and couldn’t find a way through, but this wasn’t fluke, far from it. Bubista’s players had worked for it, deserved it from the very start when that countdown to kick-off came and, a minute and six seconds later than scheduled, Dailon Livramento got Cape Verde’s first-ever touch at a World Cup.
And so it began, an act of rebellion and resistance. Bubista has said his team would have the courage to attack but also that they would have to defend well and that was the priority here, naturally enough. Spain took possession but didn’t really find a way to take advantage. Sitting on the bench behind Luis de la Fuente were Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, the men – well, boy in the latter’s case – who had made them so different at the Euros. Both are on their way back from injury and without them it is not just that the selección lack exceptional players, it is that their identity shifts.
For Spain, there wasn’t much happening in truth, at least not to begin with. It took 14 minutes for Pedri to have their first shot, then Pau Cubarsí struck wide, and that was pretty much that. When the first quarter ended with fans whistling the time-out-disguised-as-a-cooling-break in an air-conditioned stadium that has a roof, they had not troubled Cape Verde. As the players gathered in a circle around De la Fuente, the coach’s message was clear, hand thrusting in a cutting motion.
When they came back for the second quarter, it was Ryan Mendes who had the first notable moment, lifting the ball over Gavi and seeing his shot blocked by Marc Cucurella. There was also a moment when Livramento shot from halfway. And Jovane Cabral curled wide. But Spain did improve and as the half came towards a close the chances appeared. Which was when Vozinha did, too. The first of a series of superb saves came from Mikel Oyarzabal’s header after Ferran Torres hit the bar.
That had begun, like much of what Spain did, from Cucurella getting in behind. And when he did so again soon after, he pulled back for Torres to strike a first-time shot. Vozinha saved that too, and again when Aymeric Laporte headed towards the far post just before the break. Spain came back out with the appearance of more intent, more aggression. Pedri was back at the heart of it. The shot count rose, at the feet of Fabián Ruiz especially. Yet it still wasn’t quite happening, and time was getting on.
And on, and on. And, to the surprise of everyone here, while Spain’s subs warmed up, there were still no changes. They reached the end of the third quarter before Lamine Yamal appeared, the second water break bringing instructions and the introduction of the teenager. Mikel Merino came with him. Lamine Yamal’s introduction changed everything, the whole mood, the noise. Well, almost everything. It didn’t change history, not this time. Cape Verde did that and it was music.
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