525,000 People Took Messi to Extra Time... The Cape Verde Fairytale

A country of 525,000 people just took the World Cup champions to extra time... and nearly pulled off the biggest shock in the tournament's history.

In this one I break down Argentina 3–2 Cape Verde, a game that had the whole world rooting for the Blue Sharks (that curler might be goal of the tournament). We get into who Cape Verde actually is... the islands, the diaspora, the heritage, and why a team built from all over the world matters so much. Then it's on to today's two big games... Morocco vs Canada and Paraguay vs France... with my honest predictions (yeah, I'm rooting for Paraguay, don't judge me).

Plus the big question I had with Fonzi... if the US and Canada go deep, what does that really do for the sport over here? Messi records, wild facts, real takes. Come argue with me. Join the newsletter and be part of the show at thefootball.show.

Chapters:

00:00 — 525,000 People Took the Champions to Extra Time

00:22 — Argentina 3, Cape Verde 2: How It Happened

02:56 — Goal of the Tournament (a Puskás contender)

03:42 — Cape Verde Made History (the Group of Death)

05:38 — Messi Hits 20 World Cup Goals

06:16 — Who Are the Blue Sharks? (fun facts)

07:57 — Diaspora, Heritage, and Roots

09:46 — Today's Full Bracket and Predictions

10:50 — Morocco vs Canada (and the "Dark Horse" Drama)

13:02 — Paraguay vs France Prediction

14:36 — What a Deep North America Run Really Means

17:08 — Rapid-Fire Facts Before We Go

19:04 — Predictions Below / Outro

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up everybody and welcome back to the football show. Yesterday, a country of 525,000 people just took the World Cup champions to extra time. And let me tell you, that was insane. Let it sit for a second. Cape adverted. A bunch of islands most people couldn't even find on the map. And Argentina on the ropes. Messi, the champions, everybody's sweating. Um, I was actually out with my family watching a movie, and I couldn't. I was like, okay, maybe you know they they finally won. And I pulled my cell phone out, and I say one-one minute night. I'm like, what? This is insane. So like this survive at the end of the day, 3-2. But the world fell in love with the team that lost. So today we're gonna be talking about the blue sharks and their fairy tale, and we're gonna talk about like these massive two games that are happening. Um, you know, a little bit later at the time I'm recording this. And uh, you know, we're gonna question everybody that you know wants to answer, you know, out loud. Like, if North America rises in this thing, uh, who actually gets uh the credit? So let's get right into the show. Cool? Alright, sounds good. So the champions almost went home tonight, or last night, as I'm recording this. It's crazy. I mean, uh, they had half the world sweating for them, and you could tell like they were everybody was exhausted, you know. Argentina three and Cape Verde two. Uh, they just needed a little bit of extra time. What a game. So Messi put them ahead, obviously, in uh, you know, 20 minutes, 29 minutes in, and it was crazy because he came out saying in the press conference that they knew this was gonna be a very tough game, and the toughest part was gonna go score the first goal, and then uh after that they really thought they could like unlock it, but it you know the the script flipped. Um it just honestly felt like a blowout at that point, but then Cape Verde was like nope, and uh Duarte equalized just before the hour, and the whole game completely like flipped. Extra time was chaos. It reminded like that final against France, you should start playing against Cape Verde, which is crazy. And Alissandro Martinez smashed one in. I think everybody that roots for Argentino is like taking the breath, and it was almost like Argentina versus the world. The world was like rooting for Cape Verde on this one. And look, let me tell you, I'm a big Argentina fan, and uh the whole time I was like, why did those two have to play? I wanted Cape Verde to play in another bracket, in a different game, so they could go as far as possible. Because I do genuinely like the Argentina game, so um, you know, but guess what? The game was not over there at that 2-1, and Cape Verde just hit back with a curler that might be the goal of the freaking tournament. I mean, this goal has to be uh probably one of the best of the year. It has to be a contender for the Pouscase of War, the guy wearing the hyper venom best of all if you're a boots guy or uh you know a clitz guy, the hyper venom, chef Chef Kiz. And uh not only a goal, but the freaking celebration. He goes out and celebrates with his great friend, and you know, at the end of the game, Romero with uh with a header in the corner. Oh boy. Um it was crazy. I mean, even even uh Martinez, the goalie, like he was like, Man, like that goal was just like impossible. I'm just very proud of that. You can see it like after the game, the Argentina players going and picking these guys up and uh just letting them know that they K Verde just made history. These guys are heroes uh in their country and the world. I mean, the world is gonna just remember them. These guys, just so you know, like how hard this is, they went undefeated in 90 minutes for the entire World Cup. They just lost an extra time, which is crazy. And they not only played Argentina, but they also played Spain, Uruguay, Saudi. I mean, crazy, like the group of death, as they call it, right? So um this is not just the champions section. They they were like uh Argentina has a lot to fix, right? They were flat, they were complacent. Um they they even said it at the press conference that there's a lot of things that they need to work on, and they knew this was gonna be a really hard game. I mean, there's uh Argentinian streaming like Cobra who is uh hilarious, amazing, and he there's a very old video of him explaining how his grandpa is like, be careful, be careful, because small teams tend to make it hard for everybody. And he actually mentioned Kate Verdian this time, but uh, anyways, huge shout out, obviously, for the Blue Sharks. It's it's incredible to see their their story, they had the world rooting for them. It's just a shame they had to face Argentina that early. Uh, but I think facing a different team, maybe they they could have gone a little bit further. But shout out to the entire team. Uh they're heroes now to that country. Like every single story of every single player is crazy. I was just seeing one from like, hey, you know, this guy's my neighbor. It's like uh from the island, but also the mom is Irish, and you know, it's just crazy. I mean, the the tournament that these guys just provided isn't and obviously, you know, Vocinha, the keeper just like made eight saves in that game, counting like that free kick of Messi, like which by the way, it was early. Like the ref, you know, he was still fixing his freaking wall, and then he ended up saving that. But man, huge shout out. I hope we can see more of these guys. I'm sure like they put in that the that country in the map. So many people had no idea where it was. I had no idea where it was, and it's just really cool. But you know, Messi now has 20 World Cup goals in his whole career. And Bapel was just Googling here 18. So uh we'll talk about this in just a second. Probably, hopefully. I mean, man, if Paraguay wins today, um, I need the jersey and uh I'm rooting for them 100%, but you know, it's gonna be it's gonna be a tough one. But he has an all-time record, seven career, you know, seventies run by I think it was eighth game in a row in a World Cup uh scoring, which is crazy. I mean, he had a run where he didn't score, and people were questioning him a while back. Uh, but anyways, I mean this is the thing like the team that lost tonight, um they they won the whole war, the whole world over. So, good job. And then with that, I want to share a little bit of facts like it from them. So, so we need to know like where there is, right? Uh, and this the tournament. So, like, picture this like 10 little volcanic islands in the coast of West Africa. The population is under 525,000 people. This is smaller than a lot of medic uh American cities, like this whole country, like it's crazy. Uh, so obviously, this is the first World Cup ever, and they didn't just like show up, they went unbitten in their group, like we mentioned before. They drew Spain, they drew Uruguay, they drew Saudi. Nobody beat them until uh Argentina, uh, in their in their extra time. I have my notes here and they say Messi nice, not just Messi, it's like the whole Argentina team, which by the way, they were freaking uh exhausted. So they call the blue sharks or the two two baros, azules, is I guess it's uh Portuguese. My Portuguese is not good, but they're name after the sharks in uh their waters, right? Like perfect time how they played. Uh they circle their prey, they're fearless, they're they like to bite, and you know, it's it was a very exciting team to play. Like you expect this like teeny tiny small team to relegate and wait for a team. Like if you if you know football, you see a lot of teams usually when they're a little bit smaller, on the you know, that when the name carries weight, the smaller team goes and sits in the back. These guys showed completely backwards, they went and they attacked, and they were like, We're not giving up. And that's why the comment that we mentioned earlier about Messi, the toughest part was to score the first goal, they thought, because that would unlock. Normally that opens the space a little bit more, but these guys just kept being very disciplined, and uh they just played one-on-one uh against the big teams in every game, in every game, uh, which was really good. So uh this team built uh like on their diaspora. Like, um, let's see, they more of the people in this country live overseas than in their own country, and I relate a lot because I'm a immigrant, and you know, a bunch of people from my country do that. But you know, half the squad was born in Holland, France, Portugal, Ireland, and they all came together to play for their islands. Like, this is like how you know like the roots are so strong. Obviously, for a player, and this is there's a lot of criticism out here. Um, you know, in I guess for the new fans that are discovering this sport that's like you should be born in the in the country. And I think it's just you know, heritage. Now the world is so small that you know the people traveling all over the world, people migrating to other countries. I think this is beautiful for that because we're rediscovering our roots for in so many, so many. Like, for example, my kid could live could play for USA, could play for Canada, could play for Venezuela if he chooses to. Uh, and I think that is a beautiful thing because we continue to unite the world with this sport. So, as some you know, I I I was very fortunate to play in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in the United States, and and it just feels good. Like you meet people from all over the world, and uh the fact that they're so connected to their roots is a matter of pride, and they should be proud uh to that represented that that country with that. I mean, these guys, that country's gonna just talk about this for for ages, which is incredible. So, with that, um round of applause and a minute of silence or second of silence for Kate Verde. Alright, now moving on. Uh let's see the bracket, yeah. So if we go to the bracket, today's predictions, baby. Okay, so we have a full bracket now. Uh, so obviously we got Paraguay, France later today, Canada, America later today. As we're recording this, if you're watching this, you probably will probably already know what happened. Portugal, Spain, massive game. USA, Belgium, Brazil, Norway, Mexico, England, another massive game. Argentina, Egypt. Um, don't sleep on the Egypt. There's two, I mean, we were bragging about the African teams uh before freaking when they went to the round of 32 because nine out of ten qualify. Now we only have two left: Morocco and Egypt. Crazy. So, uh, and then we have Switzerland and Colombia, which by the way, Colombia looks so freaking uh so dangerous. But so obviously, you know, two big games today as we're recording this, and one of them matters a lot to us here in North America, especially. Um, you know, being I guess today's independence day, that's why I'm wearing USA. Happy fourth for those Americans that are that are watching, and then Canada plays today and then tomorrow is Canada Day, so they they flip-flop the days. But obviously, for first up, Morocco and Canada. Morocco are definitely one of the favorites. Uh by the way, for those that don't know what for the dark horse um definition means, I got a lot of heat because of this. Um here. Um a lot of I got a lot of heat on social media because they're like they they were thinking I was insulting their teams. I'm not insulting their uh their team. Dark horse means, by the way, here full full full definition, more commonly refers to an unexpected competitor or underdog who rises prominence or wins the competitions against all initial odds. So not being racist, not insulting anybody. And there was a clip that would say like that we're talking about how people thought the Morocco was a dark horse. I do not think Morocco is a dark horse. Those guys are a force to be reckoned with. Uh they're top five, I think, in the FIFA standings uh for years now, and they have incredible players. So very like they should be considered together up there with France as one of the favorites. So put in that, you know, period. That's it. Uh this this move uh let's move forward. But Canada, uh, this is the the their tournament, you know, their their home crowd. Uh let's see where where they're actually playing. They're playing in Houston, so yeah, they're probably gonna bring in a ton of people. Uh, but I'm not counting them out either. Like, this is crazy. They Jesse Marsh has done something wonderful with this team, and you could tell like these players like really want to perform and do a a great job in this, and this is probably gonna be the the the fire uh proof that they that they need. Like, if they beat Morocco, this is again that that alone will make this tournament a massive success for for Canada, a very small country in in the in the world of football. Um I mean they're ranked 30th in FIFA and Morocco's ranked seventh. That tells you. So um my call is Morocco is gonna win. Which by the way, I have Canadian family. My wife is Canadian, but Morocco's gonna win, but it's gonna be tough for them. And if it does, I mean if freaking Canada wins, is is gonna be considered uh a surprise. Now, second game today, we have Paraguay and France, and this one on paper, like on paper is not close, I think. Uh obviously, everybody has France as a freaking favorite, they're scary looking. I just saw a video of them training in 37 uh Celsius with like 50% humidity. They they're they're flying, they're crazy. But Paraguay's whole job is to make it as ugly as possible. Park the bus. Uh my notes here say pray, but honestly, I don't think so. Like, I I think these guys have this fire under them because after starting the way that they did with the losing game, and again, you know, FIFA rankings here, France 3, Paraguay 41. But the way that they started, and they've eliminated some big some big weights and uh do not discount it. I am rooting a thousand percent for Paraguay. I want them to win. Um, this is gonna be an intense game, it's gonna be a physical game, it's gonna be a tough game, and uh I'm predicting Paraguay is gonna be winning 1-0. That's my prediction, just because I want them to win. My brain says so, my logical brain says something else, but we'll see. Uh, I guess we'll see. Uh, if Paraguay wins, absolute success for them in the in this world cup. I mean they could do whatever they want after that. France, uh, total chaos, especially with the team that they have. But honestly, like I see it so hard. They're so good. They're they're very so good. They they look solid, they look scary, they look fast, they look like on point. They really want this. They're hurt from last world cup. They wanted very, very bad. Okay, so for the North American, you know, countries, like what does this really mean? Like, and obviously US will play Belgium uh tomorrow, and uh they're they've been crushing, right? They they they won against Bosnia 2-0, they're into the random 16. Uh, Canada's obviously fighting for for their spot today. Um, so let me ask you a big one. What happens if the host nation actually go deep in this tournament? That's a question that we've been asking. And I had a conversation with Fonse yesterday because it's just not like a run like this isn't just wins on a bracket, like it's it's the kids, the nation behind these countries, these kids watching their heroes. It's like they're watching their heroes in real time, and they're picking up the ball the next morning or asking their parents to go get the ball. I mean, yesterday we were with my kids in the movie theater and we had to wait a little bit. We went to a soccer store, and my kids was like, Can I please, can I please, can I please get like the World Cup ball? Like, I want it so bad. And like, that's the effect that events like this can uh can happen. So I'm rooting for that to happen. I'm rooting for the US to move further, I'm rooting for Canada to move further, uh, Mexico, different story. We'll talk about that. All the love to my Mexican people, but anyways, it had to be a Mexican episode. But we're talking Canada and US specifically today. So, as a casual fan, of course, like this will mean something, but the people, the kids and the people that are watching and that are excited, um, it's incredible. And you know, these players are coming out and they're inspiring these kids to to move, to get out there, to chase their dreams, to um to you know, be passionate, to to fight. I think that's the important part, like finding a good sense of hey, I'm doing my best on the field. So uh who gets the credit? Obviously, you know, the you know, I think this is more of a longer conversation, but you know, the the American system, I don't think, I don't think that's where we need to go. You know, I think we need to go into uh the the kids win, the the sport in general wins, and that will open doors to have more conversations. So there's definitely a bigger topic here that maybe we can explore down the line, but I'll I'll I'll I'll leave with that. So I think that's it for today, man. Like I'm just excited for these games. I had a little more about you know MLS and USL on the American system, but we can talk about that in a different episode. I'm just stoked for for today's games. Let's see before we head out, uh, if we can share some facts here. So for Canada, Morocco, Canada are the World Cup knockout rounds for the first time in their history. So whatever they do is gonna be incredible. They score nine goals in four World Cup matches this tournament, and then two of Canada's World Cup matches produced two or fewer goals. So um tight games, da da da. Uh Morocco uh won both World Cup penalty shootouts in their history against Spain in 2022, and Netherlands in this tournament, they left out, that was a great game, and then the Atlas Lions reach the 2022 World Cup semifinals and carry a deep knockout experience. So they're ready for this. Their team is scary. Uh, they have a really good dynamic there. Um, okay, let's see some facts about Paraguay and France. So obviously, you know, we know that Paraguay freaking uh beat Germany, knock them out of the tournament. The fact that the German coach also uh resigned. Um Paraguay earned the World Cup round of 16 for the first time since 2002. History. I mean, go watch the videos, like people are like super passionate about this. Like the the send-off that they gave him was incredible. Um and then Paraguay just conceded just one goal in three matches following their 41 opening loss against USA. Uh they're a strong defense. This is what they're known for in South America, and uh they play 120 minutes against Germany just five days before this game. So that can affect. I know a lot of people online is like, oh no, they get time to rest. It does affect in a tournament like this, even if you have an extra day of a of rest. Uh, for France, Mbapped has 18 World Cup goals at age 27, one behind uh well, two behind Messi now that Messi has 20. Um Michael Lyce has five assists in this World Cup, one show up pillet of all time records of six, he'll probably get one today, to be completely honest. And uh the trio, Mbapped and Baleano Lyse each have five goals involvements matching Brazil's 2002 trio, which was scary. All right, put your predictions right below. I'm excited, and I'll see you on the next episode. Take care.