Cape Verde’s World Cup team returns home to huge welcome

Have a weekend, Cape Verde.

The national soccer team returned home Sunday as heroes after their run to the round of 32 of the World Cup and pushing Lionel Messi and Argentina into extra time. The men’s basketball team clinched a berth in the second round of that sport’s World Cup qualifying as well.

And all this happened during an already joyous time in Cape Verde — Sunday was Independence Day.

“Viva Cape Verde,” basketball coach Emanuel Trovoada said after his team beat Libya on Sunday in a World Cup qualifying matchup in Cameroon.

Viva Cape Verde, indeed. Not bad for a country of about 500,000 people — the smallest, in terms of land mass, ever to reach the World Cup.

Independence Day was already going to be a day of celebration across the island nation off the western coast of Africa, but Sunday — with the soccer team returning from Miami — only made it more festive. Vozinha, the goalkeeper, captured video footage of workers on the tarmac dropping to their knees and bowing as the plane taxied into its gate.

Eventually — after interviews that were followed by countless hugs, high-fives and selfies with well-wishers at the airport — players and coaches were loaded onto the back of a truck and paraded through thousands of cheering fans. Flags swayed in the breeze on a sunny afternoon, drummers took to the streets and dance troupes were part of the celebration.

“We gave it all for Cape Verde,” defender Pico Lopes said.

The soccer team was in the World Cup for the first time this year. The basketball team — which got its second-round berth locked up on Saturday, before it easily beat Libya on Sunday — made its inaugural World Cup appearance in 2023 and will resume qualifying in late August with hopes of getting in to the 2027 event.

“This is historic. This is important,” Trovoada said. “Our soccer team has returned to the country — for a party.”

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