This Saturday, Cape Verde failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2023) in football, losing to South Africa, 2-1, in a penalty shoot-out.
After a 0-0 score at the end of the 120 minutes in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, the “boys are boys” scored two of the penalties, while the “blue sharks” only completed one in five, with the South African goalkeeper being the team’s greatest hero, stopping four of the five shots.
Cape Verde thus misses what would be its first appearance in the semi-finals of the competition, a phase to which, 24 years later, South Africa, champions in 1996, returns, and which will face José Peseiro’s Nigeria, who beat Angola .
The game between Cape Verdeans and South Africans was somewhat uninteresting. Throughout the entire regulation period, practically no scoring opportunities were created.
Playing very cautiously, only a few individual initiatives managed to create some sense of relative danger near each of the two goals. Zwane, moreover, created the best of the first half with a strong shot for a beautiful defense by Vozinha.
In the second half, it was necessary to wait almost until the final whistle of regulation time to see the best chance of all — former Benfica B player, Gilson Benchimol, appeared alone in front of Ronwen Williams and shot hard and placed in the South African goal , but the South African goalkeeper made an excellent save, deflecting the ball towards the post and taking the game to extra time.
The thirty minutes of football that followed brought more emotion. Goalkeeper Vozinha, with a double save in the 91st minute, saved Cape Verde, proving that his 37 years does not inhibit him from “shine”.
Then, Benchimol went to waste again. The Cape Verdean player proved to be too wasteful in front of the opponent’s goal, wasting the opportunities to undo the equality on the scoreboard he had.
There was, therefore, no other option than to decide who would be the last semi-finalist of this year’s edition of the CAN — joining Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo — than resorting to the penalty shootout.
And here the South African goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams, shined, saving shots from Bebé, Willy Semedo, Laros Duarte and Patrick Duarte — only Bryan Teixeira scored. On the South African side, two failed attempts (Lepasa and Modiba) and two accurate kicks (Mokoena and Mvala).
The “blue sharks” postpone what would be their debut in a semi-final of the main football competition on the African continent, while the “boys are boys”, return to that level for the first time since 2000, when they finished in third place. And there are no longer Portuguese-speaking teams in CAN 2023.