CAPE OF GOOD HOPE
They couldn’t, could they? They almost did. Fair play, Gianni Infantino, adding an extra knockout round has proved a worthy addition to the Geopolitics World Cup. Sure, the group stage occasionally dragged like a wet Sunday in February, with attendant Scottish and South Korean tears, and Uruguayan rage, but jeopardy is king content. And “the 32” signed off with an all-time classic that went close to delivering the greatest shock of all shocks.
- Close-call: Cape Verde pushed Argentina to the edge, almost upstaging Messi in a dramatic knockout tie.
- Veteran keeper Vozinha, 40, became cult hero after heroic performance, elevating his reputation beyond second-tier club career.
- Goals from Deroy Duarte and Sidny Lopes Cabral dragged Argentina into deep discomfort.
- The clash nearly gatecrashed Messi's Miami homecoming, turning his adopted city into a dramatic stage.
- Meanwhile Egypt reached the last 16; Mat Ryan's substitution failed to stop penalties, Tony Popovic's gamble backfired.
Cape Verde – you say Cabo Verde, let’s call the whole thing off – took Argentina to the cliff edge. Lionel Messi had done the usual, another brilliant strike defying time, then came a further 90 minutes of drama. The third-smallest population to ever reach the big enchilada – behind Curaçao and Iceland, since you ask – held Argentinian hands, and those advertisers who have bet the farm on Messi, to the fire. Vozinha, an actual 40-year-old, the heights of his club career hit in Moldovan, Slovakian and Portuguese second-tier football, went very close to upstaging the great man. Those who wrote him off as a novelty act, a goalkeeper lauded when it was his defence doing the heavy lifting, might think again. Though probably not.
The only hot take possible post-match, as Argentina’s players sobbed tears of relief, was that Vozinha’s name will ring out as a cult hero for decades, a Pak Doo-ik, a Teófilo Cubillas, a Roger Milla. The GWC can be remembered for something beyond hydration breaks. The stage did not belong to Vozinha alone. Feel the quality of the goals from Deroy Duarte and Sidny Lopes Cabral, equalisers dragging Argentina to that place of great discomfort, infamy staring them in the kipper. This was Miami, Messi’s adopted home, where he has supplanted Gloria Estefan, Sonny Crockett, Ricardo Tubbs and Dan Marino as its most famous resident. An almighty gatecrashing of his homecoming party was only narrowly averted.
To set aside the heroics of the archipelago nation whose exploits set the planet Googling maps westwards of the Africa coast, how will Messi et al recover from those rigours? Next up, on Tuesday in Atlanta, Egypt, writing their own history by reaching the last 16, doing so after a flaming penalty shootout with Australia best remembered for Mat Ryan’s unfortunate role. Brought on as a special-teams replacement, Ryan didn’t get close to a single Egyptian kick, as Patrick Beach, the goalie he had replaced, looked on in bemusement. Tony Popovic’s trump card going up in flames should serve as a warning to others: don’t start getting funny ideas now, Thomas Tuchel. As for Cape Verde, they’ll always have for ever; whatever happens now, they will be recalled as the true heroes of summer 2026.
