Cape Verde are celebrating one of World Cup’s greatest feats. Can they shock Messi and Argentina next?
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New Zealand vs BelgiumSpain Secures Top SpotCape Verde Makes HistoryThird-Place QualifiersBracketPlayers to WatchCape Verde are celebrating one of World Cup’s greatest feats. Can they shock Messi and Argentina next?
Vozinha has become a cult figure at this World Cup, and also kept a clean sheet against European champions Spain Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
By Nick MillerJune 27, 2026 Updated 4:02 am EDTIt was only about a minute. But it probably felt like the longest minute of their lives.
The excruciating void came between the full-time whistle in Houston, where Cape Verde had drawn 0-0 with Saudi Arabia, and confirmation from nearly 1,000 miles away in Guadalajara that the point was enough.
The players didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. They shook hands with the Saudis, wandered around the pitch, then most of the squad gathered around someone’s phone to watch the closing stages of Spain vs Uruguay. Cape Verde needed Uruguay to lose to seal second place in Group H and automatic qualification for the World Cup’s round of 32.
Cheers had gone up earlier in the evening when the big screen relayed that Spain had taken the lead. But they couldn’t be entirely sure that was still the case.
Then it came. Game over in Mexico. Spain 1-0 Uruguay. Cape Verde, the third-smallest nation to reach the World Cup finals, became the smallest to ever reach its knockout phase.
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“I almost wanted to cry,” midfielder Deroy Duarte told reporters after the game, reflecting on that vast chasm of time when Cape Verde were Schrodinger’s knockout team.
“Everyone was just waiting and praying,” he added. “We deserved it so much, because we gave everything. There was so much tension. The joy that came out is something I never felt before, and I hope to feel it again.”
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Celebrations followed on the pitch and beyond.
Head coach Bubista waved a huge Cape Verde flag. Winger Garry Rodrigues put on a blue shark (the team’s nickname) mask. This being Texas, black Stetsons appeared from somewhere. The players danced through the post-match interview area, carting the same wall-shaking speaker they partied with after securing qualification back home in Praia last year.
Pico Lopes’ revels were curtailed slightly by being selected for the post-game doping tests, but the Dublin-born defender still found time to answer a videocall from his Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley — who was live on Irish TV at the time.
Pico Lopes answers the call from his club manager Stephen Bradley after a historic night for Cape Verde
“Would you believe I got called for doping”
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The Cape Verde story isn’t a fairy tale. There has been too much planning for that. Some luck, too: this is only the second time, since rules were changed to award three points for a win, that a team have qualified for the knockout phase of a World Cup with only three points from the three group games. It’s also the first time since the 1998 tournament a side have qualified in the top two of their group without winning any of their matches.
They also did their best to make things difficult for themselves against Saudi Arabia. Duarte missed a fine chance late on, and Nuno da Costa squirted an effort wide of an open goal in stoppage time. If the Saudis had gone up the other end and scored to put Cape Verde out, they would have only had themselves to blame.
Should Cape Verde progress past Argentina, they would face Australia or Egypt in the last 16 (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)Those things are forgotten now. They are through. And there is scope for more improbable things to happen to these players, particularly the tournament’s newest celebrity, their 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha.
A few days earlier, in the same venue, the crowd roared whenever one particularly beloved player appeared on the big screen, or touched the ball, or really did anything at all. Then it was Cristiano Ronaldo, scoring in his sixth World Cup finals. This time it was Vozinha, playing at his first. The one that has, improbably, made him world famous.
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The cult of personality around Cape Verde’s No 1 is nowhere near the levels of Portugal’s No 7. But it’s an illustration of what strange places World Cups can be, enclosed microclimates where the rules of the real world don’t apply for a month or a little more. A previously little-known ‘keeper, who almost retired last year, can receive similar treatment to one of the greatest goalscorers in football history.
“We’re from a small country,” Vozinha told reporters on Friday night. “But we knew we would come here to compete. There’s a lot of quality in our national team. Maybe a lot of you thought that Cape Verdean players don’t have a lot of quality, but we’ve shown we are here to compete.”
After an anxious wait, Cape Verde’s players broke into celebration (Ronaldo Schemidt /AFP via Getty Images)That’s why this team have become one of the stories of the tournament, one that neutrals have been drawn to. Walking around NRG Stadium before the game, it was notable how many converts had shown up to support them — Americans, and others with no connection to this little collection of 10 islands just off the west coast of Africa with a population of about 525,000.
“We wanted to go to a game, and these were the cheapest tickets,” said Will, part of a group of three Americans, two Italians and a Welshman who were all clad in Cape Verde gear. “And then, throughout the group phase, we fell in love with them.”
Cape Verde fansNick MillerNext? Argentina, Lionel Messi and all, in Miami on Friday. Logic tells you that is where it ends. But there hasn’t been much logic to this story so far.
‘Why not us?’ has been the phrase associated with Mauricio Pochettino and his United States team at this World Cup, but it was very much the theme of Cape Verde’s assessment of their chances against the defending world champions.
“We need to believe we can go on,” said winger Jovane Cabral.
Bubista added: “We have become an example that small countries also can have big objectives, provided they have focus, determination and work with organisation. We have shown that nothing is impossible.”
“I’ve only seen Argentina on television,” said Duarte. “First we will celebrate, and then concentrate on Argentina. We knew it was a possibility to play against them. Obviously, we’d prefer to play a team that is not so good… but we didn’t concede and got a draw against (European champions) Spain so… why not?
“Our first objective was to qualify, then to pass through the group, which we did. Now, it’s another chance to make history.”
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Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
