Morocco’s moment

BOTH teams have already made history. But they will want to make more.

Morocco is the first Arab and African country to reach the World Cup’s last four.

To get this point, the team, which is yet to be beaten in this year’s tournament, got the better of big names like Belgium, Spain and Portugal.

They hope to add France to this list with a victory in today’s semi-final.

France seeks to advance, to become the first country in recent memory to successfully win back-to-back World Cups. The last time such a feat was achieved was in 1962.

If the odds are against France in doing this, given the prospect of a 2018 reunion with a resurgent Croatia, or a date with Lionel Messi and Argentina, then Morocco, too, faces an uphill battle in just making the finals.

On paper, the battle between the “Atlas Lions” and “Les Bleus” – as Morocco and France are respectively nicknamed – seems like a case of David versus Goliath.

France has the advantage of the top goal-scorer in the tournament so far, Kylian Mbappé, as well as figures such as Olivier Giroud and Raphaël Varane. But Morocco has the charge of being the underdog and having a strongly cohesive team.

There is an old Moroccan saying: “Drop by drop the river rises.” This might well describe the kind of defensive game Morocco can play, with the potential to strike on the counter.

Though sporting a patchwork squad, affected in recent time by injuries, they have managed a game of depth and cohesion, boosted by their fans, who have flocked to Qatar to create a quasi-home field advantage.

If the team triumphs, it will be a fitting outcome, given how much of this tournament has been defined by shock defeats and surprises.

It is fair to say the Qatar World Cup has been one for the underdogs.

Germany and Spain were defeated by Japan, Argentina was rocked by Saudi Arabia and Belgium’s “Red Devils” proved completely harmless, despite the team’s ranking second in the world and its golden history.

Morocco’s advance in the tournament, and the tantalising possibility of it going all the way to hoist the cup, comes at a moment in global history when the inequality between the developed and the developing world is being strongly discerned and reckoned with.

A special fund has ostensibly been set up by richer countries to help poorer nations tackle climate change. The need for more equitable arrangements in relation to prophylactics has been brought into focus by covid19.

With nation states retreating into isolationist stances, a victory by the cosmopolitan Moroccan team – half of whom were born overseas – will also be a victory for the dream of a different world.