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19 June 2026; Michael Noonan of Shamrock Rovers celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division match between Waterford and Shamrock Rovers at RSC in Waterford. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Pico Lopes, the television in the classroom, Saudi Arabia and the World Cup dream
Cathal Dervan, Editor
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.
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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.
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As the World Cup waits to see how Roberto Martinez will respond to Ronaldo’s woeful performance against DC Congo, leading coach Larry Mahony talks with Cathal Dervan about the lessons for all coaches in how to deal with an under performing star player.
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The key stories developing today
Pico Lopes not looking too far ahead as next up could be Messi matchup: ‘We know what happens if we win, we are in the next round’
World Cup hero Pico Lopes will continue to take it one game at a time as Cape Verde edge ever closer to the second phase of the World Cup - and a possible date with the likes of Lionel Messi and Argentina.
Speaking to Macdara Ferris from Extratime.ie in the mixed zone after Sunday’s superb 2-2 draw with two timer world champions Uruguay, Shamrock Rovers captain Lopes reflected on another big result for his national team.
A win against Saudi Arabia in Houston on Friday night - 1am Irish time Saturday morning - will guarantee Cape Verde emerge from their group after the draws against Spain and Uruguay while a draw might be enough to send them through.
“We won’t get too far ahead of who we will be playing,” said Lopes. “We have to respect Saudi Arabia. They are a really strong team. We have to try and win the game. That has to be the goal. We won’t get ahead of ourselves. It is all about recovering now. Working hard towards that game.
“We know what happens if we win, we are in the next round. It doesn’t matter what position you finish in the group, once you are there (in the knockout phase), that is the main thing.”
“Since we arrived, that was our goal,” said the Shamrock Rovers skipper about looking to make it out of the group. We got here on merit.
“You don’t win a prize to get to the World Cup. You have to compete, you have to qualify and it is difficult to get here. Now you are mixing it with some of the best teams in the world.
“Our goal was to attack the first game and show that we belong here. Nothing changed for the second game. We wanted to try and get three points. We got a point and it is another point nearer where we want to be. We have a good opportunity to reach the next phase which would be amazing for our group.
“It is something that we want, it is part of our goals, just to show we deserve to be at this level.”
Eoin Kenny’s brilliant performance and match winning goal in Friday night’s 2-1 win over Bohemians at Dalymount Park has reinforced his manager Ciaran Kilduff’s view that the striker will play senior international football.
Kenny, son of former Irish boss Stephen and born in Derry when his dad was manager at City, has already won eight Under 21 caps for Northern Ireland and Kilduff told the Irish Independent there is more to come from the 20-year-old.
Asked if Kenny and other young players in his squad will play international football, Kilduff said: “Without a doubt, I can see a lot of them [get capped], I’m telling you now. Sometimes it’s who shouts the loudest.
“I think for a newly promoted team, for what we’re doing here, it can’t go unnoticed. I don’t want to be the one coming out going ‘my players have to be picked’. But we’re at the top end of the table, we’re on a great run, we’re competing and playing to that level there.”
Nottingham Forest have joined the chase for Shamrock Rovers striker Michael Noonan but the youngster is expected to move to Dutch football with Ajax when he turns 18 at the end of July.
John Fallon reports in the Irish Examiner that Forest have made a late bid to entice Noonan to the Premier League.
Former Irish midfielder Andy Reid is on the coaching staff at Forest and could be a factor in the final decision by Noonan who has already played at every age level for Ireland up to Under 21.
Finn Harps are in talks with a foreign based investor who is proposing to take financial control of the club and fund their share of the new stadium development in Stranorlar.
Donegal Daily’s Chris McNulty filed an exclusive report at the weekend which confirmed that a formal expression of interest from the investor has been received by the First Division club.
McNulty reports that shareholders of the Finn Harps Co-Operative Society Ltd will be asked to vote on the proposal next month.
Ireland international Lily Agg made the perfect start to her managerial career as Athlone Town defeated Shamrock Rovers 3-1 in the Women’s Premier Division game.
Agg is currently recovering from a ruptured achilles and is some way off a playing debut for Town in her first management role but will be happy with the win which moves her side within one point of league leaders Galway United.
