Don’t Always Sing Top dogs !!!

There are many footballing nations in the world upon which no football fan in the world shows any interest until the start of any big tournament like World cup. Since 1998 A.D, 32 teams compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over about a month in FIFA World Cup. The host nation(s) automatically qualify. Among 32 nations, there are many teams competing in this huge Global tournament, upon which no one’s eyes are set. They are just expected to compete and lose games. Leave the fan! There aren’t many football analysts (who have dedicated their entire lives to football) who have been able to say that the performance of such team may be surprising this year.

Pic: All 32 captains of FIFS World Cup 2022
Source: sporcle.com

Once Simone Weil said —“The future is made of the same stuff as the present.” I agree to this statement but it is equally true that no one knows the future. This implies no one can exactly predict the result of a game. However, the world is always in hurry to throw away the Asian and African teams from the tie-sheet of the world cup, considering them to be the garbage of football. Football pundits too predict the position of CAF, AFC countries and debutant teams to be at the bottom of the group stage table. This mentality suggests people are never ready for shocking results. But when the competition starts, an unexpected event happens. Teams that are considered weak suddenly begin to overtake powerful footballing nations one by one. This happens almost at every world cup. But people are never tired of singing Top dogs. The viewers don’t even watch the highlights of the matches of underdogs, but they do analyze their match in such a way that it seems as if they have left rice and water for seven days.

By the time the first match day is over, many supporters gets Migraine headache. However, fans make luck the main topic when it comes to the games of small teams. Small teams are considered to be sympathetic characters. When the second match day of all groups is over, the fans of some teams breathe a sigh of relief, while some are still sweating profusely  sitting up through the sleepless night from different parts of the world. Still, People are not going to accept — whichever team comes up with a very sensible plan, and has the capacity to execute that, they will win.

After the final results of the group stage, some big teams and many small teams get eliminated from the competition. Except for some new faces, the same teams that have already won the World Cup reach the knockout stage. Many still doubt the abilities of the few remaining small, new teams. Some of those teams make it to the quarter finals to win the trust of the audience. But the audience is left thinking that they will not pass the next stage. When that underdog team wins the quarters by beating strong teams and reaches the semi-finals, the world shakes because it is the outcome which supporters are never ready to accept. The reputation of strong team goes to vain. This is one thing that becomes clear in every World cup editions. Brazilians thought they were unbeatable. They have 5 titles, but to have 5 you first need to have 1, 2, 3 and 4. You can't do anything with reputation.

Reputation means you're believing yesterday is today — SADHGURU

You can't do anything with reputation. You can just cry for not accepting what it is. Same was the condition of Argentina (Congrats! Finally they have won their 3^rd title) in previous World Cup editions since 1990. The reputation of Lionel Messi only brought tears in the eyes of Argentine fans. Saudi Arabia beat them by 2:1 in their first match of World Cup. The four time champions ITALY can’t even qualify for world cup back to back in past two editions. Germans who became champions for fourth time back in 2014 can’t even progress from group stage in both 2018 and 2022 editions. Brazil lost a match against Cameroon and France were punished by Tunisia.

So, It happens every so often that an expected loser comes to the FIFA World Cup and stuns us with their heroics. Some of them arrive at the World cup venue as unsuspecting dark horses and left as national heroes. Almost all editions of FIFA World Cup has many lasting memories – from the hand of god (Maradona) to hand of a devil (Suarez), from the handmade ball played at Montevideo in 1930 to Diamond in the Desert at Qatar, the brilliance of Roberto Baggio, the tears of Ferenc Puskas, celebrating image of Roger Milla dancing by the corner flag and many unexpected stories of many countries like Czechoslovakia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, South Korea, Bulgaria and many more.

I’m trying to cover the story of 2022 FIFA world cup underdogs Morocco — The first ever African nation to reach the semifinal of World cup. Morocco have qualified for the final stages of the FIFA World Cup on six occasions, which were in 1970, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2018 and 2022. Their best performance was in 2022 when they finished in fourth place, thus becoming both the first African and Arab nation to reach a semi-final at a World Cup.

Pic: Morocco star Youssef En-Nesyri celebrating after scoring against Canda

In 2022, Morocco made their back to back appearance in the FIFA World Cup after their group stage knock off in Russia at 2018. It was in Qatar that the Atlas Lions’ produced one of the greatest underdog stories the world cup will ever have. Despite being the most lovable and entertaing team in 2018, Morocco only achieved a mini success as a historical appearance of Sofyan Amrabat who came on as a substitute for his brother Nordin Amrabat in the group match against Iran to be the first player in World Cup history to come in for his brother. So, they reached Qatar in good spirits being eager to test themselves against the world's best team.

 

1. They didn't have an easy start facing the finalist of previous edition — Croatia — in their opening group stage match. The match ended with a goalless draw and the supporters witnessed their winless streak set to continue after 1998 FIFA world cup.
2. The Atlas lions approached their second match of the group stage — a game against Belgium with the odds stacked firmly in the Europeans favor.  However, when Morocco stepped out onto the field for their second game, something suddenly clicked for these players. Morocco came alive and obliterated their opponents Belgium by two goals to nil. After much misery the Moroccans ended their winless streak in world cup match. They were soon celebrating their first victory with goals from Romain Saiss and Zakaria Aboukhlal deservedly beating lackluster Belgium. This is obviously a match which a Morocco fans will never forget.  The first goal via. direct free kick came in this World Cup right at this match.
3. Morocco approached their final match of the group stage and what they wanted was — a win or a draw against Canada. Just 4^th minute match was going on when Steven Vitória of Canada sets a bad back pass to goalkeeper Milan Borjan who clears the ball poorly by stepping outside the D-area; Morocco's Hakim Ziyech takes full advantage of that ball and scores for Morocco. The 24 year old defender Achraf Hakimi passes the ball from the touch line behind the halfway line over the top which Youssef En-Nesyri collects with good pace and scores with strong right-footed strike in the 23^rd minutes.These two first-half goals against Canada at Final match day set the Atlas Lions on their way but they had to hold on for a 2-1 win over Canada after conceding an own goal that kept them nervous through the second half. Morocco roared to summit of the Group table with seven points, two more than runners-up Croatia, to advance from the group stages for a second time, 36 years after they became the first African country to do so.
4. This talented Moroccan side had made it to the Knock-Out stage which was an amazing feat in itself but the euphoria wasn’t expected to last long as their next test was colossal Fighting bulls — Spain. Morocco entered the next round as Group F winners, whilst Spain was facing North African side in next round being the eventual runners-up of Group E. After the last game of group F, Spain withheld second position as Japan stunned them by 2-1. Germany, Japan and Costa Rica were in the group that included Spain, while Spain and Germany were considered the main contenders for the round of sixteen. But Japan also surpassed powerful nations like Germany and Spain.

 The match of Morocco vs spain took place at Education stadium in Qatar, where Spain was supposed not only to dominate the African side but eat them alive. But, Morocco turn the tables after the tense goal less 120 minutes. Morocco managed not to concede due to their astonishing defensive units for which they kept on spying their rivals. The Spaniards completed over thousand passes against Morocco; with 77% of their possession they took care of the ball for over 80 minutes including extra times but they only had one attempt on Yassine Bounou’s goal. So, at last, five Spot kicks from each team were to be taken to determine who goes to next round.

 

Morocco vs Spain penalty shootout

·         Sabiri from Morocco starts the shootout and scores on his right, sending the goalkeeper on the other side.

·         Sarabia from Spain shoots on his right, but misses as the ball hits the post.

·        Hakim Ziyech steps up to take second penalty for Morocco and shoots straight which Spanish keeper couldn’t Judge and jumps on his left, missing the second one in a row.

·         Soler from Spain steps up and shoots on his right and Bounou saves the second.

·      Banoune from Morocco shoots on his left and Simon saved his first penalty with a jump in the correct side.

·         Busquets from Spain sends the ball to his left but Bounou jumps to his Right making another great save to take Morocco almost through. One more goal needed for Morocco!

·         Achraf Hakimi steps up and shoots straight and Morocco is through with a 3-0 win in penalties.

A heroic performance by Bounou and three goals from the spot by the Atlas Lions helped Morocco beat the Spaniards 3-0 to qualify for the quarterfinals. 

Pic: Yassine Bounou, Source: gettimages

 

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Well, Penalties’! They are just a lottery, aren’t they? –Louis Van Gal , after Netherlands lost to Argentina in penalty shootout in 2014 FIFA World Cup Semi-final.  

 

5.   Morocco's momentum grew in the quarterfinals where they came up against confident Portugal who were there after a thrashing 6-1 win against Switzerland. It was four years ago in Russia where these two met each other in a group stage match with Morocco suffering a 1-0 defeat after a beautiful header from CR7. When  Portugal and Morocco kick-off its quarterfinal match at the Al Thumama Stadium, Cristiano Ronaldo was benched. The game was heading stalemate until 42^nd minute when Morocco took its lead. Attiat-Allah sent a brilliant cross inside the box from the left flank and En-Nesyri towered over everyone and headed the ball in the net. Morocco were leading 1-0. Just two minutes later, the navigators — Portugal had chance to equalize but Bruno’s effort hit the post. Bono was a beaten man there. Cristiano came in for Portugal substituting Guerreiro making him the joint most capped player in International football — FIFA record 196^th caps. Despite all the efforts of Portugese player to make the ball kiss the net, Morocco’s defence and Bouno’s hand’s cleared all the Portugal attacks. It was 93^th minute when Cheddira sees his second yellow and is sent off! Morocco struggled for next four minutes with ten men. However the final whistle blows and Morocco makes History. They produced the unthinkable clinching victory to send the Atlas Lions into the final four. Morocco became first African team to qualify for World Cup Semifinal.

 

6.  Another tough opposition followed Morocco in the form of France — the reigning champions. For all of Morocco’s technical ability, defence, goal keeper with four clean sheets and attacking powers, French squad with their lovely football was beyond their control. Theo Hernandez slotted the ball past home with a wonderful acrobatic volley to give France 1:0 lead in just five minutes. Oliver Giroud hits the post at 17^th minute. Just before the half time, the french skipper Hugo Lloris makes a spectacular stop putting dream of Morocco to equalize in vain. The 79^th minute of match came up with Randal Kolo Muani goal giving France a 2-0 lead and put an end to the fairy tale of Arabs.

 

7.   After their loss, they had to face Croatia for 3^rd position. Lot of fans of Morocco from all over the world had expected Morocco to seal the third spot. Joško Gvardiol put the croatia ahead and it looked as though the magic of morocco was over.But just two minutes later an iconic moment was forged in world cup history in the form of a header by defender Dari to equalize the match. However Croatia leads again on 42^nd minute of the game. The match becomes exciting till the end but no any other goal actually happens. Morocco satisfied in fourth position.

 

 

 

What a run!

What A Campaign!

From this Morocco team.

Their Unity, team spirit, enthusiasm, passion,

 coach, fans, and every single thing was truely amazing.

This golden generation of Moroccan talent had made their country proud and secured fourth place against all odds. The world would never forget this fearless side of lucky underdogs that dared to dream big in 2022.

Morocco went on to lose the match for third place to Croatia but that didn't detract from the magnificent feat they had accomplished. By finishing fourth at the tournament, they had exceeded all expectations. This golden generation of Morocco footballers would forever be remembered for dazzling on the world stage at an unforgettable FIFA World Cup.

At the end — Let’s look at the historical records made by this so called Non-Footballing Nation and open our eye:

·         First African team to reach 7 points at the group stage.

·         First Arab nation to advance to the quarter-finals by defeating Spain 3–0 in a penalty  shoot-out.

·         Walid Regragui of Morocco— first African and Arab manager to reach the quarter finals.

·         Morocco becomes first African and first Arab nation to reach semi-finals following a 1–0 victory over Portugal.

·         Walid Regragui of Morocco — first African and Arab manager to reach the semi-finals.

·         First African team to play 7 matches in one edition.

·         First African team to achieve fourth place in the tournament.

 

Finally, I would like to say that — If we do support new teams, praise the not so footballing nations for their effort, it would eventually be advantageous for our nation too. If new nation wins the game at World cup, the confidence of average or poor team increases. This can make a huge impact upon the games of AFC, CAF, CONCACAF and OFC countries. It will succeed in terminating the century long monopoly of South America and Europe in football.

P.S: I'm a frustated German fan tired of Singing their Grandeur. 😂😂😂