The cluster of islands off the west coast of Africa, one of the smallest countries ever to qualify for the World Cup, did not arrive at the tournament by accident or magic. It arrived through years of patient, largely invisible construction On Monday, 15 June, one of the smallest countries ever to qualify for the football World Cup walks onto the field in Atlanta to face one of the giants. Cape Verde is a cluster of islands off the west coast of Africa.
It has a total population of just over half a million people, the third-least-populous country on the continent after Seychelles and São Tomé and Príncipe. It’s also the third-smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup. It’s only the second-smallest debutant this year, with Curaçao now overtaking Iceland as the tiniest country in the history of the competition.
Cape Verde will play its first World Cup match against Spain, the European champions. After that, the Blue Sharks will meet Uruguay, twice winners of the World Cup, and Saudi Arabia, whose domestic league has become one of the game’s most lavishly funded. The Blue Sharks qualified ahead of Cameroon, Africa’s most experienced World Cup team, with a record eight appearances and a long history as one of the continent’s established powers.
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Cameroon beat the islanders 4–1 in Yaoundé. But over the course of the campaign, Cape Verde proved more consistent. Then, in Praia, Dailon Livramento stole the ball in his own half, ran clear of the defenders and scored the goal that changed the balance of the group.
It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic entrance into the big leagues of the beautiful game. Spain has a population of almost 50 million people, one of the richest footballing traditions on the planet and a seemingly endless production line of gifted players. Uruguay carries the swagger of a country that believes football belongs in its bloodstream.
Saudi Arabia produced one of the great recent World Cup shocks when it defeated Argentina in Qatar. It’s tempting to describe Cape Verde’s qualification as a miracle. And why not?
Sport loves miracles. We enjoy the romance of the underdog, the improbable goal, the last-minute victory and the tiny nation somehow defeating the odds. We like the idea that the universe occasionally tears up the script and that the pipsqueak nobody noticed gets a chance to rewrite it.
But the word miracle can also be misleading. It can make a breakthrough sound accidental. It can obscure all the work that happened before the moment that caught our attention.
It arrived through years of patient, largely invisible construction. The country joined Fifa only 40 years ago, in 1986. In its early years of international football, it played sporadically and occupied the outer edges of the global game. Even a decade ago, few people outside the islands or the Cape Verdean diaspora were paying attention to it as a serious footballing force.
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