There have been no shortage of remarkable statistics to come out of Cape Verde’s heroic and historic draw with European champions Spain on Monday.
But perhaps the most extraordinary figure from one of the greatest shocks in World Cup history is simply one — the number of fouls manager Bubista’s underdog side committed in a gritty, gutsy and glorious goalless draw.
No team had managed to give away so few fouls in a single game since data collection began at this tournament in 1966. And though it may sound a little irrelevant and unimportant in the grand scheme of Cape Verde’s famous night, it points to a level of concentration and a clarity of thought that, somehow, held 11 players together until the end.
Run through some of the backstories of Cape Verde’s defensive heroes, and their achievement only swells in meaning.
Goalkeeper Vozinha, who turned 40 a fortnight ago, has played club football in Angola, Moldova and Cyprus, and is currently without a team. Centre-back Diney was relegated from the UAE Pro League with Al Bataeh last month, in front of barely 100 spectators, while his partner in the heart of defence, Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes, was invited to play for Cape Verde via LinkedIn, a message he originally ignored because he could not understand Portuguese.
Man of the match against Spain, this was a crowning moment for a goalkeeper who already holds legendary status back home
Though it may be starting to sound like it, this was not the classic underdog tale, the ragtag band of merry men with fortune on their side and a dream in their hearts. Cape Verde had a plan and executed it flawlessly, making it abundantly clear to the rest of the field that they are here to compete.
Having claimed the first World Cup point in their history against the overwhelming group favourites, there has to be belief they can now push on and reach the knockout stages of a tournament for which they had never previously got close to even qualifying before.
Against all the odds, this is how Cape Verde kept out Spain.
Unsurprisingly, most of Cape Verde’s best work came without the ball. Their opponents controlled 74 per cent of possession, and completed 400 passes in the attacking third to Cape Verde’s 11, an indicator of just how relentlessly Luis de la Fuente’s side circulated the ball close to Vozinha’s goal.
But, for all Spain’s patience, they could not find a reliable route through Cape Verde’s defensive shape, a 4-5-1 system that focused on compacting space in midfield and relied on its solid foundations — Diney and Lopes — to bear much of the weight from deep.
Spain quickly set about flooding players forward, often dropping midfielder Rodri into defence to allow both full-backs to push on. It meant that they frequently positioned six players across the defensive line, as full-backs Marc Cucurella and Marcos Llorente flanked their advanced midfielders and forwards across the front.
Such pressure meant Cape Verde inevitably had to sink deeper to defend their own goal, but they ensured they stayed proactive and switched on in their shape.
In the example below, they follow a move down Spain’s right as a team, converging on Ferran Torres before forcing him to play backwards. From there, Jamiro Monteiro continues to hassle and harry up the pitch, before returning to his midfield role and ensuring there is little space in the centre for Spain to progress through.
Spain’s lack of tricky one-vs-one wingers on the flanks meant that they were more reliant on movement and positional interchanges to move around the Cape Verde block. But Bubista’s men were alert to those rotations, with both full-backs happy to follow runners inside and their wide midfielders prepared to drop deep to track the runs of Cucurella and Llorente.
When Lamine Yamal eventually came on in the second half, they doubled up on the 18-year-old, taking a risk that left spaces for other Spain players to exploit. But Cape Verde’s defenders were authoritative in the tackle, working hard to pen Yamal in and happy to let other runners go if they felt it would help stop the Barcelona teenager in his tracks.
As time wore on, Cape Verde inevitably tired as the Spanish pressure grew, allowing more passes and crosses into their penalty area. It is here where the two towering centre-backs came into their own.
As we can see from the visualisation below, both made huge interventions in front of their own goal, none more pivotal than Diney’s block to deny Mikel Oyarzabal at the death. Behind them, Vozinha made seven saves, only the second goalkeeper aged 40 or older to make so many in a World Cup game.
The only thing Cape Verde lacked was a little incisiveness of their own when they moved the ball at speed, often overhitting or waiting too long to release their passes in the precious moments they could look to counter-attack.
Still, they showed enough quality on the ball to suggest they can play through teams with slick build-up from the back, when they face a side not quite as relentless and suffocating in their counter-press as Spain.
Here is one such example, as Jovane Cabral and Monteiro are aggressive and snap into challenges to ensure Spain cannot progress the ball through midfield. They win back possession, and with six quick passes, including a neat flick and a drag-back, they escape the pressure and begin to build down the opposite flank.
Later in that same move, Vozinha finds a first-time pass into Kevin Lenini, who spins and quickly finds a pinpoint ball over to captain Ryan Mendes.
Though the winger was caught marginally offside, it offered a glimpse of the speed and verticality with which Cape Verde can attack when they are spared a little more of the ball, possessing a cast of pacy, technically gifted players who can combine well.
It is a result that will be cherished for generations back home off the coast of west Africa, the scenes of emotion at full-time symbolic of the commitment that went into a historic point.
But, with just five days to go until they face Uruguay, a team who will provide another almighty test, Cape Verde will be back up and ready, determined to show this was not a one-off result.
THE ATHLETIC
