All posts tagged: Cabral girlfriend celebration

racially abused online, £850 a month, then Cape Verde’s greatest goal

racially abused online, £850 a month, then Cape Verde’s greatest goal

He cut inside from the left, opened his body, and curled it into the far top corner. Cape Verde 2, Argentina 2, in the 103rd minute of a tie bookmakers had given Cape Verde as little as a 4 percent chance of winning outright. Sidny Lopes Cabral had just scored the greatest goal in Cape Verdean football history. He didn’t stay to admire it, running straight into the crowd to find his girlfriend before turning back for the pitch. Argentina won it in extra time, 3-2, in a match that never once behaved like a mismatch. But long after the scoreline fades, people will remember the goal, and that run into the stands. Two players stood at either end of that Cape Verde back line, and between them they told the whole story of what this team is. Cabral is 23, born in Rotterdam, one of seven squad members born in the Dutch city, more than were born in the island nation’s own capital, Praia. His parents left Santiago for the Netherlands at seventeen and …