FIFA World Cup report gives Uganda hope

Everyone wants to play like Spain. Of course.

The world champions press, pass, and manipulate space with the assurance of a team that sometimes appears to know where the ball will be two passes before everyone else does.

FIFA's post-World Cup technical report identifies counter-pressing as one of the defining features of the 2026 tournament, with Spain particularly effective at turning lost possession into another attacking opportunity before opponents had reorganised themselves.

It is beautiful… if you have Spain's players. Uganda does not.

And perhaps that is why the most interesting team for Paul Put and the Uganda Cranes in FIFA's extensive World Cup review is not Spain at all.

It is Cabo Verde.

FIFA's Technical Study Group found that the World Cup offered no single route to success. Teams pressed differently, defended differently and attacked differently. Cabo Verde were perhaps the clearest illustration.

They began the tournament with just 25.4% possession against Spain and spent more than 27 minutes defending in a low block — the longest such spell recorded by any side up to the end of the Round of 32. Yet they held Spain 0-0.

Michael O'Neill, a member of FIFA's Technical Study Group, was struck by the discipline behind it.

“They are constantly moving, with real discipline and a lot of communication between players.”

There perhaps is the first lesson for Uganda.

Because for all our eternal arguments about formations, selections, and foreign-based players, Uganda rarely enters a major international fixture with unquestionably superior individual quality.

And if Spain showed what football can look like when outstanding footballers execute an outstanding system, Cabo Verde demonstrated something more useful to countries like Uganda: how a team can be competitive without pretending to possess qualities it does not have.

Know yourself

Cabo Verde understood that.

Against Spain, they defended deep. Against Uruguay and Saudi Arabia, they became more adventurous. Against Argentina they pushed higher still, attacked with greater confidence and showed that being realistic does not require being permanently negative.

O'Neill said their performances grew with their belief.

“At no point in any game did they believe they were out,” he explained.

Their defensive line moved higher as the tournament progressed. Their counter-pressing increased. They committed more players forward. Against Argentina, FIFA's analysis showed them building through pressure, breaking lines and attacking with genuine ambition.

A goalkeeper and a clue

There was another Cabo Verde lesson. Vozinha.

Spain had 28 attempts on goal in their opening match. Cabo Verde had a 40-year-old goalkeeper refusing to cooperate.

FIFA technical expert Pascal Zuberbühler summed it up rather neatly: “Spain had 28 attempts on goal. Cabo Verde had Vozinha.”

Vozinha's performance was not merely the saves, as FIFA’s analysis showed. His positioning, command of crosses, and, crucially, his contribution with the ball were just as instrumental. FIFA's wider tournament study concluded that goalkeepers increasingly acted as active participants in possession and as solutions against an opponent's press.

For Uganda, life beyond Denis Onyango and the type of goalkeeper the country's academies should be developing has an obvious template.

What should Uganda look like?

FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger observed that the purpose of the study was to understand not simply what happened but why.

“At the highest level, football is constantly evolving.”

That sounds obvious, but the point is Uganda cannot merely copy and paste Cabo Verde’s approach and expect the same results. They must develop their own version of organised brilliance, preferably from the grassroots structures up.

If a national playing identity always begins when 23 players arrive in camp three days before a qualifier, no serious hope of success exists.

Cabo Verde finished second in their group and eventually lost 3-2 to Argentina after extra time in the Round of 32.

But by then, something had changed. They were no longer merely surviving.

Against Argentina, they reached the final third 61 times and registered 100 receptions there, dramatically more than the 12 entries and 17 receptions they managed against Spain in their opening match.

O'Neill's final assessment was revealing: “Their discipline, the structure of their team, and their willingness to work and play with belief will stay with me.”

FIFA's World Cup study ultimately concluded that there was no single winning formula. High pressure worked. Low blocks worked. Transitions worked. Building with three defenders worked. Different teams solved different problems in different ways.

The point is, Uganda does not need to look for somebody else's football identity.

Spain belongs to Spain. Cabo Verde belongs to Cabo Verde.

Uganda, well, they must develop their own way.