The Cinderella run is over for Cape Verde

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I was unaware there was a country named Cape Verde until 2026. With a population of under 500,000 inhabitants simply getting into the World Cup was quite the feat and making it to the knockout rounds and ending up facing Argentina is something that the players on that island nation's team wont soon forget.

While they were eliminated just some hours ago, I don't think that they have anything at all to be ashamed of and it reminds me of the time I think it was 8 years ago when Iceland made it very far into the tournament.

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It was a tall order being a country that has less of a population than most capital cities of other countries they will face and having very little international experience can't be terribly handy either. A lot of people including me really enjoy an underdog story and facing off against the reigning champions whose country has a population 70 times the size of their own well, you don't get much more underdog than that.

It definitely wasn't an easy game for them against Argentina, that's an understatement. In the first half they only managed a single shot on goal and when they equalized in the 59th minute the football-of-the-soccer-variety world erupted in applause. This is not because we want Argentina to lose, but because it is so amazing that such a small team from such a small country would put up such a big fight.

The game went to extra time and while I am sure most people already know this, it lasts for 30 minutes total. Argentina put the noise to a stop in just two minutes scoring in the 92nd minute and then changing formation to go to a mostly defensive position. Despite this and despite the fact that it looked like they wouldn't be able to break through they pulled off the impossible again scoring an absolute cracker of a goal in the 103rd minute.

Were we going to penalties again?

Messi put that all to rest in the 111th minute with a corner that resulted in the winning goal.

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As the clock ticked over and the end was apparent, the Cape Verde side didn't wallow in self-pity the way that a lot of other more established teams would do after the final whistle. They had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of as they had met and surpassed all expectations of them in this game.

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When you dig into the stats you can see that they did an awful lot especially when you consider that they only had possession for 1/3 of the match. 5 shots on target and 2 of them go in? That's really amazing actually.

Now going forward we have our final 16 teams already determined and I'm going to predict that France ends up playing against Argentina in the final. That's not the final I would like to see, it's just the one I believe we are going to get. I'd like to see USA vs England but I am a realist and know that this is really unlikely to happen.

What do you think?