Cape Verde national football team

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Cape Verde
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s) Tubarões Azuis
(Blue Sharks)[1]
Crioulos (Creoles)
Association Federação Caboverdiana de Futebol
Sub-confederation WAFU (West Africa)
Confederation CAF (Africa)
Head coach Rui Águas
Captain Marco Soares
Top scorer Héldon Ramos (12)[2]
Home stadium Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde
FIFA code CPV
First colours
Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current 39 Decrease 7 (3 December 2015)
Highest 27 (February 2014)
Lowest 182 (April 2000)
First international
 Cape Verde 0–1 Angola 
(Cape Verde; unknown date 1978)
Africa Cup of Nations
Appearances 2 (First in 2013)
Best result Quarter-finals; 2013

The Cape Verde national football team, nicknamed either the Tubarões Azuis (Blue Sharks) or Crioulos (Creoles), is the national team of Cape Verde and is controlled by the Federação Caboverdiana de Futebol.

History

Overview

The Cape Verde Islands became independent from Portugal in 1975. The national team's first international was a 0–3 defeat to Guinea-Bissau in the 1979 Amilcar Cabral Cup.[3] Cape Verde's football association was formed in 1982, and joined FIFA in 1986.[4]

Cape Verdeans abroad, who are more numerous than the population of the islands themselves, are a major source of players for the national team. Most of Cape Verde's current international footballers play outside of Cape Verde (mainly in Europe, but also in Asia), and some were born outside of the islands.[5]

Several players of Cape Verdean origin have chosen to play for other national teams. These include Eliseu, Nani, Oceano, Manuel Fernandes, Rolando, Nélson Marcos, Jorge Andrade, Miguel and Silvestre Varela, who all represent Portugal, as well as Mickaël Tavares, Jacques and Ricardo Faty (Senegal), Patrick Vieira (France), Gelson Fernandes (Switzerland), Henrik Larsson (Sweden), David Mendes da Silva, Lerin Duarte, Jerson Cabral (Netherlands) and Rui (Equatorial Guinea), among other examples.

World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifiers

Cape Verde has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup but have qualified for the 2013 African Cup of Nations. Its first World Cup qualifying campaign was the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, in which Cape Verde was eliminated in the first round after one draw and one defeat against Algeria.[6]

In the qualification campaign for the 2006 World Cup and the 2006 African Nations Cup, Cape Verde advanced to the Final Round after its first victory in a World Cup qualifier, beating Swaziland. In the Final Round, the team made an impression with its first ever away victory against Burkina Faso, but finished fifth in its group and failed to qualify for either finals.[6]

New coach João de Deus from Portugal brought in several new players from European leagues for the 2010 World Cup/2010 African Nations Cup qualifiers.[5] Cape Verde finished second in its group in the Second round, ahead of Tanzania and Mauritius, but behind Cameroon, and did not advance to the Third round. Cape Verde's top goalscorer of the qualifying campaign was Julio Tavares.

Then, finally, Cape Verde qualified for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, after stunning Cameroon 3–2 on aggregate.

2013 Africa Cup of Nations

On 14 October 2012, Cape Verde managed to secure their first ever berth in the Finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, when they defeated Cameroon 3–2 on aggregate score, following a 2–1 defeat to Cameroon at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé, having won the home leg 2–0 in Praia just weeks prior to their qualification.

On 24 October 2012, Cape Verde were drawn into Group A of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, alongside Angola, Morocco and the host nation South Africa. Furthermore, Cape Verde played the opening match of the tournament at Soccer City in Johannesburg, Gauteng, against South Africa on 19 January 2013 – Soccer City being the host venue for the 2010 World Cup Final. Pulled from the fourth pot during the group stage drawing of the tournament, Cape Verde actually had the highest FIFA ranking of any team in their group at the time of the drawing, ranking at 51st overall, followed by Morocco (71st), South Africa (72nd) and Angola (83rd). Cape Verde also had the 10th highest FIFA ranking in the CAF zone at the time of the drawing as well.

Cape Verde drew with South Africa 0–0 in the tournament's first match, before drawing with Morocco 1–1. Platini scored Cape Verde's first ever goal at the AFCON, who were unfortunate to let an early lead slip. They however did win their first ever AFCON match against Angola, which they won 2–1 (despite an early own goal by captain Nando Maria Neves), through the late goals from Fernando Varela and Héldon Ramos, thus qualifying for the quarter-finals, and thus reaching the last eight in their maiden appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations.

On 2 February 2013, Cape Verde faced Ghana in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, in the quarter-finals of the tournament. Cape Verde played a good match, with 16 shots on Ghana's goal to their 8, with 7 shots on target to their 2, Cape Verde proved to be especially dangerous from set-pieces, however Ghana's keeper Abdul Dauda managed to keep a clean sheet making some spectacular saves, and with Wakaso Mubarak scoring a penalty kick for Ghana in the 54' minute, and then scoring again in the closing minute of the game (90+5') on an open goal, Ghana would win the match 2–0, to move on to the semi-finals, and ending Cape Verde's exceptional 2013 Africa Cup of Nations campaign.[7]

2015 Africa Cup of Nations

On 15 October 2014, Cape Verde became the first of two nations to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations alongside Algeria, joining the host nation Equatorial Guinea after defeating Mozambique 1–0 at home.[8] The team, under newly appointed manager Rui Águas, picked up where Lúcio Antunes left off and managed to finish in the top two of the group stage with two matches remaining to play in the qualification process, having been drawn in a group together with Mozambique, Niger and Zambia.[9] On 15 November 2014, Cape Verde secured first place in their group, finishing as Group F winners by defeating Niger 3–1 at home, with one match remaining to play for qualification.[10]

Pooled from Pot 3 on 3 December 2014, Cape Verde were drawn into Group B of the final tournament, together with Zambia, Tunisia and DR Congo. On 18 January 2015 they played their first match against Tunisia at the Nuevo Estadio de Ebebiyín. The match ended in a 1–1 draw, with Héldon leveling the score off a penalty kick in the 78-minute. Cape Verde then drew 0–0 against DR Congo four days later, with the advancement out of the group stage depending on the final match results of both teams.[11]

Facing off against Zambia on 26 January 2015, with both teams depending on the result of the other match between Tunisia and DR Congo and having to finish with a win themselves, the match ended in 0–0 draw, leaving both Cape Verde and Zambia eliminated from the Cup.[12] Contested during a tropical storm, with 26 mm of heavy rainfall, Cape Verde exited the tournament tied with DR Congo for points and undefeated, yet losing to DR Congo on goal difference. Exhibiting good form, poise and defensive prowess, the team were only able to score one goal, while exiting at the group stage of their second appearance in the finals of the tournament, while remaining unbeaten in any Cup of Nations group stage match.[13][14]

Other tournaments and notable matches

Cape Verde has two titles: It hosted and won the Amílcar Cabral Cup in 2000, and won the gold medal in the football tournament at the 2009 Lusophony Games. The team also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Lusophony Games.

For the first time in its history, on 2 November 2002, it faced a non-African team, Luxembourg, in a friendly, resulting in a scoreless draw. On 4 September 2009, it faced Malta in a friendly, resulting in an 2–0 victory. On 24 May 2010, Cape Verde played out a 0–0 draw in a friendly match against a full-strength Portugal.[15] At the time, Portugal was third in the FIFA rankings and Cape Verde were 117th.[16] On 31 March 2015, a second friendly against Portugal resulted in a 2–0 victory in Portugal.[17]

Stadiums

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Main articles: Estádio da Várzea and Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde

The team used to play their games at Estádio da Várzea. It is located in the capital city, Praia, on the Santiago Island. The stadium opened in 2006 and holds 10,000 people.

In 2014 the new stadium Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde was opened, able to host a capacity of 15,000 people. On 15 October 2014 the team qualified for their second Africa Cup of Nations at the new stadium, in a 1–0 victory over Mozambique, making them the first of all teams in CAF to qualify for the tournament.

World Cup record

FIFA World Cup record
Year Round Position Pld W D L GF GA
Uruguay 1930 to
Germany 1974		 Before independence in 1975
Argentina 1978 to
Spain 1982		 Not a member of FIFA
Mexico 1986 to
France 1998		 Did not enter
South Korea Japan2002 to
Brazil 2014		 Did not qualify
Russia 2018 To be determined
Qatar 2022 To be determined
Total 0/20 0 0 0 0 0 0

Africa Cup of Nations record

Titles: 0
Appearances: 2
Year Position Year Position Year Position Year Position
Sudan 1957 Did not enter Ethiopia 1976 Did not enter Tunisia 1994 Did not qualify Equatorial GuineaGabon 2012 Did not qualify
Egypt 1959 Did not enter Ghana 1978 Did not enter South Africa 1996 Withdrew South Africa 2013 Quarter-finals
Ethiopia 1962 Did not enter Nigeria 1980 Did not enter Burkina Faso 1998 Did not enter Equatorial Guinea 2015 Group Stage
Ghana 1963 Did not enter Libya 1982 Did not enter GhanaNigeria 2000 Did not qualify
Tunisia 1965 Did not enter Ivory Coast 1984 Did not enter Mali 2002 Did not qualify
Ethiopia 1968 Did not enter Egypt 1986 Did not enter Tunisia 2004 Did not qualify
Sudan 1970 Did not enter Morocco 1988 Did not enter Egypt 2006 Did not qualify
Cameroon 1972 Did not enter Algeria 1990 Did not enter Ghana 2008 Did not qualify
Egypt 1974 Did not enter Senegal 1992 Did not enter Angola 2010 Did not qualify

Recent results and forthcoming fixtures

For all past match results of the national team, see the team's results page

The following matches were played or are scheduled to be played by the national team in the current or upcoming seasons.

2015

2016

Squad

Current squad

The following players were called for the Friendly Match against Portugal on 31 March 2015.[18]

Caps and goals updated as 31 March 2015 after match against Portugal.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1GK Vozinha (1986-06-03) 3 June 1986 (age 37) 23 0 Moldova Zimbru Chișinău
1GK Kevin Sousa (1994-06-06) 6 June 1994 (age 29) 1 0 Portugal Nacional
2DF Gegé (1988-02-24) 24 February 1988 (age 36) 24 1 Portugal Marítimo
2DF Carlitos (1985-04-23) 23 April 1985 (age 38) 22 0 Cyprus AC Omonia
2DF Nivaldo (1988-07-10) 10 July 1988 (age 35) 20 0 Belarus Dinamo Minsk
2DF Jeffry Fortes (1989-03-22) 22 March 1989 (age 35) 4 0 Netherlands FC Dordrecht
2DF Steven Fortes (1992-04-17) 17 April 1992 (age 31) 1 0 France Le Havre
3MF Babanco (1985-07-27) 27 July 1985 (age 38) 43 3 Portugal Estoril
3MF Toni Varela (1986-06-13) 13 June 1986 (age 37) 26 1 Netherlands Excelsior
3MF Calú (1983-09-20) 20 September 1983 (age 40) 16 0 Moldova Zimbru Chișinău
3MF Platini (1986-04-16) 16 April 1986 (age 38) 15 2 Egypt Al Ittihad
3MF Nuno Rocha (1992-03-25) 25 March 1992 (age 32) 9 0 Romania CSU Craiova
3MF Sérgio Semedo (1988-02-23) 23 February 1988 (age 36) 2 0 Portugal Gil Vicente
4FW Héldon (1988-11-14) 14 November 1988 (age 35) 36 12 Portugal Rio Ave
4FW Ryan Mendes (1990-01-08) 8 January 1990 (age 34) 24 5 England Nottingham Forest
4FW Odaïr Fortes (1987-03-31) 31 March 1987 (age 37) 22 4 France Reims
4FW Júlio Tavares (1988-11-19) 19 November 1988 (age 35) 14 1 France Dijon
4FW Garry Rodrigues (1990-11-27) 27 November 1990 (age 33) 10 2 Greece PAOK
4FW Ricardo (1991-12-18) 18 December 1991 (age 32) 1 0 Portugal Vitória de Guimarães

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for the Cape Verde squad for the last twelve months.[19]

Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club Latest call-up
GK Ivan Cruz (1996-05-03) 3 May 1996 (age 27) 0 0 Portugal Gil Vicente 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
DF Stopira (1988-05-20) 20 May 1988 (age 35) 18 0 Hungary Videoton 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
DF Fernando Varela (1987-11-26) 26 November 1987 (age 36) 36 3 Romania Steaua București 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
DF Kay (1988-01-05) 5 January 1988 (age 36) 6 0 Romania CSU Craiova 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
FW Djaniny (1991-03-21) 21 March 1991 (age 33) 20 6 Mexico Santos Laguna 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
FW Kuca (1989-08-02) 2 August 1989 (age 34) 10 2 Portugal Belenenses 2015 Africa Cup of Nations

|}

Previous squads

Managers since 2003

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3

Honours

References

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  16. ↑ http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=192
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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