At about 11 pm Nigerian time on Sunday, one of the World Cup debutants will take the field against the first country ever to win the competition: Cape Verde against Uruguay. It sounds like a classic David versus Goliath clash, a potential opportunity for the minnows to get an improbable intervention of a miraculous sling, and that reading is just about right. The Blue Sharks have shown they are, if not giant-slayers yet, capable of frustrating even the most well-oiled footballing machines into a stalemate.
Against all predictions, Cape Verde shut out Spain in their first game of the World Cup. Vozinha, the team’s 40-year-old goalkeeper and captain, gave a storied performance that earned him global fame.
The goalkeeper was overcome with emotion after he survived 23 shots and made eight stunning saves to help his tiny archipelago country, with a population of just over 500,000, grab a historic point in their first-ever World Cup game. Then, the world fell in love with him. From less than 50,000 followers on Instagram, he shot to 14.5 million — that is double Victor Osimhen’s 7.5 million — in a few days. He revealed that his mother had tried in vain to attend the World Cup but was denied a US visa, and there was a seismic shift. Donald Trump’s administration went against its strict immigration crackdown and waived the $15,000 visa bond requirement for anyone coming into the US from the country. The 59-year-old mother is now in the US to watch his son try to shut out another football superpower.
Uruguay are a spectre of the side that defeated Brazil and Argentina in quick succession in the World Cup qualifiers. Marcelo Bielsa’s unorthodox ideas and approach to management, which yielded encouragement in the early days, have begun to head the way most projects handled by the Argentine tactician tend to. The Sky Blues’ last victory was in October 2025 against Uzbekistan, and they lost 5-1 to the US a month after that.
They played Algeria in a friendly match in March to prepare for Cape Verde, and the result was an uninspiring goalless draw. Bielsa fell out with Luis Suarez and failed to name the country’s record goalscorer in his World Cup list; also, Ronald Araujo, one of the team’s defensive leaders, picked up a knock and might miss the entirety of the World Cup. Still, the Uruguayans have one of the most respected squads in the tournament, captained by Federico Valverde and featuring Rodrigo Bentancur, Darwin Núñez, José María Giménez, and Manuel Ugarte.
However, Uruguay relied on a late strike from Maxi Araujo to draw with Saudi Arabia in their first match of the 2026 World Cup. The South Americans will be hoping to avoid the disappointment of failing to advance from the group stage at the last World Cup in Qatar.
But Uruguay will have to be wide awake from their slumber, or they are about to be another inspirational chapter in Cape Verde’s fairytale World Cup.
