Cape Verde and Spain play to historic draw in World Cup first match

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Wow, just wow. At 1.57pm, Atlanta time, 3,291 miles from home, the final whistle went on Cape Verde’s first World Cup game, and they had only gone and done it and what they had done was madness – they had only gone and held the favourites. Bubista had said that he wanted the world to see who and what they are and, boy, did they see. Cape Verde’s coach had insisted that getting here was was more than football – it was music, it was culture, it was everything. So what was this? This was wonderful. What a moment and what a noise greeted the moment when the impossible had become real. An Atlantic archipelago of 600,000 people. A Shamrock Rovers centre-back from Crumlin, Dublin, who had been found on LinkedIn. A goalkeeper from Portugal’s second division, another Josimar leaving his mark on the history of this competition and a million minds, to be talked about for generations. All of them. They had come to the US, faced Spain, and resisted them, their bodies on the line and their hearts on their sleeves. Even the introduction of Lamine Yamal, the teenage icon cast as Spain’s saviour couldn’t defeat them. Continue reading...

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Spain's ghosts of recent World Cup horror shows reappeared in Atlanta as the European champions were held 0-0 by debutants Cape Verde in their opening game on Monday.Ranked 67 in the world, Cape Verde were making their debut on the global stage and did a nation of just over 500,000 people proud.

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The tournament debutants from the tiny island nation pull off one of the greatest World Cup shocks ever by frustrating the European champions in Atlanta