Before the 2026 World Cup, many (most?) people had not heard of Cape Verde, let alone find it on a map. But this tiny island nation off the West African coast with a population of just 530,000 quickly became the story of the World Cup, after drawing with past winners Spain and Uruguay in its first two games and making it into the knockout stage of the tournament in its very first appearance!
Still, no one expected much of the 67th ranked FIFA team against reigning the world champions and the #1 ranked FIFA team. One headline before the match in Yahoo sports was "Salah Awaits Messi as Egypt Beat Australia on Penalties..." Well in the end, an exhausted and drained Argentina narrowly--very narrowly--avoided one of the all-time great upsets by edging out Cape Verde 3-2 in extra time in one of the best matches in World Cup history. An instant classic.
Messi got his seventh goal of the tournament with a deft touch to open the scoring in the 29th minute, and it looked like Argentina would score more. But Cape Verde, who started slow, came back from behind twice to level the game. Sidny Lopes Cabral's second equalizer, a wicked curling shot from the top left corner of the penalty box, was arguably the goal of the tournament:
