Can Argentina break Vozinha's wall?
On paper, this is a mismatch. In practice, Argentina face a team that have not lost once at this tournament, built around a goalkeeper who has made a habit of saying no
World champions Argentina meet World Cup debutants Cabo Verde in the round of 32 on 3 July at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
The match will kick off at 6pm local time.
On paper, this is a mismatch. In practice, Argentina face a team that have not lost once at this tournament, built around a goalkeeper who has made a habit of saying no.
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Argentina's World Cup history carries 24 defeats, but only two have come against unfancied underdogs: a 1-0 loss to Cameroon in 1990 and a 1-2 collapse against Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Every other defeat has come against established powers such as Germany, Italy, England and Brazil, which is exactly why those three results still stand out decades later.
Against smaller footballing nations, Argentina have otherwise been close to untouchable. Cabo Verde will be hoping to add a fourth name to that short list of exceptions.
Standing in the way of that ambition is a Cabo Verde side that has not lost a single match at this World Cup. A 0-0 draw with Spain, a 2-2 draw with Uruguay, and a goalless finish against Saudi Arabia took them to second place in Group H on three points, one ahead of both Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
The pattern across all three games is the same: concede little, absorb pressure and leave with something. That pattern is what Argentina must break.
The man making it work is 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha, full name Josimar Jose Evora Dias. He made 11 saves across the three group matches and kept two clean sheets, a record that puts him alongside Peter Shilton and Dino Zoff as one of only three goalkeepers over 40 to register multiple clean sheets at a World Cup.
For Argentina's forward line, the route to goal runs straight through him. Breaking down a back line is one challenge; beating a goalkeeper in this kind of form on the night is another and it is the second challenge that has undone sharper attacks than Argentina's at this tournament.
What sets this Cabo Verde side apart from previous Argentina opponents is the scale of what they have already achieved. Their run is the first by a World Cup debutant to reach the knockout stage since Slovakia in 2010 and the first time a newcomer has gone through the group stage unbeaten since Senegal in 2002.
Ranked 64th in the world football, they finished runners-up in a group that also contained Spain and Uruguay. With a population of roughly 5.25 lakh, Cabo Verde are the smallest nation by population ever to reach a men's World Cup knockout stage. The only smaller nations to have qualified, Curacao and Iceland, were both eliminated at the group stage in their sole appearances, in 2026 and 2018 respectively.
None of that history will count for much once the ball is kicked off in Miami. Should Argentina get past Cabo Verde, their likely round of 16 opponent would be either Australia or Belgium and they would start as favourites against either.
The more immediate question is simpler: Can Lionel Messi and Argentina's attack find a way past a goalkeeper and a back line that have not been beaten yet at this World Cup, or does Vozinha's wall hold one more time?
