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Chapter 1: How did Cape Verde hold Spain to a draw in the World Cup?
Spain, population 48 million. Cape Verde, population half a million. Not a meeting of equals. And yet last night, the World Cup minnows held football royalty Spain to a draw. Central to that magnificent performance was Crumlin's Pico López, captain of Shamrock Rovers and the first League of Ireland player to appear at the World Cup.
Here's a clip of some of his heroics in defence and the reaction of the Cape Verde supporters afterwards.
And now we're in the 88 minute, Danny Olmouc have a run, what's the decision here, into a jersey foul, what a block, Pico Lopez. What about this ball up from Jamal Ntie Olmouc, he played it back and he has a strike coming in and what a block from Pico Lopez, game changer, I mean that, you think the keeper's going to be beaten from there, terrific strike. How many times have we seen it done?
The years from Valley Buffet down to Turner's cross.
Chapter 2: What role did Pico López play in Cape Verde's performance?
Pico Lopez putting his body on the line.
I was stressed. I ain't going to lie. Because it's a big team, you know. Spain been to the World Cup for many times. And that's our first time. So we was a little stressed. But they did wonderful.
Every minute inside that stadium, our heart was racing. Because our first time.
Chapter 3: What was the reaction of Cape Verde supporters after the match?
Nobody talked about us yesterday. Today they're going to talk about us all night.
They sure are. Fans of Cape Verde there celebrating the draw with Spain. Enjoyed live from Atlanta by Daniel McDonald, soccer correspondent with the Irish Independent, who was at the match and spoke to Pico and his family afterwards. Morning, Daniel.
Morning, David.
And thank you so much for getting up in the middle of the night for you. We do appreciate what a performance. He actually he played a blinder, didn't he?
Yeah, it was. I mean, sometimes, you know, the angle completely delivered. You know, sometimes you could be accused of maybe hamming up some sort of Irish angle to something. But this is genuine, as your clip sort of illustrates there. He was at the centre of the action, at the centre of a key moment of the game with two minutes to go.
And has been central in this Cape Verde story, which, you know, this is one that has sort of captured the attention of the world, really. And the fact is that, yeah, you do have someone who's born and raised in Dublin, a product of Irish football, right at the heart of it.
And just to put this in context, Daniel, I mean, Spain were pretty heavily tipped as one of the favourites to win this competition. Now, every team in the course of a World Cup, a lengthy campaign could have an off game, but pretty humbling for Spain, wasn't it?
Yeah, I mean, this is it.
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Chapter 4: What insights did Daniel McDonnell share about the match atmosphere?
Like, the stadium yesterday, I mean, there was a sort of a mix of, there was some Cape Verdean fans, you know, from their diaspora, but they were outnumbered mostly by people in red shirts who weren't necessarily all from Spain. It was sort of football enthusiasts in the area who were expecting a showcase, who were just expecting...
Spain to turn it on and actually grew impatient as the game went on, started to boo and whistle because they weren't getting the bang for the buck. They weren't getting the story that they were expecting to develop.
And no, this is like some people would have been suggesting last night and the stats that you mentioned in terms of population, but also probably football pedigree, that this would be up there and one of the bigger shocks in terms of the history of this competition. considering Cape Verde had never played at this level before.
And it was all about the defence. I mean, I don't think Cape Verde were in any danger of scoring during the game. But that block that we played the clip of by Pico Lopez, I mean, that was a match winner, wasn't it?
Yeah, no, it was. I mean, there was the goalkeeper Vazinha as well. I mean, naturally, you know, we would focus in on sort of the Pico contribution, but their goalkeeper is 40. And he was very emotional afterwards because his mother couldn't afford the bond for the visa to come to the competition.
So, you know, each Cape Verde player has a story that's sort of wrapped in with the country's history, which largely involves emigration. And yeah, weirdly, they actually were on the attack. In injury time, they did have one moment where they could have gone to a completely surreal level. But overall, yes, it was a defensive rearguard effort.
I mean, as Pico said afterwards, there was one corner at the end and the message going around the players was, let's just get this through, this one more corner. One more is all they had to get through and they did. And yeah, the celebration kicked off after. But they earned it. I wouldn't describe them as lucky.
I think they earned their draw because Spain just weren't good enough on the day to break them down.
And you mentioned Pico speaking afterwards. You were speaking to him. How was he?
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Chapter 5: How did Pico López's journey to the World Cup unfold?
They went to Pico in his hotel room who dialed into this show that's been filmed in front of a studio audience in LA. So, it's not just the Irish interest in it. There's a genuine American and wider global interest in it. So, I mean, that is a surreal day for someone who has spent his whole life, his whole football career playing in the League of Ireland.
Yeah, he's 34. He only made his international debut at 28. So as you say, it has come late in life for him.
It has. I mean, I suppose the fact is this, and I know that his wife Leah said the other day that within the family, you know, they are, God, if we hear this story again about how he ended up playing for Ireland, I became very sorry by virtue of LinkedIn. And now it's been given another boost that's been sent all around the world again. But I mean... the story is the story.
Like, you know, he did, he did ignore a request to play for Cape Fair because it was in Portuguese and it was only nine months later where he took it a little bit more seriously when it came a second time. And that was it. Like, it changed the course of his life and has brought him to all of these places. So,
And the more you see, I was chatting to people yesterday, like media from other countries who might hear the accent and are sidling up to ask a little bit about Pico and his story. And when you say it to them and explain the circumstances, how it came about, I suppose that journalistic instinct kicks in everywhere where you realise, no, this is an amazing story.
And you don't be embarrassed to tell us, even if it might be repetitive to those around them who've heard it every day now.
No, it's a great journal right there. You mentioned his family. I presume he hasn't seen them for a bit because he's been in camp, so it must have been an emotional reunion.
Yeah, they met for half an hour on the day before the game and that's the first time he'd seen them all in three weeks. So they have pretty much been in a pretty intense camp. And yeah, so while there is sort of, you know, his parents are over and his wife and her family are over and they're all doing various journeys by camper van in some cases or whatever.
just you know doing this going on holiday to Florida and other cases and they're not actually seeing him so it's all they were facetiming him from the dressing room afterwards it wasn't a case of being able to meet them all so there's a sort of modern communication layer to the whole thing that they're over here together but actually apart in different ways but It is emotional.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do Cape Verdean players face in international football?
Tell us about Pico the person.
Yeah, I suppose, David, it is interesting to listen to Dan there, and he gives the whole, obviously, the football side of everything. And I thought the performance last night, first off, was as good as... It reminded me of an Irishman in 1994, Paul McGrath. It was similar to that performance. Yeah. Joanne Stadium, you just mentioned it there, with Italy.
I thought Pico's performance last night was similar to that. But I suppose, from a day-to-day perspective, he is chair of the PFA. He's an activist. He...
him along with Lee Stacey and Brendan Clarke two seasons ago fought for the minimum wage for professional footballers in Ireland to have a minimum wage that they could earn to be paid holiday pay and that's the side of it that people don't see he's part of the global council within the World Players Union where he gives his opinion on he firmly believes players need to have dual careers the majority of players David that you know don't earn enough money to retire
players in the League of Ireland, for example. So Pico is very much one of the guys that wants to see that side of the game developed. He wants to make sure that players, when they finish their career, they have something to fall back on. And part of that global council in FIPRO gives them that platform to do that.
And even small things, like it was only just before the World Cup, Luis Cairns from Colossia, me and Avan, I'd reach out for him to go and open up a pitch at the school. And just before he flew out, he went up to school, met the 200 kids. One of the kids had a Cape Verde shirt. Her mum was from Cape Verde. This is the stuff that you don't see, David, that he does outside of the game.
And his work with us is hugely important for the professional players in Ireland. And what he's done is shown a light on our game here. And I listened to Talk Sport this morning. You see Zlatan and all these other people talking about it. But it's talking about Seán McGrath. It's talking about the League of Ireland. It's talking about our product here. And he is the production of that product.
And that's a huge thing that probably we lack that coverage, David, at times, particularly from a global perspective. And I think what Pico's done is he's shown the light on the league and obviously on himself.
Yeah. Unfortunate, obviously, the Republic of Ireland aren't there, but at least we have someone to cheer for now, eh?
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Chapter 7: How is Pico López contributing to the future of football in Ireland?
Obviously, I watched the game last night. Saudi Arabia are a really good side. It was 1-1. I probably would have liked Uruguay to win because, again, the group was quite tight. But I think they see now there's maybe a potential to get through the group here. Can they pick up a draw against Uruguay? And the big thing is, can they beat Saudi Arabia? And that's the target from the start.
It was to get out of the group. And what an amazing achievement that would be.
Absolutely. Stephen McGuinness, head of the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland. Thank you so much for joining us this morning and hopefully more to come from Pico and the rest of the Cape Verde team.