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MIAMI — They came to the World Cup an unknown. They leave as beloved underdogs.Cape Verde fell to Argentina 3-2 in extra time but pushed the defending champions to the limit in a World Cup round of 32 match. Already an overnight sensation after his seven saves against Spain, goalkeeper Vozinha went one better with eight stops against the defending champions. Sidny Lopes Cabral scored a stunner that could've come off the foot of Argentina superstar Lionel Messi.Their World Cup run ended after four games, three of them against teams that have lifted the World Cup. At the end of the 90 minutes, Cape Verde was level in all four.It was enough to capture the attention not just of their island nation of just more than 500,000 people or the immigrant communities in the Boston area, but of the entire world."One of the pleasing things that has come out of this World Cup is nobody has to ask where Cape Verde is now. They know where we are on the map. They know our team," center back Roberto "Pico" Lopes said after the match.Sports fans' memories can be short, so a refresher may be helpful the next time Cape Verde is on the global stage, but the brave performance against Argentina hints at a bright future for the Blue Sharks.Lopes said he doesn't "really like moral victories" but even he couldn't help but bask in the achievement of going blow for blow with Argentina, even if the Albiceleste landed the final shot in extra time thanks to a Cristian Romero header that bounced off Diney Borges and in."It’s been an amazing journey. I think when we qualified for the World Cup, we wanted to go and show we belong here," Lopes said. "I think our performances at the World Cup in the group stage and tonight, we’ve shown we can compete with some of the best teams in the world."Maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise. Cape Verde lost just once in 10 World Cup qualification matches. Yet, even those who watched Cape Verde comfortably top a group that also included Cameroon and Angola likely felt the draw was simply too much to overcome.Instead, they held Spain scoreless, rallied to draw Uruguay, played out a stalemate against Saudi Arabia and then came up against the reigning champion. Before the tournament, Vozinha said it would be a dream to play against Messi. He conceded once, but also saved a pair of second-half free kicks from the Argentine "astro" as part of his eight-stop haul.He is leaving his club in the Portuguese second division this summer, but it seems certain he will sign with a club at a good level − not with a team searching for a publicity stunt but rather a team looking for a goalkeeper who still has quality.Read more: How an American company brought Vozinha jerseys to the world after World Cup momentsThe World Cup was a stage that he did not take for granted, becoming the darling of the squad and setting the tone for the team."It means a lot. Being here, competing, playing, fighting, it makes us very proud," the 40-year-old said. "Obviously we’re sad but we were able to go into the knockout round, we knew it’d be a very difficult opponent, the champion of the world, but every player, every member of the staff worked fantastically."Now, it’s time to think about the future, but we’re very proud of the job the whole team did and hope we can achieve very good things in the future."How long he will be the goalkeeper is an open question, as is what's next for the national team, which made the continental championship, the African Cup of Nations, in 2021 and 2023 but missed out on qualification for the 2025 edition.Eleven of the players on Cape Verde's roster are 30 or older, and the youngest player − goalscorer Cabral − is already 23. The hope is that players in the diaspora with Cape Verdean ancestry will be motivated to pick the nation sooner after seeing what can be possible and for young players on the islands to be able to focus their dreams on the national team."I think all Cape Verdeans around the world who aspire to be footballers, we’ve shown the way today," Lopes said. "I’m hoping the new generation has taken in some of the stars we have out there and they want to be on that stage."That development will determine whether Cape Verde is simply a fun upset story that will fade away − a UMBC in the NCAA tournament or Bulgaria in the 1994 World Cup − or if they become a fixture, whether soccer fans for years to come will be able to look at a map, point to those islands off the coast of Senegal and say, "That's Cape Verde."Tonight, even in defeat, the name of their country is on everyone's lips, having been lifted high by Lopes, Cabral, Vozinha and the rest of the Blue Sharks.
