Cape Verde fans, though vastly outnumbered by Uruguayan fans, sang and cheered with joy even before their match kicked off early Sunday evening, exuberant from their tie against Spain last week. The party exploded after Cape Verde, Africa’s third-smallest country, scored a goal in the first half. Fans draped in Cape Verde flags danced in the stairs of the bleachers at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Many men were shirtless in the sweltering heat and humidity. Uruguay scored twice. But the Cape Verde fans kept chanting, leading the stadium in rounds of “Olé, olé, olé” and teaching neutral fans in the bleachers other Cape Verde chants.

By the time Cape Verde tied the match, 2-2, in the second half, the ground underneath the nosebleed seats shook. The score held, and now Cape Verde is in a solid position to advance from a group made up of Spain, the European champions; Uruguay, a two-time World Cup champion; and Saudi Arabia, whose star has been rising in recent years.

One woman in Cape Verde attire held a video call with relatives to show off the shrieks at the stadium. Almost no one sat down in the last 20 minutes of the exhilarating match.

“This means more than the World Cup to us,” Lareina Lopes, 28, said after the match. Ms. Lopes, who lives in Orlando, Fla., was born in the United States, but her father is from Cape Verde. “The world knows we exist now,” she said.

Her friend Melanie Santos, also 28 and from Orlando, added, “We don’t have to tell the world where Cape Verde is anymore.”

“We’re first-generation Americans,” Ms. Lopes said. “We are the diaspora. There are more of our people out of the country than in it.”

She said she had just returned from visiting Cape Verde. “People live in poverty,” she said. “We will cry tears of joy whether we win or lose in this World Cup.”