r/BeAmazed • u/GiveMeSomeSunshine3 • Jun 15 '26
Sports Cabo Verde–the 3rd smallest country by population (500,000) in the World Cup ever–have made history as they hold Spain–the reigning European Champions and one of the favourites to win the World Cup–for a draw, in their debut FIFA World Cup match.
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u/FilthyDwayne Jun 15 '26
Cape Verde should be more than proud. It’s a shame they didn’t score but the fact they didn’t allow Spain to score either is a top achievement.
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u/Hupacmoneybags2 Jun 15 '26
One of Spains players on prize picks had a line of 2.5 goals scored. So they expected one player to score 2-3 times alone.
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u/haw35ome Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
My mom was telling me, this match is history for both of them: Cabo verde bc it’s their first ever match, and Spain bc it’s the first time in awhile they didn’t score a single point lol
EDIT: wow, lots of learning I’m doing here. A point is not the same as a goal; by neither scoring both received a point in the overall standing as the pool grows smaller. Good to know for the future 👍🏼
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u/kronkarp Jun 16 '26
They didn't score a goal. By drawing, they literally scored a single point, as did Cap Verde
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u/jpjfp Jun 16 '26
Points ≠ goals. Goals determine the score of a single match, for example 2-1. Points are what you get based on the result of a match, for example a win gives you 3 points, a draw gives you 1 point and a loss gives you 0 points. In the WC, there's a group fase where each team plays 3 matches and then it's the knockouts. Then there's the league system (like the premier league in England) which a team plays a certain number of matches and in the end whoever has the most points wins.
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u/isithumour Jun 15 '26
Was awesome!!!! So much heart
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Jun 15 '26
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u/meddlewithmymettle Jun 15 '26
So true, and Spain were playing like they’d already won or didn’t want to be there. Not taking anything away from Cabo Verde - they were absolutely fantastic - but Spain was sluggish and clunky all game.
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u/rexmorgany Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Respectfully disagree. Spain put a ton of incredible shots on goal throughout the game, right up until the end. It was as if God was on Cape Verde’s side, positioning them for blocks and willing their goalkeeper to miraculous saves.
EDIT: In my original post, I did consider using “the gods” instead of “God” as I never meant it to have any religious connotations. Could’ve, should’ve. A day later, I still feel everything came together or 2+ hours for Cape Verde, a small country that will remember this match for generations to come. Spain, meanwhile, may have received the message at a most opportune time (group play) that anything is possible despite their experience, skill, and recent track record.
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u/Shadow_Worm Jun 15 '26
Yeah there was no God involved and the team did it by themselves
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u/KingOfWhateverr Jun 15 '26
Thanks reddit atheist!
(It’s a figure of speech)
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u/zayd_jawad2006 Jun 16 '26
Then atheists wonder why they get a bad rep 🤣
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u/MrBlueA Jun 16 '26
Atheists trying not to say god doesn't exist at every change they get.
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u/Shadow_Worm Jun 16 '26
Nothing about being an atheist or whatever, just about devaluing the teams performance through what I've perceived as religious connotations.
Rather than engaging in discussions online about the possibility of the existence of a god I'd love to focus on the teams history, performance and the combined effort of all involved.
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u/AltL155 Jun 16 '26
Didn't want to derail the conversation about Cape Verde's performance yet had to bring up the existence of God for an off-handed remark that wasn't about religion at all
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u/Renbarre Jun 15 '26
The big teams play with the minimum energy possible during those matches, to be able to play until the important matches. Sometimes the other team catches them by surprise.
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u/RayZzorRayy Jun 15 '26
Madness! Epic!
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u/Sqweeg Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
The verde's goalkeeper is an électrician and 40 years old
This is insane what they did lol
Edit : thanks for the award !
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u/Miguelklas Jun 15 '26
That is not true. He played in the Portuguese Second League. That is a professional league, all players are full time football players.
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u/Automatik_Kafka Jun 15 '26
He was the best player out there - his Instagram jumped about 2 million followers in the hour after the game
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u/321gowaitokgo Jun 15 '26
I read he gained 2 million followers on IG after the game. More than the population of his country. Homeboy deserves it
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u/Fern_Pub_Radio Jun 16 '26
The centre half Lopez plays in the Irish club league and was approached a few years ago via LinkedIn message to see would he be interested in playing. He ignored the message thinking it was fake and it wasn’t until 6 months later someone tried him again via a phone call….. and there he was keeping the most potent attacking force in world football quiet including throwing his body at a sure goal in the last 10 minutes ….
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u/black_V1king Jun 15 '26
Their goalie was absolutely sensational.
Save after save after save.
This is exactly why the world cup is so special. Every country fights for it tooth and nail.
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u/Englandshark1 Jun 15 '26
Bloody brilliant!!! The goalkeeper is a National Hero!!!
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Jun 15 '26
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u/StayTuned2k Jun 15 '26
cultural "problem". India has many a great player in other sports. just not football.
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u/loadedhunter3003 Jun 15 '26
nah corruption problem, we've had a football culture, it's just never fostered
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u/MoebiusUntwisted Jun 15 '26
Is being a football player seen as being a worthwhile or plausible career in India? Amongst British Indians it isn’t- cricket is about the only acceptable sport to pursue professionally, otherwise kids are encouraged to follow a proper career, like medicine and related, or engineering, or accountancy etc etc.
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u/New-Application8844 Jun 16 '26
Not currently, even though i am not a sport's person by any means support, for football is incredibly low, even lower then athletics or stuff near that.
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u/lynbod Jun 15 '26
In other sport*
I can't think of a single professional team sport other than cricket that India has produced a great player in.
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u/Bobblefighterman Jun 15 '26
Hockey? India won 6 Olympic golds in a row in men's hockey. It's argued to be their unofficial national sport next to cricket.
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u/StayTuned2k Jun 15 '26
chess is another one. we can't just limit sport to the big few like football or basketball.
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u/lynbod Jun 15 '26
Chess isn't a sport, let alone a team sport. It's closer to playing professional poker or e-sports.
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Jun 15 '26
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u/StayTuned2k Jun 15 '26
why would I not include cricket.....
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u/Bobblefighterman Jun 15 '26
Because it's the exception. The BCCI is incredibly bloated and takes all sports funding in the country.
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u/r3dditr0x Jun 15 '26
Soccer is the great equalizer. It's incredible if you think about it.
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u/fuzzywuzzybeer Jun 15 '26
Yeah, all you need is a ball. Everyone's feet are the same distance from the floor, so tremendous height is not really an advantage except for the goalie.
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u/lynbod Jun 15 '26
It's a huge advantage for certain positions. It's highly unusual to have a centre back who is under 6ft for example.
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u/Accomplished-Kale342 Jun 15 '26
I'd say 10-15 of the top 20 to have ever played the position were under 6ft. Beckenbauer (GOAT), Cannavaro, Baresi, Moore, Puyol, Passarella, Scirea, De Boer, Thiago Silva, Alaba, Mascherano, Koeman, Santa Maria . It is the least likely position to be under six feet, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples.
It is admittedly getting harder in the modern game but elite modern examples still include Sergio Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi.
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u/lynbod Jun 15 '26
I agree that there are many who exist, but just taking the premier League as an example - you mention Lisandro Martinez which is correct, but there are at least 80 CB's across all 20 teams in the PL. 1/80 is a very small percentage.
Having said that I think "highly unusual" is too extreme, just plain "unusual" is probably more accurate.
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u/Accomplished-Kale342 Jun 16 '26
Timber, Guehi, Ake, Murillo, Martinez. I agree it’s not the norm, but I've now listed a lot of great centre backs past and present.
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u/Bobblefighterman Jun 15 '26
Unless you're Turkey and your main strategy to launching high crossers into a wall of 6'2 defenders while the guy you actually want to hit the ball is like 6 inches shorter.
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u/x4nter Jun 15 '26
Sports is not given a priority there. Kids are pushed into academics. For a lot of kids who are good at sports, they don't get support. There is also a lot of nepotism in selection process. And lastly, most money invested in sports is sucked up by cricket.
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u/TheWiseMorpheous Jun 16 '26
They do not have time to produce football players because they are doing their best to be the world's number 1 producer of internet scammers and sexual predators!!!
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u/B34chboy Jun 15 '26
Somebody lost a million dollar on polymarket betting on Spain. lmao
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u/sokratesz Jun 16 '26
Who would even pay out bets on Spain? They were virtually guaranteed a win.
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u/Fabulous_Cat_1379 Jun 15 '26
Yeah honestly they played some really good defense today. A point hard earned and pretty exciting for this team.
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u/NuncProFunc Jun 15 '26
I like that the World Cup is embracing the NFL approach to game statistics. "This is the largest point spread ever between two teams with four vowels in each name competing at an indoor stadium on a prime-numbered day of the month."
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u/claudiazo Jun 15 '26
I believe one of the players got recruited through LinkedIn. Here’s the story
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u/btsd_ Jun 15 '26
I don't know anything about football (soccer to us in the usa). Are all the players on the teams from the country like the Olympics (where athletes can go compete for their home country) or can any team recruit players from any nationality? Asking specifically about world cup games. If they are all from the country they are playing for then that makes this even more impressive than it already is.
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u/ArturitoNetito Jun 15 '26
All the players on the team are from the country (some have double nationality and can choose which country they want to play with)
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u/umor3 Jun 15 '26
Like the olympics of course. You need citicenship and never played any match for any other country if you have multiple citicenships. Not sure if it is even possible to play for a country if you had an U19 or U21 match for an other country.
So yes: the result is impressive.
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u/Solitaire_XIV Jun 16 '26
Declan Rice played for Ireland at every level, including 3 apps with the senior team in friendlys before switching to England.
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u/HephMelter Jun 16 '26
Technically not like the Olympics, as the national Unions are the ones participating, not Olympic comittees (which means you don't have a Great Britain team like at the Olympics, but England, Wales Scotland, North Ireland, and contrary to Rugby, North Ireland and the RoI are separate)
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u/Background-Image-585 Jun 15 '26
There are a lot of smaller countries than that by population lol -l
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u/Sensitive_Goose4728 Jun 15 '26
Cape Cerde Keeper has gone from 50k followers on Instagram to 3.2m! 🤯
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u/COJeepster Jun 16 '26
Cape Verde's goalie was playing out of his mind. I don't know who was voted the game's MVP but the goalie deserved it.
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u/Forward-Tour-2108 Jun 15 '26
Not a shocker for me or any one who follows cabo verde and its players games.
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u/Vispreutje Jun 15 '26
They didn't even play football. They were just holding the line, didn't even put pressure when the defenders of spain had the ball.
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u/Fumonacci Jun 15 '26
I watched the game from home, thrilling game, it felt like an decision game. Cabo Verde(Green Cape)played has warriors.
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u/irie_boi Jun 15 '26
I’m glad this country has some positive rep now, considering I only heard about it thru some realityTV trash people having ancestry from there and that amber rose weirdo.
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u/meercat84 Jun 15 '26
You need to look better into Cabo Verde - it has the most amazing, wonderful people.
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u/cynical_genx_man Jun 15 '26
This is so awesome for them. And to think they were close. Well done fellas. THe drinks are on everyone in Cabo Verde
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u/carverofdeath Jun 15 '26
They played their hearts out, while Spain looked terrible. I hope they make it out of the group stage.
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u/badpersian Jun 15 '26
I mean country population doesn't determine how good your players are, otherwise Russia and China would be top teams lol.
I'd love a random country that's never won the World Cup to win again.
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u/epSos-DE Jun 15 '26
THey also deserved it !!!
Defence was GOOD !!!
AND LUCK they were lucky too !
AND that is their FIRST GAME EVER !!!!
SO good start !
NOW we need to see how good de SPanish and German defence are !!! BEcause as of now they did not use any defence almost !!!
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u/ManiAck34 Jun 16 '26
Was anyone on their team born there? It seems so many players on so many teams are born somewhere they aren't playing for. I understand dual citizenship and such but it does seem like players are seeking to be in the world cup more for the personal opportunities rather than out of pride for their country of birth.
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u/Muroid Jun 16 '26
The goalie everyone is celebrating was born there.
Just for you, I looked and the vast majority were born either in Cape Verde itself or in Rotterdam, which has a notable population of immigrants from Cape Verde.
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u/karmic_equivalence Jun 16 '26
ASI ES COMO SE ARRUINA A LOS GRANDES, PERROS
NO HAY PAISES CHICOS, HAY GUERREROS QUE DEFIENDEN NACIONES PARA EXISTIR Y SER LEYENDAS
SUERTE CABO VERDE EN SUS SIGUIENTES PARTIDOS
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u/LALOERC9616 Jun 16 '26
Bro all my bets fucking lost because all 3 teams who should've dominated tied today like wtf
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u/LasagnaSwirls Jun 16 '26
Insane that both Brazil's and Spain's first matches ended in a tie.
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u/No-Significance5659 Jun 16 '26
It's not really insane, it happens often that favourite teams start slow. When Spain won the World Cup in South Africa, they lost their first match against Switzerland.
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u/ansen2828 Jun 16 '26
Aussies vs Turkiy, Qatar vs Swiss and now Cabo Verde vs Spain. What the hell is going on? Simpsons got it right again. Portugal will win it 😸😝🐮
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u/Soso122 Jun 16 '26
They fought like lions. I really wished their header at the end would go in. It was a really great shot. Also their goalie was amazing! Salute!!
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u/care4not Jun 16 '26
Thats what happens when you go woke You fail in things you were expected win Hahahahaha
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u/Firm-Pass2033 Jun 16 '26
That header, I was gutted it didn't go in. Amazing achievement from Cabo Verde!
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u/datasleek Jun 16 '26
Congratulation Cape Verde !! First world cup and they prevented Spain from scoring and almost scored about some of the best players in the World. I guess opening the competition to more teams has its benefits.
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u/Soaresb2s Jun 17 '26
We Brazil are fans of Vozinha, the goal keeper, and we make sure that all of us could follow his Instagram, last checked he was with 8M, yesterday just 50k -> 1M
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u/marky_Rabone Jun 15 '26
Un coñazo de seleccion,felicidades,pero para hacer este show haram quedaos en casa.
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u/BacktoLife89 Jun 16 '26
I’m not saying that organized crime had a hand in the outcome but yea I’m sorta saying it. SMH
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u/nato2271 Jun 15 '26
Only in soccer would you see this level of celebration for a no scoring game...
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u/Doctor_Saved Jun 15 '26
Can you imagine if their header in the end would have gone in?