ATLANTA — As omens go, this wasn’t a terrific one: simply hours earlier than the matchup that will resolve their destiny, DR Congo supporters realized that their most seen (and immobile) fan, , wouldn’t be in attendance for Saturday evening’s match towards . Lumumba (actual title: Michel Kuka Mboladinga) didn’t get a visa authorized to enter the USA, and that meant Congo must make do with a well-meaning knockoff:
And for the primary hour-plus of Saturday evening’s match, Lumumba’s absence hung like a pall over Congo’s greatest efforts.
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Congo haven’t performed within the World Cup since 1974, again when the nation was nonetheless referred to as Zaire. In that lone look, the primary by any sub-Saharan Africa nation, Congo misplaced all three matches by a mixed rating of 14-0.
So the truth that Congo managed a 1-1 draw towards in its opening match on this 12 months’s World Cup was nothing wanting a sporting miracle. A 1-0 loss to put its goals of advancing out of the group stage on the ropes.
“Nothing is simple in soccer, in life,” ahead stated afterward, considering again on Congo’s path to Atlanta. “And when the time like this comes, you must get pleasure from it. You must get pleasure from it as a result of it is not simple, you realize.”
DR Congo’s Yoane Wissa (20) celebrates a objective en path to serving to his workforce safe a historic place within the Spherical of 32 on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
(Molly Darlington through Getty Pictures)
Even earlier than Saturday’s match started, Congo was taking part in with the burden of a nation on its shoulders. Hours earlier than the match Congo president Félix Tshisekedi urged the workforce to victory, and urged the nation to again Les Léopards:
“This Saturday, June 27, 2026, in Atlanta, you’ll not be alone. Behind you, there’ll be greater than 100 million Congolese individuals—our households, our youth, our elders, our provinces, our diaspora, our supporters, our troopers, our employees, our youngsters—all united behind you,” learn. “I due to this fact name on all of the Congolese individuals to mobilize, in unity, ardour, and accountability, to hold our Leopards towards the victory all of us hope for.”
Eleven males carrying the hopes and goals of 100 million. That’s plenty of weight to bear, and within the opening moments of the match, the Leopards buckled below the pressure.
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“It has been such a loopy sport,” Wissa stated. “We began very badly, very poorly, I believe it is due to the burden, the burden of our shoulders.”
Uzbekistan scored simply 20 seconds into the match, however that objective was overturned on an offsides name. The White Wolves then scored once more, 9 minutes later, and this one stood. A would-be Congo equalizer from Nathanaël Mbuku vanished when VAR decided that grazed an Uzbekistan defender’s face together with his hand whereas getting in place, a foul worthy of wiping out a objective.
The minutes wore on, and the nerves frayed, each on the pitch and within the stands. However then, eventually, a breakthrough. Officers awarded Congo a penalty kick after a tangle, and Wissa didn’t miss:
Ten minutes later, Fiston Mayele salvaged brilliance out of chaos:
After which Wissa capped all of it with a pinpoint dart simply as regulation time ran out. All of Congo — the workforce and the nation alike — exhaled, and the celebrations started.
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“I had a bunch of gamers who had been superb,” supervisor Sébastien Desabre stated after the match. “As a coach, I’ve so many glorious gamers, however glorious individuals as effectively — large characters who’re prepared to offer the whole lot for Congo.”
Sure, this match was the Group Okay undercard. Sure, Uzbekistan leaves the World Cup with out even notching a single level. And sure, Congo’s reward for successful is a date with mighty . However within the second, all that issues is that this: Congo, a nation of 100 million individuals, is true this second having fun with the best sporting second in its historical past.
“Tonight we will attempt to get pleasure from,” Wissa stated. “England subsequent goes to be a distinct sport, a tricky, powerful, powerful sport towards a prime participant, a tricky opponent. We have to get pleasure from this type of sport. We should play towards England, among the best groups on this planet.”
That’s what makes the World Cup such an exciting spectacle. For each or or , stomping by way of the group stage with certainty and goal, there’s a Congo, dwelling out the goals of thousands and thousands throughout its all-too-rare visits to the world stage. It’s each weird and heartwarming that the eyes of the Congolese individuals had been centered — at 2:30 a.m. native time — on an American soccer stadium actually half a world away, however that’s what sports activities do, constructing bonds and recollections in sudden methods.
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“We’re a proud nation. We’re proud individuals,” Wissa stated. “We love our nation. We love our nationwide workforce. We love what we symbolize. So I believe tonight we simply confirmed what it means for us is simply to combat, it doesn’t matter what.”
When the ultimate whistle blew, Congo’s gamers merely dropped to the turf, overwhelmed with the enjoyment of going the place no different workforce of their nation’s historical past has gone. and embraced the devastated Uzbekistan gamers earlier than becoming a member of their teammates in joyous disbelief.
“We got here from far, from nothing to be right here,” Wissa stated. “Now we write our story with a black pen, and we must be proud.”
There’s little time to have fun. Congo will subsequent sq. off towards England, 4 days from now on this identical constructing. Maybe there’s a little bit of magic left for Les Léopards. Maybe this fairy story has yet another chapter.
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“We would be the challenger,” Desabre stated. “It is going to be a really large sport to play, however we’ll put together, we’ll prepare.”
“Lions are ready for us,” Wissa stated in French. “Leopards, we all know how one can react.”
And if there’s yet another miracle left for Congo, that is perhaps sufficient to make even Lumumba crack a smile.