By Trevor Stynes
ATLANTA, June 15 (Reuters) - Cape Verde keeper Vozinha broke down in tears at the end of Monday's 0-0 draw with Spain after the 40-year-old was mobbed by his teammates following a stunning display as he denied the European champions victory in their World Cup opener.
"He was overwhelmed with emotion," Cape Verde manager Bubista said.
"He is quite an experienced player and has struggled throughout all of these years to be here at this world stage. It was also a cry of resilience."
Four
years ago, Spain began the tournament in Qatar with a 7-0 hammering of Costa Rica and after the draw for this year's competition pitted them against a country making its World Cup debut, a similar outcome may well have been expected.
Vozinha plies his trade in the Portuguese second tier with Chaves, and while this was a major step-up in opposition quality for the veteran, and his country, their defensive record in qualification was perhaps a clue that this would be no walkover.
Vozinha was an ever-present in Cape Verde's qualifying campaign, where he conceded eight goals in 10 games. Four of those goals came in one fixture against Cameroon and the keeper kept seven clean sheets, including all five home matches.
Cape Verde were pinned back in their own half for much of Monday's game but whenever Spain broke through their dogged rearguard, Vozinha came to the rescue.
Spain threatened to turn the screw shortly before the break, and when the ball came back off the crossbar from Ferran Torres's shot, Mikel Oyarzabal looked set to score with a header from the rebound but Vozinha tipped the ball over at full-stretch.
Vozinha got down well to hold another effort from Torres and then clawed Aymeric Laporte's header around the post and the minnows grew in belief as they held Spain scoreless going into halftime.
Spain piled on the pressure after the interval, but Vozinha plucked crosses and corners from the air, and the Cape Verde fans had a nervous wait when the keeper went down injured just before the hydration break, after taking a knock from a frustrated Rodri.
Vozinha returned to the action, and Spain coach Luis de la Fuente was forced to turn to his bench in an effort to snatch a win.
Lamine Yamal, held in reserve after battling injury, entered the fray and injected some pace into Spain's rather slow, sterile possession play.
The 18-year-old winger linked up with Marcos Llorente to set up another replacement, Mikel Merino, but his tame effort was never going to trouble Vozinha.
Spain can take some comfort from the fact that when they won the World Cup in 2010 they lost their opener to Switzerland, and after thrashing Costa Rica last time they went out in the last 16, so they may well look back on this result and smile.
Cape Verde celebrated the draw as if they had lifted the trophy, and who can blame them?
The third-smallest country by population to reach a World Cup finals had plenty of noisy supporters inside the Atlanta Stadium, and they rose to acclaim their side at the final whistle, with the loudest cheers reserved for Vozinha.
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Toby Davis)
