How is Saibari doing so far?
Morocco National Team Discussion
- Thread starter Rood
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I watched until the first hydration break then I fell asleep. Morocco were much the better team and judging from the highlights, that pattern continued the entire game.
Looks like a very tasty quarterfinal match vs France is on the horizon.
Looks like a very tasty quarterfinal match vs France is on the horizon.
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I do question the logic of, woohoo we won, let's set cars on fire
This World Cup? Well enough to send Musiala to the bench. He has played #9, false9, #10 and even "false7" (starting centrally but regularly going to LW to attack space and right cb, opposite of what Vinicius does from LW to CF).
His manager said it best: "Saibaris best position? His best position is on the pitch". Basically meant he is so astute, technically and tactically sound, that he can pick up the best position depending on his teams needs and the oppositions strengths and weaknesses.
But he is a bit of a weird profile. He is 8/10 at most things but I don't know if he has any area that is 10/10. Movement, speed, strength, passing, technique are all good but Diaz (speed) and Olise (passing) are easier to spot special traits from.
He also suffers from the matching. His legs were absolutely gone at the end of the game today, didn't think he would take a penalty.
Morocco completed 800+ passes last night - only 2nd time any country has managed in a WC match
Pretty much nailed on to get to the quarter finals.
Then, I’m guessing France, Spain/Portugal in the semi finals and then Brazil/England or Argentina in the final. It’s quite unlikely they get past France but if they do that and stay injury free then they can beat anyone.
Then, I’m guessing France, Spain/Portugal in the semi finals and then Brazil/England or Argentina in the final. It’s quite unlikely they get past France but if they do that and stay injury free then they can beat anyone.
They were a fun watch, I am glad they won as a neutral. Better chance vs France than the Dutch, I would think.
6 ? Who else beside Mazraoui, Amrabat and Salaheddine ?
he did a similar one in the AFCON, I think against Nigeria.
Actually I misread the BBC chart - it's 6 each from France & Spain, 3 from Holland:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clye1l3m9k4o
Bono the keeper is born in Canada who Morocco play next
Note that Bono only lived in Canada until he was 3, his family then moved back to Morocco and he did all his classes in my hometown club Wydad Casablanca.
I met the guy in 2008, I was making a video for a Moroccan football dedicated website and went to the U17 NT training camp. In the bus I asked the kids "so who's the best among you guys ?" and they all said "Bounou ! He'll go to Europe for sure !" which he did a few years later.
Not great first half but the quality rose to the top 2nd half
Just a shame they likely to face France next round
Just a shame they likely to face France next round
Why? This French team are definitely beatable.
They are the top seed and by some way - still anything is possible and ther is the extra spice of colonial history
Yet struggling against a very poor Paraguay...they look ordinary right now
Wouldn't call that strictly struggling. France will be mush fresher and have fewer minutes in their legs. It's over for Morocco.
Playing in 41oC heat?? I don't think so. They will feel like they've been in a full on game for 120 mins too.
Sairabi is out with a hamstring injury. Hakimi is running out of juice. So is Mazraoui and Cisse, bless his soul is cramping up early.
France will not be fresh after that, Morocco will be fine.
Cisse ?
Mazraoui is bested only by Cucurella as LB...hmm. Do we need a LB?
I think he meant Issa ?
I said before tournament that I fancied them as real dark horses, but I must say my expectations were dampened a bit when they lost Ezzalzouli on the eve of the tournament (and Aguerd tbh). They have still done brilliantly, but I do think Ezzalzouli’s injury will have an impact on, as they don’t have this type of player in the squad and it changes the way they can play without him.
Yes. And Saibari. Gracias, messed up both.
The longer a tournament runs, the more strength in depth delivers fresher squads. That's France's greatest strength going into the now 8-game WC tournament.
It is better for Morocco to try get France out of the way now and not further down the line.
A bit late but: the celebrations all over Europe in the big cities, from Oslo to Milano, was seriously impressive! So now I wonder if it's because:
A) There are a lot more Moroccans in Europe than I thought
B) The Arab world, as well as people from the African continent, have sort of gathered around their strongest representative
A) There are a lot more Moroccans in Europe than I thought
B) The Arab world, as well as people from the African continent, have sort of gathered around their strongest representative
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I was in Frankfurt for business last few days and the celebrations here were massive too, so many cars with Moroccan flags, I got to watch the game in a pub with a ton of local Morocco fans and it was a blast. Love their passion
How about O'Reilly and Nuno Mendez ?
I bit of both I guess. Every summer they are about 3 million to cross the Moroccan border for the holidays and most of them come from Europe.
Mostly A probably
Making full use of the Moroccan diaspora living in Europe is one of the reasons behind the rise of the Moroccan team
They have also invested heavily in training facilities etc
How Morocco became a football powerhouse: The Welsh connection, the best youth academy in the world and how they can take the final step to greatness
https://www.dailymail.com/sport/article-15950977/Morocco-football-Welsh-youth-academy-world-cup.html
https://www.dailymail.com/sport/article-15950977/Morocco-football-Welsh-youth-academy-world-cup.html
Can Saibari play the next match?
A
The moroccan diaspora is enormous. Here in Italy, Moroccans are historically the 3rd biggest immigrant group, after Albania(geographical proximity) and Romania(common latin language). Recently there's been a massive influx from Ukraine, for the obvious reason
Late fitness test
These AI videos are getting better and better
It took time to work actually. Morocco has been failing with squads composed mainly of dual nationals for a dozen years.
After reaching the final of 2004 AFCON with a mixed squad of locally grown players (Naybet, Safri, El Karkouri ...) and disapora kids (Chamakh, Zairi, Hadji's younger brother) the FA started running too much after dual citizen and there was no squad stability. At that time you just needed a dual citizenship to be called in the NT and we failed to qualify to WC 2006-2010 and 2014.
The big change was the change of head of the FA and the global local sport politic that raised the standard. The football academy inaugured in 2009 started giving high standard players like Aguerd, Ounahi and Ennesiry and the way we started to chose the dual citizen became more long term oriented by only focusing on the most promising ones and integrating them since the youth teams. And while we had an average of 1 NT head coach per year during a poor decade we moved into a more stable era and for that I credit the FA boss Faouzi Lekjaa.
Interesting insight, thanks
The long term investment in the Academy and bringing in foreign expertise (the Welsh technical directors) is now paying off - Im guessing having top facilities like that helps to convince the likes of Hakimi or Saibari to choose Morocco from a young age.
Actually similar for England who failed miserably at several tournaments and then invested big in a national academy at St Georges Park around the same time, we now see the benefits.
the welsh technical director (Osian Roberts) was there between only 2019 and 2021and he didn't take care of the academy. Nasser Larguet (google him) has way more credit than him.
Not jinxing here, yet since last WC I do feel Morocco has a genuinly great shout of winning the whole thing as the first African team to do it.