Topic: Africa Football Discussion Thread || Current discussion: World Cup Groups. - page 9. (Read 13691 times)

European nations have been ruling the World Cup for ages, they have reputation and history as the big teams and favorites which gives them the upper hand mentally for the competition. In this tournament, Morocco has played the big teams Belgium, Spain and Portugal and won. If Morocco go into the semi final and lose, it would still be a victory for Africa as a whole because now we have the confidence that we can compete with the big dogs.

Matches cannot be won just by having a lot of star players in the squad, as Morocco proved by defeating Spain, Belgium, and Portugal. In order to win the match, the understanding between the players must be good, and the most important thing is that the match strategy must be strong. At the same time, the players of the team must adapt to the match strategy. The Moroccan team has done impossible things.

I wouldn't be surprised if Morocco wins against France. Morocco proved that they deserve to play in the final. France will have to be tactical if they want to win against Morocco. Morocco cannot be defeated by attacking alone.

As it stands now the Morroco goalie is set to win the golden gloves and he is also the best African player in the tournament. He should arguably be the best goalie in the Spanish league. I will advice the creator of the thread to edit the pool and include him.
I will not also participate in the poll if he is not included.

With Morocco being very consistent in getting clean sheets, basically Yassine Bounou already has great value at this World Cup and I realized that since they were still in the group phase. In fact, during the penalty shootout against Spain, the fact was that Yassine Bounou's goal still couldn't concede a goal, so it's clear that Yassine Bounou is a player who deserves to also be the best player in one of his matches or maybe Yassine Bounou will be the best goalkeeper in this World Cup.
But considering the performance in Sevilla I think it's a completely different result, or maybe it's because of the different gameplay that the result is different.

But to be honest, I personally don't think that Yassine Bounou is playing for Sevilla, because Sevilla is also in a bad season this season but what happened to Yassine Bounou in this World Cup is a very great result for Morocco.
Also basically, every match that Morocco goes through is a difficult match but Morocco can advance to the semifinals and of course Morocco is a team that cannot be underestimated at all. Even though in the semifinals Morocco will play against France but still, France will not be easy to win because Morocco at this moment is full of surprises.

I totally agree with you’ll and if someone would have told us at the start that Morocco would reach the semis we all would have probably laughed at them, and now I wonder if they can claim the trophy for themselves?.

Furthermore their incredible journey shows that football is not only for the big country’s, but for any country who wishes to dream big and put in the hard work on the pitch and thus I’m going to pray that they win this tournament since my favourite team Brazil is out now.

First of all, I congratulate the football players of the Moroccan team. They show an excellent example of solidarity. I'm not just saying this as playing football. As a whole team, they are like family. That's the biggest factor in them being in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Even if we touch on the topic of the best player; we will need to update this list. We need to include Yassine Bounou on this list. Finally, the goalkeeper who was the best player of the match against Portugal, gave an unexpected performance and made a great contribution to Morocco being in the semi-finals.

Morocco once again refuted my predictions. My congratulations on the record and now Morocco has already guaranteed itself participation in at least the bronze medal game. As I understand it, this is a record for an African country.
And I must say that this is not reaching the level of Greece at the European Championship - this is not a game based entirely on the bus. Yesterday they were stronger than Portugal in almost every aspect of the game. An amazing result considering that Portugal has a very strong team this year.

unfortunately i can't participate in the voting because my favorite (the moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou) is not listed. but i don't blame the creator of the pool because who would have thought that this goalkeeper plays such a tournament and shows one brilliant save after the other in every game and brings the opposing strikers to despair ... not to mention the held penalties

and as you can see below, morocco continues to move north and will hopefully conquer france as well

Morroco has done beyond what African nations as a whole expected. It's obvious they are in for a tedious semi-final, but I'm counting on my boys to do justice to France. It is likely that their journey might end in the semi-finals, but I'm not likely to give up until the lineup is released and the match comes to an end. i just have this strong trust for Morroco.

It is the first time an African team has qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup. And most importantly, Morocco qualified for the semi-finals after defeating European giants like Spain, Belgium and Portugal. It is a great honor for them. Morocco's team performance is excellent. The bonding between the players is good. Had Morocco's attack been more experienced, they would undoubtedly have been stronger. Morocco's attack is not strong enough. I would say that only because of the excellent match strategy of the coach and the excellent performance of the goalkeeper, Morocco continued to be consistent in every match. Morocco will face France in the semi-finals. Perhaps Morocco's journey is going to stop in the semi-finals.

One of the things that makes football different from other sports organizations is that it has a more predictable structure.


Of course, nothing is certain, but the balance of power helps us make predictions about match results. Also, the tournament concept is not like the league concept. In this concept, teams match each other only once. Comparing performances in different matches does not always give accurate results.

Also, I was anticipating that they had the potential to surprise Spain and I expressed my opinion here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.61393512

I supported Portugal throughout the tournament because of Ronaldo. I was emotional while predicting the result of the Portugal match, but I think that I formed an objective comment about the France match (just like the Spain match) as a result of my tournament impressions.

Also, Southgate's assistant Steve Holland replaced the 'Anti-Messi' plan with the 'Anti-Mbappe' tactic, but he did not succeed because football is a team game and it is not enough for you to stop one person: https://usasports.news/england-assistant-manager-steve-holland-helped-stop-lionel-messi-as-chelsea-drove-to-champions-league-victory-in-2012-now-gareth-southgates-right-hand-man-is-devising-another-plan-to-keep-kylian-m/




I congratulate you for your successful predictions. I think Spain were eliminated from the tournament because they don't have a classic striker. Morocco could have gone to penalties by locking the match against them, and they did so successfully. However, I hope you'll agree with me that they can't win every game with closed defense and penalty kicks, or win a game by scoring just one goal per game. I don't consider them lucky against France when I make some realistic predictions. I hope they manage to lock the game and qualify for the final but I have to make a realistic comment.

It is not impossible for Morocco to become World Cup champions. Greece became the champion of the 2004 European Football Championship. However, this is not always going to happen, and such tactics are very unlikely to hold up all the time. I would also like to add, I think Morocco play football more effectively than the 2004 version Greece, but the general mentality is the same. I just wanted to make a comparison.

First of all congratulations to the Moroccan team. They came in very strong and have surpassed the expectations of a lot of football fans all over the world and especially in the continent of Africa. Personally I am glad that Africa now has 11 slots meaning that would see more African things in the 2026 world cup. This is a wake-up call to all African football teams from west Africa to South Africa to East Africa and North Africa start now to build the world cup team, start now to ensure that you get players that are truly deserving to be part of the 2026 world cup team. It would break my heart If in 2026 that the football federation in various African countries are still grappling with issues of corruption favoritism godfatherism, and all those all devices that serve as an impediment to the growth of the team. I sincerely wish to see Morocco lift the world cup I know it is possible.

Honestly, I did not watch the match as I was busy yesterday, but on seeing the result, I shouted as I never believed it. And for you saying that Ronaldo did not start the match makes me realize some lapses, I even read that it was a 10-man Moroccan that defeated Portugal, which is highly unexpected. Well, the deed is done and I am happy for Morocco and Africa for getting to the semi-final for the first time in world cup history. This is not only a history broken but will increase Africa's rights in football.

When the World Cup started and Morocco drew, I watch them and knew that they have a very good team.
But it did not end there Morocco had to beat Belgium I said that the Belgian team is old and not what they used to be therefore it is not a surprise for Morocco to beat them.
But Morocco went ahead to beat Spain it was there that I knew what Morocco was capable of doing, I was no longer underrating them .
I was the one telling people that if Morocco can beat Belgium and beat Spain that they can also beat Portugal. so I was no longer surprised when Portugal was finally eliminated by Morocco

The same thing people did not believe that Morocco would have won Portugal, i want to ask is that France have good players than Portugal, because what i know is that soccer games is not what you will think that one particular person can make them to win, what if Morocco study the system of France and use two person's to Mark mbappe as their hope of wining, so mbappe will not have the space to perform well, nothing that can not happen in soccer game because for Morocco to gone this far, i think that they will look for a way to win which is also the target of France.

While we're celebrating Morocco defeat of Portugal and qualify for the Semi Finals of the FIFA World Cup, as a result Africa will get 11 slots in the 2026 World Cup that'll be held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. We'll get an increase of 9 permanent slots instead of the usual 5 since the number of nations that'll be eligible to partake in the world cup is getting increased, we'll also get another slot through playoff and another just because an African nation has reached the Semi Finals. That means we'll be getting a total of 11 slots.

This news means the likes of Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, ivory coats etc can all qualify for the world cup which will bring more beliefs of an African nation going all the way to the finals and finally winning it and that's if Morocco doesn't shock the whole world by winning the tournament. They have already set a new African record of going unbeaten in 5 games at the world cup.

Why people are surprised of Morocco defeatist Portugal it's because of Ronald, and base on Ronald is on bench that is what give Morocco luck to win Portugal but people don't know, because the presences of Ronal would have been a distraction to Morocco, so because of the coach of Portugal won a match without Ronal participating in early or the first time and they defeated and that's why they played without Ronald from the beginning.

I always appreciated Morocco's game, but I didn't think it was possible for them to eliminate Portugal. That's why I said before the game that Portugal would go to the next round, but a completely different football was played on the field and Morocco went to the semi-finals with a well-deserved win. Now they will play against the biggest favorites of the cup France. Frankly, France are a better team than Spain and Portugal, but I will no longer comment negatively on Morocco. Of course, it won't be easy for them to stop Mbappe and Giroud, but they have a chance to try it. :)

The Moroccan coach has proved that despite not having a strong attacking side, one can perform consistently well and beat any strong team. Morocco showed us that great gameplay is possible with a strong defence. Morocco's defense is not broken even in the face of European attacking football. They defeated Belgium, Spain, Croatia and finally the mighty Portugal. In the semi-finals, they will face France, one of the strongest attacks in this World Cup.

I'm sure no one would consider France the favorite for the semi-finals now. The Moroccan team can no longer be taken lightly. They will continue to fight hard against France. And they have the ability to beat France too.

Morocco performance was a surprise to everyone,  it is unbelievable for an Africa team to defeat a big team like Portugal  but Morocco did. Morocco made history as the first Africa nation to get to the semi finals,  this has never happened in Africa.  At this point Morocco has more chances of winning  the world cup.