ATLANTA — When Josimar Dias was a young lad growing up in Cape Verde, he loved soccer so much that he’d play with older boys, even though they’d taunt and tease him. They’d push him around, beat him up, and he would respond in the worst way possible: telling them he was going to tattle on them to his grandparents. Naturally, they started calling him “Vozinha,” or “granny” in Portuguese.
But Josimar dried his tears and, later, decided to claim the nickname as his own. And nobody’s laughing at little Vozinha now.
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Vozinha, in goal for the Cape Verde national team in their very first World Cup, just authored one of the definitive performances in World Cup history, a clean sheet against tournament favorites Spain in a stunning 0-0 draw. And he did it at age 40, against players literally half his age.
“We’ve worked for this moment, for a night like this,” Vozinha said in Portuguese after the match. “I’m 40 years old; as everyone knows, I turned professional back in 2012. That’s quite late for someone like me. I thought about quitting the national team, but I kept going because of this dream.”
Cape Verde’s Vozinha makes a save to keep the score level against Spain.
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
You could sum up Vozinha’s brilliance — and Spain’s frustration — in one two-shot, five-second sequence late in the first half. In one of their many attacks, Spain had Vozinha surrounded, and the inevitable appeared nigh. Spain’s Marc Cucurella got behind the Cape Verde defense and headed a ball back to Ferran Torres, who had a clear shot on the goal. But Vozinha dove straight at the ball, and that was enough to alter Torres’ shot so that it spang high off the crossbar.
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Oh, but we’re not done yet. While the ball was in the air and caroming back into the field of play, Vozinha was on the ground, facing the wrong way, with a teammate on top of him. Somehow he managed to leap to his feet, flip around into position, and tip a screamer from Mikel Oyarzabal just over the top of the crossbar. And, yes, he did this all in five seconds. We’re only a few days into the World Cup and we already have one of the finest plays we’ll see all summer.
After the match ended, and as blue-clad Cape Verde fans danced in the stands, a visibly emotional, clearly exhausted Vozinha embraced his teammates. He accepted FIFA’s Michelob Ultra Superior Player of the Match Cup, and embraced it through interviews like it was an in-play ball.
“I may be the Man of the Match, but this award is for all my teammates,” he said, tapping the trophy. “I never thought any of this was impossible, and I’ll keep working for the sake of the dream and for the people.”
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In a tournament featuring players from the most elite soccer leagues on Earth — the Premier League, La Liga and more — Vozinha hails from the modest Chaves club, in Portugal‘s second-tier Liga Portugal 2. He’s played for clubs from Angola, Moldova and Cyprus, as well as Portugal and Cape Verde. He hails from a nation so small that every single American state tops it in population … a nation that, even so, managed to stay level with Spain.
“Everyone thought we came here just to enjoy the experience or take a vacation at the World Cup, but that’s not the case,” Vozinha said. “We are here to compete and to fight for our country.”
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Next up: a match with Uruguay on Sunday in Miami. Advancing out of the group stage is still a long shot, but then, so was holding Spain scoreless.
“Our greatest strength — our best weapon — is our dream,” Vozinha said. “Whether it’s a player joining today or one who has been with the national team for 10 years, the way we treat each other like family is our greatest asset.”
Cape Verde arrived at the World Cup with hope. Now, thanks to Vozinha, they’ve also got belief.
