Argentina’s 2026 World Cup round of 32 matchup against Cape Verde isn’t like David versus Goliath. It’s not even FCS Appalachian State looking to upset Michigan back in 2007.
As far as college football is concerned, the comparison is what would happen if we played a 48-team College Football Playoff where the third-best team in the WAC received a berth against an undefeated defending national champion with a Heisman Trophy winner returning at quarterback.
Lionel Messi, considered by many to be the greatest soccer player of all time, is the leading goalscorer in men’s FIFA World Cup history. The college football equivalent is 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart, who led USC to a perfect 13-0 season and a national championship. Imagine the 2005 Trojans facing Louisiana Tech, which finished third in the WAC with a 7-4 record and lost by 38 points the last time it played a top-10 opponent.
Matt Leinart led USC to a 13-0 record and a national championship in 2004. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
That’s the task facing Cape Verde.
Even Appalachian State’s famous 34-32 upset win over Michigan in 2007 falls short as a comparison because Cape Verde simply isn’t as good as Appalachian State turned out to be.
The Mountaineers entered the 2007 season fresh off back-to-back FCS national championships. They posted a 14-1 record the previous year, with their only loss coming against NC State. And 2007 was just as much of a banner year for Appalachian State, as it once again won the FCS national title and posted a 13-2 record.
Appalachian State took down Michigan in 2007 in one of the biggest upsets in college football history. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
During an eight-year run from 2005-12, Appalachian State won seven conference championships and captured three straight national titles. The only college football program more dominant than the Mountaineers during that time was Nick Saban’s Alabama teams.
Cape Verde isn’t that.
This is a nation with fewer people than the state of Wyoming. It’s a team that has won just one of its last nine matches in international competition — excluding friendlies — and hasn’t left a match victorious in international competition since October 2025.
This is a team that built its World Cup reputation on its ability to defend and timely goalkeeping rather than overwhelming talent.
In fact, when Cape Verde goalkeeper José Évora Dias — or Vozinha, if you prefer — was asked about the chance to face Argentina and possibly the best player who has ever lived, his answer was quite humbling.
“It would be really special to face [Argentina] as a result of Lionel Messi is the best of all time,” Vozinha said. “And I actually would love the prospect to play in opposition to Lionel Messi as a result of perhaps I am going to get Lionel Messi’s jersey.”
That is what makes this matchup really feel much less like Michigan-Appalachian State and extra like what would occur if a Group of 5 crew snuck into an expanded playoff and drew the defending nationwide champion.
In some ways, Argentina-Cape Verde is the precise matchup school soccer followers have spent years arguing about. These in favor of growth need extra entry for the outsiders and the underdogs.
All people desires to play Alabama till Alabama reveals as much as beat them like they stole one thing.
All of us love Cinderella story, and a victory by Cape Verde over Argentina would prolong the legend of this Blue Sharks crew as one of many recreation’s best fairytales. However learn one other manner, Cinderella is only a woman who misplaced her slipper and rode into the ball in a carriage made fairly actually of hopes and desires.
Oregon totaled 514 yards of offense in a 51-34 win over James Madison within the School Soccer Playoff. (Photograph by Tom Hauck/Getty Photographs)
Bear in mind this: Cincinnati obtained its shot in opposition to Alabama in 2021 and discovered what it meant to get rocked by a imply stepsister. Boise State went up in opposition to Penn State in 2024 and was pummeled again down the palace steps. Tulane and James Madison obtained their likelihood in 2025 after which Ole Miss and Oregon, respectively, smashed them like pumpkins.
It is what occurs whenever you prolong the sector. Groups that might by no means have gotten into the match in years previous gladly turn out to be cannon fodder for the true powers amongst them. However, hey, they get to say they made the match, that they received their manner into the knockout stage.
Good on you, Cape Verde: Worst case, your solely loss within the World Cup can be in opposition to the defending champions when the matches matter most. Is that value celebrating?
You are rattling proper it’s.
