MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The FIFA World Cup got super-sized for its return to the U.S. It expanded from 32 to 48 teams, a decision that was criticized. But now the underdogs are having their day. And NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is with us now from Los Angeles to tell us more about that. Hi, Becky.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So obviously, the fear was that expanding to 48 teams would mean a lot more lopsided matches or blowouts, at least blowouts from a soccer perspective. But that is not what has happened. Tell us more.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. Exactly. I mean, there definitely have been a handful of uncompetitive duds. I don't want to say there's been none. Like, you had Germany that sort of walloped Curacao in the opening game there. But honestly, that's been kind of a little bit of an outlier. And on the other hand, the expansion has given us some of the most emotional, inspiring moments of the World Cup so far, including one of my favorite moments, which was when the Democratic Republic of Congo earned its first-ever World Cup point in its history with a 1-1 draw against Portugal.
You had New Zealand versus Iran, which on paper was one of the most lopsided matchups ever in the history of the tournament. But the outcome was a 2-2 draw, which was thrilling to watch. And then, of course, there's been Cape Verde, the African island nation, which has been the runaway Cinderella story of it all so far. And they wouldn't have qualified it if it had still been a 32-team tournament.
MARTIN: Yeah. Tell us more about this. Was it Cabo Verde's first-ever appearance...
SULLIVAN: Yep.
MARTIN: ...At the World Cup?
SULLIVAN: Exactly. Yeah. This is the third-smallest country by population ever to qualify for the World Cup. It seems like they were up against this very difficult group. You had Spain, who are the goliaths of the tournament, the towering favorites, the dominant winners of the Euros just a couple of summers ago. They drew them 0-0. And then up next, they had Uruguay, another traditionally strong team. Yesterday, they played that game. That was a 2-2 draw. Also very thrilling. And at the press conference afterward, Cape Verde's coach, Bubista, he was all smiles. Here's a little bit of what he was saying.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BUBISTA: (Non-English language spoken).
SULLIVAN: What he's saying is, you know, once you're inside those four lines on the soccer pitch, many things become equal, even when your opponent is one of the best in the world. Not only in football, he says, but in other parts of life, you can achieve great things, regardless of the challenges, be they financial or any other, so long as you have a dream and you chase that dream. And so, Michel, I think that's pretty inspirational stuff from a team that would have been excluded but get to play.
MARTIN: OK. Becky, can you just briefly explain why a tie is the cause for such a celebration? A lot of people are, like, huh?
SULLIVAN: (Laughter). Yeah.
MARTIN: Wait. A 0-0 score or a draw and people are, like, celebrating. What's that all about? Could you just briefly explain why that's such a big deal?
SULLIVAN: Yeah. The way that the World Cup works is that all the teams are divided into groups of four, and those groups all do a little round-robin with the other three teams. They each play against all the three teams in their group. And if you win, you get 3 points. If you draw, you get 1 point. If you lose, you get 0 points. And then the teams with the most points move on, the top two or three teams. So it's a big deal to draw and get 1 point, even because now that Cabo Verde has gotten 1 point against the top two teams in their group, they have one game left to play.
That's against Saudi Arabia. That game is this coming Friday. Saudi Arabia is actually the easiest team they'll have faced so far. And so if they can pull off a win, that'll get them five points in total. That'll guarantee them a spot in the knockout round, which would just be unbelievably impressive.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Becky Sullivan in Los Angeles. Becky, thank you.
SULLIVAN: Of course. You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
