Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app.Rewatching Yoane Wissa’s equalizer against Portugal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s opening match of this World Cup, the whole sequence looks like choreography.Not only the articulated curve of Congolese full-back Arthur Masuaku’s inswinging cross, nor Wissa’s box-step shimmy to peel away from the pack of Portuguese defenders as he leapt into the air to redirect the ball past the goalkeeper with his head. It was what happened next, the manifestation of a team united in its belief that tenacity need not come at the expense of style.Wissa whizzed over to the bench as his teammates followed behind, arms outstretched like an artistic director cueing the music for a rehearsal — and surely, this was a familiar move.Once gathered, everybody, including some non-Congolese members of the coaching staff, reeled one arm back and lashed it past the other in a dance move known as fimbu.Fimbu translates to ‘the whip’ in Lingala, one of DRC’s four national languages, and this was as much of a display of national pride, and a callback to the country’s soccer glory days, as it was a goal celebration.
Yoane Wissa scores DR Congo’s first-ever World Cup goal! 🇨🇩⚽
