A 40-Year-Old Goalkeeper Just Stopped Spain at the World Cup

Spain came to Atlanta as European champions and one of the favorites to win the whole thing. They left with a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde — a country of 550,000 people playing in their first-ever World Cup.
The man who made it happen was Vozinha. He is 40 years old. He made save after save, kept Spain off the board for 90 minutes, and sent his teammates into a celebration that looked more like a championship party than a group stage draw.

What Happened

Spain had the ball almost the entire game. They created chance after chance. Ferran Torres alone wasted four clear opportunities — his best chance had an xG of 0.53, meaning statistically it should have gone in more than half the time. It didn’t.
Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, Spain’s two best attackers, were not fit to start. Yamal came on in the 71st minute and immediately looked dangerous — he made more dribbles than any other player on the pitch in just 20 minutes. But even he couldn’t find a way past Vozinha and Cape Verde’s wall of defenders.
Torres was pulled from the game with ten minutes left. Dani Olmo came on and got Spain’s best chance of the night — Mikel Oyarzabal met a cross in the box and put it over the bar. That was the story of Spain’s night.
Cape Verde packed ten men behind the ball and dared Spain to break them down. Spain never could.

What Players Said

Steven Moreira, Cape Verde’s defender, was direct after the game. “We had no pressure. We played our game. And then our goalkeeper showed everyone what he can do. At 40 years old, he proved age means nothing.”
Spain midfielder Rodri was honest. “We should have taken our chances. Cape Verde defended deep with nearly ten men in their box. It was hard to find space. When the ball doesn’t want to go in, it doesn’t go in.”

What This Means

Spain are not eliminated. They still have Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to play in Group H. But this result is a warning sign. If Yamal and Williams cannot play, Spain have no Plan B. Torres showed that on Monday.
Cape Verde got the biggest result in their football history in their first World Cup game ever. Vozinha is 40 years old and saved Spain’s best shots all afternoon.
Football is a strange and beautiful game.
Source: Al Jazeera, Fox Sports, NBC News, FIFA.com, Yahoo Sports