Pico Lopes, the television in the classroom, Saudi Arabia and the World Cup dream
Damien Duff inspired a 10-year-old from Crumlin, now he is the inspiration
Pico Lopes sat comfortably in a Tampa hotel room, laptop logged on to the conference call and his mind ready for questions from the journalists he sees regularly back home, all familiar faces now poised on the grid down the side of his screen.
The call was set-up five days out from Cape Verde’s debut in the World Cup finals and all bar one of those dialled in from Dublin and beyond can be seen most Friday nights at League of Ireland grounds across the country.
They were, by and large, faces familiar to the man preparing to make his own World Cup debut against the European champions Spain but this time they weren’t asking about the Greatest League In The World.
Instead, their questions to the Shamrock Rovers captain were all about the Greatest Tournament In The World - the one where dreams come true and heroes are made.
As he sat down, digitally speaking, with the Irish football media two Thursdays ago, Pico Lopes was asked for his own World Cup highlights. They were all traced back to 2002 and a tournament in Japan and South Korea that was won by Brazil and the scene of the odd Irish story or two.
Just shy of his 10th birthday, Pico wasn’t really immersed in the story from Saipan that preceded the tournament. Instead his eyes were ultimately focussed on the football on the pitch and the Brazilian team that won the tournament, a team blessed with the talents of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo to name just three of their Galacticos.
Those superstars in the most famous national jersey in the world inspired the defender in waiting as he watched back home in Crumlin but it was Ireland’s own Galacticos who provided the highlights that come to his mind instantly when such a question is asked.
He spoke from Tampa of the goal that Robbie Keane scored against Germany in Ibaraki. He remembered the noise of the trolley being dragged across the classroom floor as the TV set was dragged in for the final group game against Saudi Arabia.
And he can still recall, vividly in fact, the little bow that Duffer made in honour of his surroundings when he scored the third and final goal in that 3-0 win against the Saudis in Yokohama.
That goal and the win secured Ireland’s qualification for stage two of the tournament and a game against Spain in Suwon that ended in defeat via a penalty shoot-out, a defeat that broke the hearts of Pico and so many more in Crumlin and beyond.
And why am I telling you all this over a week after Pico outlined his World Cup highlights with the Irish media via a Zoom call?
Because life throws up coincidences every now and then - although the fact that both young Pico and now 34-year-old Pico have Spanish World Cup stories to share is stretching it a little.
Instead, let’s concentrate on the fact that a game against Saudi Arabia again holds the key to Pico’s World Cup knock-out phase dreams, on the pitch this time and not on a big, ugly television sitting on top of a classroom trolley.
Pico and Cape Verde will play against the Saudis in the final game of Group H of the 2026 World Cup finals in Houston on Friday night local time, 1am Irish time.
And the outcome of this game will decide if Cape Verde can extend their World Cup odyssey. On the basis of their heroics against Uruguay on Sunday night, a five minute spell of madness before half-time aside, they deserve to carry on in America past Houston.
Up against the Bielsa bop and the constant bombardment of their box, the archipelago side were brilliant, none better than Lopes and his central defence partner Diney Borges in the eye of a constant Uruguayan storm.
Calm and resilient throughout, Lopes should have got the player of the match award as Tony O’Donoghue said on RTE afterwards but he won’t care that he didn’t. Nor will he be too upset by Stephen Bradley’s assertion on the same RTE panel that he should have scored with that chance from a late corner.
All that mattered to Pico Lopes going to America was that Cape Verde would rise to the challenge of a first World Cup finals, and that as the third smallest country ever to qualify.
When they spoke pre-tournament of progressing to the second round of the tournament, Cape Verde will always have marked the Saudi game as the one to get them there as it always looked likely that one win could seal one of the 32 spots to be shared out after phase one.
Now, thanks to those heroic draws against Spain and Uruguay, a win against Saudis will guarantee Pico’s team safe passage to round two. And you wouldn’t bet against them this weekend or against a Pico goal and a little Duffer style bow from the man flying the flag for Ireland in this World Cup.
The schools in Crumlin will be off on their summer holidays by kick-off time on Saturday morning then so there will be no need to wheel the big screens into the classrooms this time around.
But they might just keep the pubs open in Tallaght and Dublin 12 instead - and roll out the champagne if Cape Verde do get through. They already deserve to be toasted but I suspect there’s more to come from Team Pico.