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With about five minutes left in Cabo Verde’s World Cup debut, about 50 people buzzed with anticipation inside the Lighthouse Tavern in New Bedford. Spectators decked out in blue jerseys, scarves and hats gazed nervously at the television screens as the clock ticked toward the end of a game that had gone better than any one of them expected.
For the past 90 minutes, Cabo Verde’s “Blue Sharks” national soccer team had held their own against the FIFA World Cup’s heavily favored Spain. With several key saves from Cabo Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper Josimar Jose Évora Dias, also known as Vozinha, Spain remained scoreless.
Protests of ‘No’ echoed through the bar with each advance by Spain, and cheers erupted for every shot defended. As the match entered its final seconds, the tie held.
“Three, two, one!” spectators counted down before exploding into cheers of celebration. Around the room, people embraced, recorded the historic moment, and called their fellow Cabo Verdeans who were watching in places like Texas, Dubai and Florida.
On the nearby West Rodney French Boulevard, cars honked as they drove by, waving Cabo Verdean flags and scarves out their windows.
For most, a 0-0 score in a FIFA World Cup game would be considered a draw. But for Cabo Verde, a small archipelago off the coast of Africa with a population of about 525,000, a draw was an unexpected victory that left New Bedford’s Cabo Verdean spectators shocked, ecstatic and prideful.
“That is a freaking upset,” said Dianne Pina, an Easton resident watching with her cousin and sister. “That’s like winning the NBA Finals.”
The World Cup qualification had already put the country on an international stage. But now, the team will be in the spotlight, said Sterling Pina Barros-Carter, a New Bedford resident.
“They’re going to be contenders now,” Pina Barros-Carter said.
A historic moment for an island nation
This year marks the first time Cabo Verde is participating in the world’s largest sporting event. It’s the third smallest country to qualify, after Iceland and Curaçao, which is also making its World Cup debut, alongside Jordan and Uzbekistan.
The Blue Sharks secured their spot last October by defeating Eswatini to win Africa’s Group D, edging Cameroon out of the top spot. The team also qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals in 2013 and 2023. It hasn’t lost a game since 2024, according to sportingnews.com.
The small-island team is scheduled to play Uruguay on Sunday, June 21, at Miami Stadium and Saudi Arabia on Friday, June 26, at Houston Stadium.
This historical moment comes nearly 51 years after the country gained independence from Portugal in July 1975. Three years later, the national soccer team began to grow.
Cabo Verdean President José Maria Neves described the team’s qualification as a political, economic and cultural victory while visiting New Bedford last week. He also emphasized the importance of the country’s diaspora. The Cabo Verde islands host a population of about 525,000 residents, but its diaspora, scattered throughout the world, is estimated to make up around 1 million people. The largest population in the U.S. is in Massachusetts, where about 70,000 Cabo Verdeans reside, according to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
“Cabo Verde is not just the 10 islands, but all these other ‘islands’ spread throughout the world,” Neves said on his visit, as reported by The Light. Like the diaspora, the team itself is made up of players from countries around the world, from Ireland to the Netherlands.
José Monteiro, a New Bedford resident who is originally from Cabo Verde and came to the U.S. in 1978, traveled to Atlanta to watch Monday’s game in person. He said Sunday that he hopes the exposure from the tournament will create opportunities for Cabo Verde to continue moving forward and “not just make this a one-off.”
“With Cabo Verde being in the World Cup, it allows some of the better players that play abroad to say, ‘Maybe I don’t need to go play abroad,’ or ‘I don’t need to play for a host nation,’” Monteiro said. “’I can come and play for my country.’ And that would be the biggest outcome.”
However, some people at the Lighthouse speculated that the star of today’s game — Vozinha — could be recruited by other teams after today’s performance.
Cabo Verdeans originally came to the United States, and specifically New Bedford, in the 1800s because of the whaling industry.
The scene at the Lighthouse
Though the game was in the middle of the work day, around 50 people gathered at the Lighthouse Tavern, a Cabo Verdean-owned restaurant on Brock Avenue, decked out in blue apparel, including scarves, jerseys, hats and a Cabo Verdean flag fashioned into a skirt. Pina, who grew up in New Bedford, wore a traditional Conta di Ojo — an “eye bead” worn for protection in Cabo Verdean culture — ring, pin and earrings as she watched the game with her sister and cousin.
Spectators described the tie as an “upset” and unexpected and said they hope it brings more recognition to the country.
“When they qualified, I was crying,” Pina said before the game began.
In Cabo Verde, the government declared a half-day workday, so state employees could watch the game, which began at 3 p.m. in Cabo Verde’s time zone.
Adonis Ferreira, a New Bedford resident who originally hails from Cabo Verde, took the day off work to watch the game at home. He said the spirit of the Cabo Verdean people and coverage from the event will expose more people to the country, and hopefully build up tourism.
“They’re going to learn how warm and how beautiful the people of Cabo Verde really are,” he said.
Cabo Verde is an underdog, Ferreira said, which he said thinks will appeal to people internationally. Making it to the second round would be “significant,” he said. Several people at the Lighthouse pointed out the size of Cabo Verde compared to Spain as another reason to celebrate.
The top two teams from each group move to the next round, along with the top eight third-place finishers.
“Anything is possible with that,” said Rita Ribeiro, another New Bedford resident who watched the game at the Lighthouse, referring to the tie.
Some decided to attend the game in person. Monteiro traveled to Atlanta with a group of friends to watch the match live.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Monteiro said Sunday by phone from Atlanta. “The only [reason] I would not be here [is] if God would not allow me to be.”
Darlene Spencer plans to travel to Houston for the face-off against Saudi Arabia. While disappointed that Cabo Verde won’t play at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, she said on a phone call that Cabo Verdeans are “resilient folks, and we will travel.”
“Our ancestors came here, particularly to New Bedford during the whaling era, and traveled on a whaling ship to get here to New Bedford,” Spencer said. “We certainly can travel to Miami, Atlanta and Houston to see our folks, our men, play and represent the country.”
In the North End, Praia Vibes Bar & Grill held a watch party, as did businesses in Pawtucket and Providence. Brockton will host a watch party at Campanelli Stadium for the June 26 Cabo Verde vs. Saudi Arabia game. It’ll also host a June 24 Haiti vs. Morocco watch party.
Prior to the game, several New Bedford Cabo Verdeans considered the qualification for the tournament alone a win that gave them global exposure. But now, as New Bedford resident Paul Alves put it, the country is on the “world stage.”
“Nobody even knew who we were,” said Ribeiro. “The whole world’s going to know now.”
Crystal Yormick is a recent graduate of Boston University and a frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light. Email her at cyormick@newbedfordlight.org.