The fairy tale of the World Cup so far is undoubtedly Cape Verde’s. The Atlantic Islands, with a population of just 800,000, reached the tournament’s final round in its debut.
Cape Verde, who topped their group in Africa, had little expectations despite defeating Cameroon in qualifying. However, they proved their doubters wrong in their first game as they suffered a brutal 0-0 draw with European champions Spain. A 2-2 draw with Uruguay followed, showing that they belonged well at this level, and in the final group game Cape Verde withstood a third 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia.
Cape Verde will advance to the final tournament
In the final results, Cape Verde finished second in the group, two points ahead of Uruguay and two points ahead of Saudi Arabia. However, the match between Uruguay and Spain ended after their own team, and with the South American team leading by one point, Uruguay could have scored an equalizer and slipped to third place.
Cape Verde watched the final moments of Spain’s 1-0 win over Uruguay on the phone, but eventually erupted into a frenzied celebration.
What’s next for Cape Verde?
The Cape Verdean national team, led by veteran goalkeeper Vosinha and captain Garry Rodriguez, will face another dream tie against the same aging stars in the round of 32. Waiting for them in Miami in the next round will be none other than world champions Argentina and the tournament’s top scorer Lionel Messi. That match will take place on Friday, July 3rd.
This draw would give few people any hope of making it through, but then again, the statistics from the round only gave Cape Verde a 1% chance of making it to the finals in the first place.
