Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha described their World Cup draw with Spain as a “dream come true”, having stored the European champions at bay with an astonishing show.
Monday’s sport in Atlanta was anticipated to be one of the vital one-sided on the match, with Spain ranked second on this planet and Cape Verde down in 67th.
The Opta supercomputer gave Spain – the match favourites – an 87.2% probability of victory, with World Cup debutants Cape Verde solely assigned an 8.1% likelihood of incomes a draw.
However a resolute defensive exhibiting from the Crioulos ensured Luis de la Fuente’s workforce had been held to a 0-0 stalemate, even after Lamine Yamal made his return from harm as a 71st-minute substitute.
Spain had 27 photographs, their joint-most on document in a World Cup match with out scoring (since 1966), together with their 27 makes an attempt in opposition to Paraguay in one other 0-0 attract 1998.
Vozinha performed a key function as he made seven saves, changing into simply the second goalkeeper aged 40+ to make that many in a World Cup sport since data started in 1966 – Pat Jennings made 10 for Northern Eire in opposition to Brazil in 1986, on his forty first birthday.
Chatting with Fox, Vozinha – who performs his membership soccer in Portugal’s second tier with GD Chaves – stated: “I labored arduous all my life for this, for this second, for this dream.
“Loads of generations previously had been dreaming of this, they did not obtain it, many ex-players from our nationwide workforce… and now the dream has come true.”
After receiving the Participant of the Match award, he added: “I cried as a result of I grew up with my grandparents. Sadly, they weren’t right here. They died a couple of years earlier than. They had been the whole lot to me.
“And likewise, due to my mum. She did not handle to be right here due to the visa. Due to the cash you need to pay for the visa, we did not handle on time. I might have preferred her to be right here.
“Our greatest weapon is our unity. Whatever the participant who arrives right this moment, or the participant who’s 10 or 15 years previous, the best way we deal with our household is our biggest power.
“Everybody thought that we got here right here simply to benefit from the World Cup, however no, we all know that we face groups that we’ll all the time respect, as a result of that is our first time, however we’re right here to compete, and we’re right here to battle for our nation.”
Aged 40 years and 12 days, Vozinha is the oldest participant to make an look in a nation’s debut World Cup sport, breaking Eloy Room’s document set on Sunday for Curacao (37 years, 182 days). Solely Egypt’s Essam El Hadary (45 years, 161 days) was older when making his World Cup debut.
For Spain, in the meantime, the outcome represented an embarrassing begin to a match the place they’re anticipated to go far, however De la Fuente shouldn’t be panicking simply but.
“This [Spain] workforce is dependable, no matter occurs,” de la Fuente stated. “We’ve not misplaced in 32 matches. We’ll be higher within the subsequent sport, for certain.
“If you lack freshness, this may occur. It is one thing to enhance, nothing else. We’ll keep on our path, which has taken us this far.
“On this World Cup, there’s excessive equality and issue. This workforce was clearly inferior to us, however they did the issues they needed to do properly.
“We’re calm. This can be a lengthy match, and in our heads, we have nonetheless obtained seven video games left.”
La Roja’s second Group H sport pits them in opposition to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, whereas Cape Verde face Uruguay on the identical day with all 4 groups now degree on one level.Â
