Author: alaskaadmin

And so it ends. In the most improbable of ways. In the most incredible of situations. Cape Verde’s whirlwind 2026 World Cup run ultimately ended with a loss to Argentina and Lionel Messi, who notched his seventh goal in this World Cup and 20th overall. Multiple equalizers. Extra time. 3-2. It was, to me, the most magnificent match I have witnessed in modern World Cup history. Simply because this was about the underdog, the ultimate dreamer, going toe-to-toe, with the defending world champion and the greatest player the game has ever seen. After the victory, Argentina — learning some lessons along the way — will face Mohamed Salah and Egypt in the round of 16 in Atlanta. Perhaps, this was the game that woke La Albiceleste up and finally gave them the challenge they needed. But Friday night, it was about you, Cape Verde. It’s quite ironic, isn’t it? The diminutive king, the boy who was often overlooked for his size, rivaled by the ultimate underdog, Cape Verde, which has a population only slightly larger than Miami, where this all-timer was played. It is the ultimate poetic inspiration of this World Cup for the archipelagic African nation to do what they did. A young, albeit courageous David defeated Goliath with a slingshot and a rock. Cape Verde almost did the same. Almost. Despite the loss, what coach Bubista did is nothing short of remarkable. What this team did throughout the tournament is nothing short of remarkable. Alongside the likes of the fan-favorite meteoric star of the tournament, Vozinha, Cape Verde nearly delivered the most stunning shock in World Cup history. And so this is why the Blue Sharks’ story is one of beauty from multiple angles. It is ambivalent in nature: we acknowledge what has been lost and the inspiration that has been gained. Vozinha against Messi was cinema of the highest order, and it was the goalkeeper who overcame the battle, making one remarkable save after another. The saying always goes, “Messi’s free-kicks — you somewhat know where they’re going, but you can never stop them.” Well, one man stopped Messi’s shots. Again and again. With eight saves on 10 shots, Vozinha wasn’t perfect, but he was incredible. The way he faced down Messi and a team of superstars surely lifted and inspired his own squad to keep digging. And as a result, we just witnessed the most dramatic, thrilling battle I have ever seen in my history of watching the World Cup. The goals were unbelievable in nature, and the scoring chances kept your heartrate through the roof. It was a display of ultimate brilliance and bravery. Think about this for a second. Sidny Lopes Cabral was playing third division football in Germany not so long ago. And Friday night, he scored the most colossal goal of his life — and decidedly the best of the tournament — against Argentina’s Emiliano Martínez. Cape Verde is a team that doesn’t understand fear. It’s a team of sharks, hunting for success in any water it comes across, and it doesn’t care about the opponent. Whether it’s Cameroon or Argentina, it doesn’t matter. It will face you, challenge you, without an ounce of animosity. This team made its people proud, and the entire globe paid notice. This is what the World Cup is all about. It’s a competition that reveals your character. And Cape Verde? We now know exactly who it is as a team — even after a loss. Argentina, in the end, came through thanks to its steel-minded belief. But make no mistake about this: the night belonged to Cape Verde. Not even Lionel Messi can deny that statement. There is also a reminder that this was played in Miami, which is about as close as you can get to Buenos Aires without being in Argentina. We are talking about more than 50,000 Argentines from the diaspora who call the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area their home. You saw the videos and the packed stadium. This was a home match for the defending champions. And it didn’t matter. Cape Verde stood strong and fought with everything. It didn’t play scared. It wasn’t intimidated by the crowd. We say goodbye, Blue Sharks. You leave as heroes and the biggest, most inspiring story of the tournament. What you gave to this World Cup — including the epic standoff that ultimately ended your magical run — will forever be remembered. In a match that included Lionel Messi, you leave as the eternal stars whose light will never fade in the memories of World Cup history.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

There’s a moment in every Argentina game, usually as things get uncomfortable, when 80,000 heads turn in the same direction. They fixate on a 39-year-old with graying stubble and the nonchalant gaze of a man strolling to the corner store. It happened again on Friday night in Miami, with the reigning World Cup champions two fingertips from one of the most stunning upsets in tournament history. Everyone was looking for Lionel Messi to respond. And Lionel Messi, as he has done for two decades, answered. His numbers at this World Cup read like a typo. Seven goals in four games, leading the Golden Boot race at an age when most of his generation are doing punditry. A hat-trick against Algeria that made him the oldest man to score one at a World Cup. A brace against Austria that carried him past Miroslav Klose and made him the all-time leading scorer in the tournament’s history. A free kick off the bench against Jordan. Then Friday: a first touch of pure silk off a long ball, a dink over Vozinha, and a 20th goal across his six World Cup appearances. Nobody had ever reached 20. He has now scored in eight consecutive World Cup matches. (Nobody had ever done that either.) And when Cape Verde equalized in the 103rd minute and the unthinkable was bewilderingly unfolding, it was Messi’s set-piece delivery in the 111th minute that found Cristian Romero’s head and saved the champions from embarrassment (even if it was officially ruled as an own goal). For most of his career, Messi was measured against Diego Maradona. The comparison was always framed around one thing: Diego dragged Argentina to a World Cup in 1986, and Leo hadn’t. It was reductive and probably unfair, a career of impossible beauty held hostage by a single trophy. Then came Qatar and one of the greatest finals ever played, ending the debate in golden confetti. The asterisk became a crown. That’s what makes this summer so remarkable. Messi has nothing left to prove. The trophy is won. The ghost is at peace. Messi could have retired into legend years ago, and instead he’s here, in his sixth World Cup, playing more matches on this stage than any man in history, breaking records that took a century to build. He isn’t hanging on. He’s growing, again, in real time. And think about how close Friday came to being the ending. Imagine it: Lionel Messi’s final World Cup match, the last dance of the greatest player who ever lived, ending in a round of 32 defeat to Cape Verde, a nation of half a million people playing in its first tournament. The most storied international career in the history of the sport, closing with the most bizarre full stop imaginable. For eight minutes of extra time, that was the live script. Instead, at least one more song at this final dance. Egypt awaits in the round of 16, and beyond that, the potential for something absurd: back-to-back World Cups, a feat no nation has managed since Pelé and Brazil did so in 1962, delivered by a captain a year shy of his 40th birthday. Maybe it ends next week. Maybe it ends with him lifting the trophy on June 19 in New Jersey. With anyone else, you’d roll your eyes at the second option. With Messi, you’ve learned better. He has spent 20 years turning the unthinkable into the inevitable, and he is doing it one more time, in the tournament that once tormented him, at an age that should make it impossible.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

We were two fingertips away from the greatest upset in the history of the World Cup.Sit with that for a moment. Cape Verde, ten specks of volcanic rock in the Atlantic with fewer people than Tuscon, took the world champions, the No. 1 ranked team on the planet, the winners of the last World Cup, to the 111th minute of a knockout game. They equalized once in regulation. Then they equalized AGAIN in extra time with a world-class curler into the top corner that turned Miami into a madhouse and had the entire planet screaming at its television. Argentina survived on a set piece with nine minutes of extra time left. Survived is the only word that fits. Argentina nearly became victims of the greatest World Cup knockout upset of all time. Here are my five takeaways from the craziest game of this tournament: 1. Argentina Advance. Nobody Says, “Comfortably.” Lionel Scaloni’s side are in the round of 16, and they earned every inch of it. But let’s be honest about what we watched. Argentina had 64 percent of the ball and spent long stretches passing it sideways with the urgency of a Sunday picnic. When Deroy Duarte equalized in the 59th minute from a tight angle, it was deserved. Argentina had gone sleepy, sloppy, and predictable. The bigger issue: it can’t just be Lionel Messi. Lautaro Martínez was once again anonymous. The midfield of Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister controlled tempo but created precious little between the lines. Against Egypt in the round of 16, and whoever comes after, the champions will need someone other than a 39-year-old to conjure the magic. Tonight, when they absolutely had to have a goal, guess whose delivery produced it. The GOAT, of course. 2. David’s Sling Was On Point. He Nearly Took Goliath’s Head Off. Read this slowly: a country of roughly 500,000 people stood eye to eye with the world champions for 120 minutes and never once blinked. Cape Verde didn’t park the bus and pray. They traded punches with Argentina in a World Cup knockout game. Deroy Duarte’s equalizer was a striker’s finish from a tough angle. Then, after Lisandro Martínez thumped Argentina back ahead in extra time, Sidny Lopes Cabral hit the shot of the tournament, a curling missile into the top corner in the 103rd minute. For eight delirious minutes, the impossible was winning. 2-2. Against Argentina. In the knockouts. They even forced Emiliano Martínez into a flying save on another Lopes Cabral free kick to stay alive. The stone left the sling and grazed the giant’s temple. History will remember how close they came. 3. Messi Rewrites the Book Every Time He Steps On Grass. At this point, Lionel Messi is rewriting the history books every time he steps onto the field. His 29th-minute opener — a gorgeous first touch off Lisandro Martínez’s long ball and a dink over Vozinha —was his 20th World Cup goal. He’s now scored in eight consecutive World Cup games, another record, a run stretching back to 2022. And because the man is incapable of a quiet night, it was his set-piece delivery in the 111th minute that produced the winner, Cristian Romero rising highest to nod Argentina through. He now leads the Golden Boot race with seven goals, one clear of Kylian Mbappé, in his sixth World Cup, at 39 years old. All alone at the top. The GOAT keeps grazing, and the rest of football watches in disbelief. 4. Thank You for the Memories, Cape Verde. This team gave the World Cup its soul, and the cast belongs in Hollywood. Vozinha, a 40-year-old goalkeeper playing in Portugal’s second division, arrived at this tournament with 31,000 Instagram followers. He leaves with 17 million followers and a highlight reel for the ages, including eight more saves tonight — one a scrambling, post-to-post rejection of a Messi free kick that showed incredible awareness. Then there’s Roberto “Pico” Lopes, the center back who was working at a Dublin bank when Cape Verde recruited him through a LinkedIn message he ignored for nine months because he assumed it was spam. Tonight, the greatest success story in LinkedIn history spent 120 minutes marking the greatest player who ever lived. And barely gave him a yard.You cannot write this stuff. Except Cape Verde just did. 5. This Is Exactly Why the 48-Team World Cup Exists Be honest. When the field expanded to 48, you wondered how much the quality would suffer. Filler teams, watered-down soup. Cape Verde was supposed to be exactly that, a name to make up the numbers, three games and a polite wave goodbye. Some stories for the grandchildren in forty years. Instead, they held Spain scoreless. They traded blows with Uruguay and finished ahead of a two-time world champion. And tonight they took the best team on earth to the brink of the greatest upset the World Cup has ever seen. Two equalizers. 120 minutes. A fingertip from immortality.An island nation smaller than Kansas City, Missouri, just authored one of the great Cinderella stories in the history of this sport. Ten islands in the Atlantic are crying tears of pride tonight, and the rest of us should be applauding. The Blue Sharks belonged. Every single minute. Sincerely, from all of us — thank you.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports