Vozinha wrote joy in the language of tears

Soon after the Spain–Cape Verde match, a scene from the famous 2001 Hong Kong film Shaolin Soccer went viral on social media. In the scene, a goalkeeper keeps denying one shot after another. The ball arrives like a fireball, leaving his body battered and bloodied, yet he refuses to yield.

That cinematic image was paired with a picture of Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha. Anyone who watched his performance against Spain would hardly consider the comparison an exaggeration. If anything, Vozinha’s astonishing saves seemed to surpass even the drama of fiction.

Against one of the World Cup favourites, Vozinha single-handedly erected a wall in front of goal. No, not the Great Wall of China—the Wall of Cape Verde. In a word, unbelievable.

There is a saying that grass does not grow where goalkeepers walk. More often than not, they are also the ones blamed when a team loses. But beneath the crossbar today, Vozinha sang a hymn to the art of goalkeeping. He made flowers bloom on the pitch.

The little-known 40-year-old goalkeeper extinguished the brilliance of Spain’s galaxy of stars. Throughout the match, he produced at least seven saves from seemingly certain goals. On countless other occasions, his positioning was so perfect that he left Spain’s attackers with barely any space to find an opening.

In an attempt to break down Vozinha’s one-man fortress, Spain coach Luis de la Fuente eventually turned to one of football’s brightest stars, Lamine Yamal. Yamal had not even been expected to play in this match. Yet the 18-year-old was made to look like a child in front of Vozinha. Then again, considering the age difference, perhaps he was.

When Yamal came on as a substitute against Cape Verde, he was 18 years and 342 days old. Vozinha, meanwhile, was 40 years and 22 days old. The gap between them—21 years and 45 days—is the largest age difference ever recorded between two opposing players in a World Cup match. In fact, Vozinha is even two years older than Yamal’s father.

Since the 1966 World Cup, only one goalkeeper aged 40 or above has made more saves in a single match than Vozinha. On his 41st birthday at the 1986 World Cup, Pat Jennings made 10 saves for Northern Ireland against Brazil.

In addition to his seven saves, Vozinha completed 69 per cent of his passes (29 out of 42). Other statistics included a 43 per cent success rate on long balls, three diving saves, and six saves from inside the penalty area.

After this extraordinary performance, Vozinha broke down in tears at the final whistle. Former Scottish winger and BBC football analyst Pat Nevin wrote, "Vozinha has lit up this game. He has been absolutely brilliant. He's done it at 40 years of age. Every single camera is on him, all his players are pointing to him. It is a beautiful moment"

Former England defender Lee Dixon added, "I have to say, you might hear it in my voice, I am a bit emotional. It's absolutely fantastic, a brilliant, brilliant performance. They deserve that point more than anything and Spain almost don't deserve a point. They will walk off disappointed but this night is Cape Verde's. That man there (Vozinha), crying, I am nearly crying myself."

Football fans around the world shared in Vozinha’s emotion. Before the match, he had around 45,000 followers on Instagram. By the end of it, that number had surpassed one million.

These were tears of joy. The tears of David defeating Goliath. Stories like this—of underdogs defying the odds—are not written every day.

Vozinha, in truth, wrote a chapter of sporting joy in the language of tears.