“I told the players,” Walid Regragui said after his first defeat as Morocco’s head coach at the 2022 World Cup semi-final, “I was proud of them, his majesty is proud, the Moroccan people are proud, the whole world is proud.”
It’s perhaps no exaggeration to believe that plenty more around the globe other than the 68,000-plus assembled at the Al Bayt Stadium on Wednesday night gave a quiet applause for the Atlas Lions. For even in the 2-0 defeat to defending champions France, the typical Moroccan spirit of this Qatar World Cup had been anything but lost.
Between the 5th-minute opener and the 79th-minute second French strike that shut the door on them, Morocco looked the mighty Les Bleus in the eye and threatened to snatch the early lead from their sight. They had more possession and just one fewer attempt on goal to France’s 14. They had some resolute French defence and the bar deny them a goal that appeared to be coming towards the end of the first half and for much of the second. They had, in the truest sense of that cliched term, given it their all out there.
What else explains their heavily-strapped captain Romain Saiss soldiering on for 20 minutes after starting despite being visibly hampered by the hamstring injury. Or the team holding on to its own even after losing its key defender in Nayef Aguerd moments before kickoff. Or a few French players breaking away from their celebrations after the whistle to lift the dejected Morrocan players slumped to the grass. Or Morocco’s players acknowledging the wave of red and green across the stadium—cheering for their own all evening and reduced to tears by the end—long after the emotions had settled and the French had left.
If not for the slow start and a couple of moments of individual brilliance from Theo Hernandez and Kylian Mbappe in that second goal assist, Morocco may have had something more to show than the 2-0 scoreline from a stage they had never been to before. Yet from the Arab World Cup where they became the first African nation to reach the semi-finals while uniting the people of both regions in pride, they had plenty to show.
“My players gave everything, and they went as far as they could,” Regragui said. “I really wanted to rewrite the history books, but you can’t win a World Cup with miracles. You need to do it through hard work.”
Morocco’s World Cup journey over the last three weeks went from surprise in matching the 2018 edition finalists and beating the semi-finalists in the group stage, to fairytale in making the last eight by knocking out a powerhouse, to belief of going all the way after the quarter-final. In beating Belgium and Canada after a stalemate with Croatia, Spain in the Round of 16 and Portugal in the last eight, the Morocco World Cup success story is unlike many underdog tales of the past.
“Forty million fans were behind them,” Ahmed Jahouh, Mumbai City FC’s Moroccan midfielder who was part of his national team’s 2012 Arab Nations Cup triumph, said in a chat. “They deserve it. We were hoping to just get into the second round, but it soon changed to, ‘maybe we can win the World Cup’. It’s nice to see the Moroccan team growing like that. I still can’t believe it. But this is a very good Morocco team with a very good coach.”
That coach, appointed three months before the World Cup, was at the heart of the transformation and run of this group. No wonder Regragui too walked with his head held high after the loss. “We played honest, hard-working football,” Regragui said. “I think we’ve given a good image of Morocco and a good image of African football.”
That image of Morocco’s players fighting for every ball, putting their bodies on the line, dancing with their mothers after matches, and scripting one famous victory after another to earn their place in the history books will forever be etched in our memories of this World Cup.
“I am proud to be Moroccan and to represent this country in India,” Jahouh, playing in the ongoing Indian Super League, said. “Now, many people know about Morocco and football in Morocco.”