IF THE CAPE FITS

About a month ago, Roberto “Pico” Lopes thought he was meeting his parents for a Sunday dinner in Crumlin on the outskirts of Dublin, but was met by a surprise party of friends, family and neighbours, all adorned in Cape Verde colours, to give him a special send-off for the Geopolitics World Cup. Dublin born and raised, Lopes looked positively delirious as he waved at the small crowd of loved ones. “We’re going to get a camper van and travel through the States,” beamed Lopes’s wife, Leah O’Shaughnessy, holding their seven-month-old son, Diego. “He probably won’t remember it, but we’ll be able to look back on the photos and videos and say that he was able to watch his daddy in the [GWC].”

And what photos, what videos they will be, footage and memories that will now for ever be part of Cape Verde’s history. Lopes, who initially ignored the African archipelago’s invitation on LinkedIn to play for them because he thought the Portuguese message was spam, is now a legend of his country after making history on his nation’s World Cup debut with a 0-0 draw against pre-tournament favourites Spain. Lamine Yamal, Rodri, Aitana Bonmatí, Pablo Picasso, Rafael Nadal, Penélope Cruz, Seve Ballesteros, Puss in Boots, Salvador Dalí, Anthony Gordon, Trent Alexander-Arnold – your boys took one hell of a beating neutralising.

With Leah and Diego in the stands alongside Lopes’s mother and father – Carlos, a cruise ship chef, who docked and settled in Dublin where he met Judy – the Shamrock Rovers defender tackled, snarled, blocked and marshalled his side through the 90-plus minutes with exceptional discipline. Cape Verde’s players committed only one foul against Spain – the fewest ever by any team in a World Cup match on record. When the Spanish attack did create an opening, Cape Verde’s goalkeeper Vozinha stood firm, making seven saves: the only goalkeeper aged 40-plus to make more saves in a World Cup game on record is Pat Jennings, who made 10 on his 41st birthday for Northern Ireland against Brazil in 1986.

Vozinha also took a leaf out of Iker Casillas’s book in letting the tears flow after his heroics. “I cried because I grew up with my grandparents and unfortunately they were not here; they died a few years ago,” he sobbed. “They were everything for me, for my life. I also cried because my mum didn’t manage to be here because of the visa. Because of the money we had to pay for the visa [a returnable bond of up to $15,000 before travelling to the US], we didn’t manage to [get it done] on time. I would like her to be here, but I’m also very happy. I have worked my whole life for this moment. I’m 40 years old. I started playing football professionally when I was 25, in 2012. I thought about leaving but I continued because of this dream. This is for everyone.”

And everyone responded. Vozinha, who has spent his club career in Cape Verde, Angola, Moldova, Portugal, Cyprus and Slovakia, started the GWC with 50,000 followers on his Social Media Disgrace of choice and woke up on Tuesday morning to a following of more than six million, more than 13 times the population of his country. Football was a game created to spark joy from difficult situations, and that was no more present than during the Cape Verde celebrations inside the Atlanta Stadium. It seems that we have all now become fans of the tiny African nation – whisper it, but it is moments like this that suggest the 48-team tournament wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Just don’t tell Gianni.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Daniel Harris for live updates of France 3-1 Senegal from 8pm BST (3pm EDT), while Bryan Armen Graham will be all over Iraq 1-2 Norway from 11pm BST (7pm EDT). Later on, Jonathan Howcroft is in the chair for coverage of Argentina 1-0 Algeria from 2am BST (9pm EDT), with Martin Pegan at the controls for Austria 0-0 Jordan in the 5am BST (12am EDT) slot.

ON THE BALL

Big Website’s app now features a special edition of On the Ball for the GWC. On the Ball: World Stage invites you to guess the World Cup player in five attempts – and it’s pretty tricky. You can have a go right now – and there are loads of other good puzzles to take up your time, too.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It has really felt a bit like being on the Truman Show. I forget at times that we’re here. I’m watching a game for minutes and then I look over at Kevin and I see people on top of me. It’s like: ‘Oh my God!’ There’s 30 people watching us, watching games, most of the time. It is a weird experience” – Austin Franklin explains what it is like to be sat in a glass box in Times Square with another fan, Kevin Kotoko, watching all 104 Geopolitics World Cup matches. Sounds gruelling but, hey, the $50,000 paycheck should help them to keep their beady eyes focused squarely on their TV screens.

RECOMMENDED LOOKING

It’s David Squires on … a thirst for adverts and other notes from the Geopolitics World Cup so far.

Just to share a small, personal football memory of Roy Hattersley, a real Sheffield Wednesday fan, who I spotted at a few away games. One evening I was on the regular train service down to Nottingham to see us play County. Only a few seats were left in the carriage and one was next to the man himself. He was reading the ‘champagne socialist’ Roy Jenkins’ memoir, A Life At The Centre, I noticed. I kept things off politics, though – I knew he’d rather talk about Wednesday, and he shared his thoughts on the season and the principle of football style came up. He just wanted us to win, he said, however we did it. Kind of the Howard Wilkinson school. Whatever is most effective, a hardcore-fan view I used to share. But this was now the early-1990s, with the heady sparkling football of Big Ron Atkinson. We’d tasted the high life! It’s better to win well with style and hold to higher principles, I felt. But, as with politics, Roy stayed the pragmatist. Maybe, like football like life. Anyway, we agreed to disagree. A very minor encounter, but a nice personal memory of the man. Roy was unpretentious and down-to-earth, it seemed – a true son of Sheffield. RIP” – John Williams.

I think there should be an extension to football rules based on the rehydration breaks introduced by Fifa. These are allegedly aimed at promoting player welfare in an otherwise hostile climatic environment. I look forward to Aberdeen, Inverness and other clubs of an Arctic disposition introducing hot toddy breaks in each half from November through to February in the coming season to combat hypothermia” – Ken Muir.

Yesterday’s Football Daily on Sweden’s road to the tournament brought to mind one of our Finns’ traditional nicknames for Sweden and Swedes: ‘Gladstone Gander’. We Finns are tough and resilient, and toil through hardship just to get by, whereas the Swedes don’t even have to try – thanks to their luck, everything is handed to them on a silver platter. Well, back to reality: Sweden are a hell of a lot better than us at football. Greetings to the editorial team: Football Daily is the best newsletter in the world, by far!” – Tuukka Tomperi.

Following on from Nigel Sanders (yesterday’s letters), to really ramp up the booze theme, D1ck Advocaat could employ some specific tactics: instruct Curaçao to use lots of highballs; aim for the goal, don’t hit the bar; and if there are penalties, make sure you don’t bottle it when taking your shots” – Tom Murray-Rust.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … John Williams. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here. 

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Listen up! It’s World Cup Daily on Cape Verde’s heroics.

RECOMMENDED WATCHING

Have a look! It’s World Cup Daily on Cape Verde’s heroics.

PICTURE THIS

Marcelo Bielsa has never played by the rules. Whether it’s sitting on a blue bucket in the dugout, running energy-sapping “Murderball” training sessions or enforcing a team litter-pick, El Loco is a managerial maverick. So it comes as little surprise to Football Daily that the Uruguay boss steadfastly refused to cooperate during a recent GWC photoshoot for Fifa. The 70-year-old stared at the floor, hands in pockets, statuesque, during the obligatory media duty last Wednesday. “I’m not a model,” was Bielsa’s succinct explanation for his behaviour. He did expand a little, by asking a series of bizarre existential questions. “There is a limit in terms of what we need to explain. If I’m wearing glasses, why am I wearing glasses? You look somebody in the eye, why do you do that? There is nothing wrong about wearing glasses or looking into somebody’s eyes or looking down.” Maybe they should have just photographed the bucket.

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