About the Moroccan national team – written by Badr Al-Din Al-Idrissi
We do not like the performance of the national team in its match against the Tanzania national team in Dar es Salaam.
What is the importance of this, if we measure it by the victory achieved, by the first three points scored, which placed the Lions at the top of the group on goal difference from the teams of Zambia, Niger and Tanzania, even though they have so far been satisfied with one and only one match.
If it is permissible for us to express reservations before fearing the technical and tactical performance of the national team players, as long as we look forward to the national team playing without the slightest reservation with the strong personality it has now possessed, applying it to competitors whenever they are within reach, then there is a need without feeling for excuses. Because we are reminded of the contexts and circumstances that surrounded the Dar es Salaam match, which ranged from very difficult climatic conditions (almost high temperatures despite the match taking place at night with high levels of humidity), to a ground in which the rain did what it did, and in addition to its poor quality, it hosted a match 48 hours before the Tanzania match. Burundi and Gabon, to a Tanzanian competitor whose victory over the Lions again, ten years after his first victory, seemed like a football miracle, which would not only give him the honor of overthrowing the World Cup team, but also give him a historic lead in Group Five with a full score.
These circumstances, which we do not think are exceptional, as we have seen worse than them in our travels to the jungle, will reflect negatively on the national team in its management of this trap match, so I assure the national voter, Walid Al-Raukraki, that the players, despite all the question marks and exclamations, deserved congratulations from the coach. Walid and all of us, because the goal sought in the first place, and in matches like these, is to win on the opponent’s field, and I think you have followed the suffering felt by some of the teams placed in the first pot, such as Senegal, Cameroon, and Nigeria, and they are unable to achieve victory away from home.
Perhaps you saw that the national team wasted the opportunity to take the lead early in the third minute with the loss of the penalty kick by the wonderful Hakimi. The Atlas Lions tried playing with their style based on crosses and balls deep while trying to pass through the sides, but nothing helped them do that, from the ground. On the pitch, due to the heavy climate that had a negative impact on the ball’s path, they tended to play slowly and avoid losing the ball, until Hakim Ziyech’s magic shot came, which gave us a goal that was completely different from the terrain of the match.
Although the Lions will obtain, from one of the successful breakthroughs, a second goal with friendly fire, what prevented them from winning a heavy share to demonstrate the vast technical and tactical gap between them and the Tanzanians, are the same external inhibitors that I talked about, and which only an ungrateful person can deny their strong influence on Performance system.
It is a match in which we erased from memory fragments of the Holocaust that happened 10 years ago, and it was a victory with which we opened the qualifying campaign. The one who competed with us in our group to achieve a victory away from home was the Tanzanian team that we defeated in Dar es Salaam, even if it achieved a victory over the Niger team that had no ability. He had no choice but to play in Namibia, so he preferred to receive his guests here in Marrakesh. Therefore, it was wonderful to conclude the year with this victory with many connotations, in anticipation of the year to come, during which we return to the African travel on the qualifying paths, in search of a third consecutive qualification for the World Cup. We will have to head to… Starting with Côte d’Ivoire, to participate in the 34th edition of the African Cup of Nations, whose numbers, equations, and World Cup identity put us at the forefront of competitors for its title, and in fact, most experts and analysts are now dressing us in the robes of the champion.
What is certain is that just as we ended this year with a victory in an official match over Tanzania, we will look forward with our Lions to begin the year 2024 by also achieving a victory over the “Taifa” team in the opening of Alkan’s journey, which we want to be unique in this era.
