By Damola Emmanuel
World Cup debutants, Cape Verde, a country of 150,000 people, on Monday, in Atlanta, USA, pulled a historic upset when they held former champions and an all-conquering Spanish national side to a barren draw in a cracker that stunned book makers, rubbishing all pre-match predictions.
Before the cracker in Atlanta, few people gave the tiny African nation any chance. Indeed, pre-match polls put the odds at 93-7 against Cape Verde.
But the African team played the game of their lives and frustrated the complacent giants who, from all indications underrated their opponents.
The Spanish bench didn’t show much creativity as they played their traditional style throughout the game, holding to the ball most of the time but met a brick wall in the resolute debantants.
Though Cape Verde played the game of their lives, the real glory goes to their courageous goalkeeper, Vozinha, who wrote his name in gold with his scintillating performance in the match.
The goalkeeper, whose real name is Josimar Dias, and is second oldest player in the entire 2026 World Cup, displayed the superb agility of a cat as he made one seemingly impossible save after another and thoroughly frustrated Spain.
Not even the introduction of the highly skillful Lamine Yamal could crack the wall of the tiny African nation’s team.
At the end of the game, it was the unrated Cape Verde that got the loudest applause, splitting valuable points-1-1 with the giants-Spain.
The match will dominate conversations on the 2026 World Cup for a long time to come.
