MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Cape Verde’s World Cup team walked into its Miami hotel after getting eliminated from the tournament, almost in disbelief at the scene in the lobby.Dozens of people were there, cheering for them.After a loss, no less.Let that be the first sign of how things are going to be very different in many respects for the team, at least for the foreseeable future. Such is the case when a club goes from unheralded — and practically unheard of — to taking Lionel Messi and Argentina to the brink of elimination on soccer’s biggest stage, before falling 3-2 in a match that went to extra time.“It’s time to rest and think about the future,” Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha said. “But I am very, very proud of the team’s work, and I hope that in the future we can achieve great things.”In other words, he hopes seeds were planted.
Cape Verde went 0-1-3 in its four matches at its inaugural World Cup, which won’t look great on paper. More than two-thirds of the 48 teams in this tournament won at least one game; Cape Verde wasn’t one of them.But the record simply doesn’t tell the whole story.
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It played Spain to a scoreless draw to open the group stage, making the chance of advancing to the knockout stage very real. There were two more ties in group play — a 2-2 tie against Uruguay that put Cape Verde on the brink of advancing, then a 0-0 tie against Saudi Arabia that was good enough to get the round of 32 trip secured.
