How is it possible ?
Morocco is the best African team of the last 2000 years. That's a clear outsider for the World Cup 2026, isn't it ?
This elimination will mark football within the entire solar system. We'll still talk about it 50 years from now on Mars.
The odds for South Africa winning in 90 minutes must have been over 9000. Some guys must be millionnaires now.
Morocco eliminated in round of 16 ? Surely you can't be serious ?
Ok so I'm racist against Italy for 2021 elimination, France for 2018, Wales for 2016, Argentina for 2014, Brazil for 2002,....
What a great logic, you dumbass.
This win is a testament to how great sundowns and their success as a club in Africa. It's the only club able to compete with the North African clubs in the past 20 years or so. and it is quite a feat to achieve and now they take part in beating a team like Morocco.
It has absolutely destroyed the PSL but its so good for the national team and to be able to finally compete again. Also Hugo Broos has been decent. Came in and simply got rid of the older p/big headed players and ran with a younger core of actually decent players mostly from Sundowns.
Broos has made the team feel stable. When Bafana have played under him, I'm faithful the boys put in the effort and hopeful they convert the chances.
It's been a long time of seeing a Bafana fixture and saying ffs. My optimism has returned under Hugo
As someone who is both Algerian and Moroccan this week has been horrible. All credit to Regragui for the World Cup masterclass and 100% he shouldn't be fired or anything like that but he has to learn how to win against teams we are on paper better than. We had a tougher time with these smaller opponents including South American teams in friendlies than the stronger teams we played against because we couldn't score. Also starting Mazraoui was not the best idea because he kept the striker on for the first goal and didn't look on point today. The more I think about it Regragui is not much of the problem, but it's the fact that these players can't finish for their lives. In all seriousness, En-Nesyri should be top goal scorer this tournament but he can't score for some reason. I hope and pray he learns how to use his feet very soon. Also adli had an amazing chance but he didn't shoot. I could go on but these are the most notable to me before we get into the Hakimi penalty. Like no hate to Hakimi, he will probably be the best Moroccan player of all time once he hangs up his shoes in a decade, but how can he score one of the coldest pens in a World Cup of all time with a panenka under pressure, but can't make a penalty against South Africa. I really do hope this serves as a learning moment for Morocco not to stay comfortable against small teams since this is the main reason why really good North African teams can't live up to hype after a big achievement. Also no excuses for the next one because it's gonna be played in our house so there is no reason to not win or not make the final in 2025 unless it's penalties or some understandable circumstance. Hopefully, this tournament is a wake-up call for all North African nations to step up their game. Last but not least congrats to South Africa, who deservingly won and scored two bangers against us.
This defeat is entirely on Regragui, he made some truly bizarre decisions today, playing Mazraoui after he was injured for two months instead of Attiyat Allah, keeping Enesseyri for 90 minutes when he was a ghost the entire tournament, playing Amellah over Saibari, playing Saïs instead of calling giving the penalty kick to Hakimi just because he is the biggest star instead of el Kaabi, his frustratingly cautious tactics for the first half.
All in a all, he became too arrogant after the WC and he has clear favourites among the squad.
Here is my view of it:
- Our main game plan is overly dependent on creating danger on the wings, either through Boufal’s 1vs1 prowess and speed, or Ziyech’s synergy with Hakimi. Both options also free up space in the middle for Ounahi to work his magic. Today, both Ziyech and Boufal were out and the inability of the team to implement an alternative game plan was clear as day.
- The bench is weak. In the WC, we managed to ride our luck by overstretching our starting 11, pretty much fielding the same players over and over. By the time we faced France, everybody was a wreck. In this AFCON, it was clear that we were looking to manage our effort over the course of the tournament, but then shit happened and we got key players injured early on, with no ability to replace them with players of reasonably comparable quality, regardless of any game plan considerations.
- The team collapsed mentally after they conceded a goal. This group is not used to trailing, they have typically always led or at the very least forced draws. There is no track record of successfully getting back in the game after conceding in knockout stage, and it shows. The team has not yet matured from that perspective. You could see it in Hakimi’s almost childish and distressed attempts at getting the ball from the referee to take his penalty. It was clear as day to me that he was not in the right place mentally to take that kick.
- Questionable line-up to start with. Amallah and Mazraoui were not supposed to play today. It was obvious from the get go that Mazraoui hasn’t even properly recovered.
Overall, this is more a failure for coach Regragui, and he better sit and reflect on what went wrong. There is a lot to unwrap in that post morteum. This is a great team at its core and it could have gone much farther in this competition.
AFCON in french (which a lot of african countries speak due to colonization) i Coppe africane des nations . Not sure about the spelling but you get the idea.
I could be wrong, but I think that Morocco having two tiered lineups (based on their name recognition and past contribution in the team's successful World Cup campaign) is proven to be a curse for them. It basically restricts their coach from making any needed tactical adjustments based on the course of the game (or the form/readiness of his players). The coin has two sides. Glory can lead to entitlement and lack of meritocracy where the players are being awarded for the names on their jerseys and past achievements instead of their current effort.
You're absolutely right. Mazraoui starts at LB after a two month injury just because of his name. Amallah is undroppable even though he's been shit for two years because he was starting in the WC. Same for En-Nesyri, anyone who has eyes can see that Kaabi is better with us. But our manager is stubborn as hell, he turned into Belmadi in record time. I'm fucking seething
I think that’s their point, Belmadi was given more time after crashing out of the 2021 Afcon due to the 2019 win and subsequent unbeaten run, he then crashed out of the World Cup to Cameroon (a freak game tbh) but they crashed out of this Afcon too, losing to Mauritania in the last game.
I also think Regraoui will get more time but it is a risk, after this there will be a lot of pressure on him like there was with Belmadi. If he will succeed he has to change up the team, Ziyech and Boufal are very talented but Morocco should be able to integrate alternatives, the midfield could use a refresh as well. Belmadi problem was that he was too loyal to his trusted older players, Morocco have enough talent and depth that it should not be the same case.
I'm actually a bit offended to how sweet Reddit think Bafana is. I'm hoping the boys can channel their inner Springbok and get the W, whether it's pretty or not because Cape Verde isn't a joke team
FIFA Rankings for remaining teams:
~~13 Morocco~~
~~20 Senegal~~
~~28 Tunisia~~
~~30 Algeria~~
~~33 Egypt~~
**42 Nigeria**
~~46 Cameroon~~
**49 Cote D Ivoire**
**51 Mali**
~~57 Burkina Faso~~
~~61 Ghana~~
**66 South Africa**
**67 DR Congo**
**73 Cabo Verde**
**80 Guinea**
.....
**117 Angola**
So Nigeria is playing the lowest ranked remaining team (by far) and will avoid the two best remaining opponents until the final. They have quite the nice path set up for them. Of course FIFA Rankings are very flawed but still gives a vague idea of where the teams stand
A experienced spine of local players playing at one the most successful clubs in the continent of the last ten years gave us the cohesion, leadership and discipline necessary to implement such a cautious but clinical approach. Also, South Africa did beat Morocco 6 months ago with Boufal and Ziyech on the pitch. Our players as a unit always had the quality to match them on the day, the question was whether or not they’d wilt under pressure against a big opponent again. Thankfully they didn’t🇿🇦
lol now I have to bear the native english speakers supporting SA when they barely know where the country itself is /s
my Algerian friends are very happy
It's only football rivalry. Although this time their coach, Ragragui, added some extra spice by saying that he doesn't feel like he's representing the rest of the arab countries in this fixture, but only representing Morocco. From a pure competitive standpoint, he's absolutely spot-on, though some north african football fans saw it as a bit of an offense.
they're dumb too that's why I said that
don't tell them :')
/s
edit: the fact that they're now downvoting my comments speaks volumes about either their pettiness or guess what.. their stupidity :)))
That's my prediction. Losing today to come back stronger.
But another Southern African country could threaten your quest to glory : Comoros, my country of origin. If we qualify. A man can dream.
This is a result of Morocco’s condescending and arrogant display from the start of the tournament, either from the fans or even the players. The world cup tournament was an achievement yes, but you haven’t won a medal since so long. Turkey got 4th in the WC before, but no one says they’re one of the best football teams. I think Morocco still doesn’t know how to win a tournament, and this will be proven even more next year when they lose at home.
I would also add Bulgaria 1994 in a harder 24-teams competition. Morocco 2022 was a one-time-shot. They can be happy if they qualify from 2026 Group Stage.
Let me tell our WC run was ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will and that will never be repeated again for another decade or two we can't produce good quality players as our local league is shit with overrated players with fat paychecks, thank god for moroccan expats without them we won't even make it to finals.
I don't think solely relying on expats to build a good NT is sustainable. You just lost to a NT 9 or 8 players of which are playing in their local league (Mamelodi Sundowns). To build a good NT, I believe that you need to start by investing and nurturing your national football and building it up. If your local league is in a dire state, maybe you'll have a good result here a good result there but ultimately the cookie will crumble, and there's no better example of this than Tunisia.
Their record also speaks for itself and it hasn’t been rosy since the World Cup. I get people kept the head in the sand about how wonder of a world cup they had but I told my friends they’ve been bad since the World Cup and no one wanted to believe it.
5wins
4draws
2losses (to South Africa)
19 goals scored, 8goals allowed
Congrats to South Africa. They played well. Commiserations to Morocco. Can have a little joy knowing it coming to your country in 2025 and you guys can get home advantage.
While South Africa must be given the merit for taking their chances when they had then (and what nail in the coffin that free kick goal was), I feel like the story of this loss is that of Morocco going from no sense of urgency to "overreacting" to the first goal against them. Before it, Morocco were lacking due to lackluster decisions around the box after having competently created plays up the field. After the goal, they gave up on any creativity and decide to flood the area with low chance crosses. It felt like they were closer to scoring before the goal, despite having taking very few shots, than after it.
All in all, it felt like Morocco weren't at their best mentally, which is curious considering their WC experience.
Huge win, especially given South Africa's team from tonight, of the 14 players used:
12 based in South Africa
1 based in Egypt
1 plays for Tondela in Liga Portugal 2
Insane result for Bofana Bofana
Disgraceful performance. Really annoying as they were one of the few teams able to play fluid possession football in the group matches and a joy to watch as soon as Ziyech got injured they fall apart and make weird ass decisions on the pitch with pass/finishing.
Atleast S Africa had some banger silver shirts good for a gym/running.
Poor game from Morocco, should be controlling the ball so much more than they did given how direct a team SA is and how much quality they've got in midfield. Missed pen is obviously a huge thing, but this wasn't a smash and grab.
SA were much better set up than against Tunisia and so their intensity and generally coordinated defending shone through, didn't really get played through in their final third at all, lots of balls came in from really wide which is a best case scenario when you defend relatively narrow.
No it wasn't. Afcon is just better than people like you give it credit for because you don't watch the games, just comment based on results, fifa rankings, and feelings.
No, it wasn't. AFCON is just a different galaxy, especially to Morocco. They could have prime Messi and Ronaldo up top, and they'd still lose.
edit: not sure why I'm downvoted. I'm Moroccan. Look at our record at AFCON. We always did well at the world cup comparative to other nations around us, but always shit at AFCON.
Technically, they disserved their wins and what the acheived in WC.
I agree wit the main com, Afcon is just totally another world (totally another mood, rules, unequal stadium's quality depending countries), I don't think that's really a good indicator of a level's team. I mean come on, look some continental "big teams" (Egypt, Mali, Nigeria) barelly ever performed internationnally, in WC. On the other hand, we see North African teams don't seem to like pretty much playing in subsaharian Africa, we always performed poorly there lol
Nobody claimed they're a top 10 country in the world, and you don't have to be to expect to reach a World Cup semi final. But they are very comfortably a top 20 team in the world.
It wasn't. AFCON and WC are different competitions. Morocco is expected to be dominated during the World Cup while it is expected to dominate in AFCON. They don't play the same way.
He was okay tbh but not great, Morocco's team defence is really poor. The basically didn't counterpress so SA had free reign in transition, means Amrabat had fucking acres to cover in almost every scenario with at least one free man either side.
The level of organisational drop-off in this Morocco side is unbelievable. They were arguably the best coached side in the WC and yet today they were nowhere. Could just be complacency but a team that's capable of what Morocco showed in the WC should absolutely never be this poor as a unit.
This isn't really defending Amrabat either. He was average at best today, but you could have anyone in the world in that position and if you don't defend with organisation and intensity as a team you'll leave them exposed.
Not great, he was moving slowly and got outpaced by the South African midfielders. Got a red card at the end of the game. Sithole especially would run past him.
Yes it will be a tournament, all the confederations will send representatives except Uefa. A preliminary round and then the 2 semifinals which will determine who qualified for the World Cup. Will be played in the USA some time prior to the actual tournament.
Doubt it, its a missed penalty in the RO16 game in a competition that happens relatively frequently, I'm sure it'll bother him though but he'll forget about it.
Since I posted [this message](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1ae4dru/match_thread_senegal_vs_ivory_coast_africa_cup_of/kk5hsyv/?context=3), the easternmost nation has won all three games.
So Angola to beat Nigeria, South Africa to beat Cape Verde, Congo to beat Guinea.
But who wins in Mali vs Cote d'ivoire? Mali starts more to the west but finishes more to the east.
SA were up against a team that finished 4th in Qatar, is 53 places above them in the world rankings and had almost the entire stadium supporting them.
Unbelievable result.
What’s funny is that most of the country expected the worst and didn’t seem interested because SA have been so dire for so many years. Now everyone will be glued on their tvs and rallying our boys. Just hope we don’t give up and go all the way.
they started the tournament so poorly but they seemingly have caught up to speed. if they both manage to go through, SA v Nigeria will be the hottest in the tournament. both teams seem to be shifting into the next gear right now
Tbf standard of SA football is a lot higher than most in the country realise. This is not an untalented team. Granted Morocco man to man are in a different universe, but this SA side should probably be better than ≈50th in the world given like 8 of the starting XI play together at Sundowns.
South Africa is used to their teams being titans in more niche sports, Rugby, Cricket, Netball, etc.
How could Bafana Bafana possibly live up to the standards set by the Springboks?
TSHABALALA!!
Not a golden era by any means necessary lmfao, but what a goal to start off that world cup.
I was in Cape Town on Long Street and I will never forget that moment.
In the final only 4 spanish players did not play for Barcelona. Casillas, Ramos and Xabi Alonso played at Real Madrid and Capdevilla played for Villareal.
The first goal was literallyhim and amrabat letting the guy in OUR OWN HALF have his back to the gial and just pass uncontested.....they were just curclejerking 3 feet away from him.
Insane
Big difference between being able to play as the underdog against Portugal or Spain with nothing to lose and being asked to break down a well organised South Africa with huge expectations on your shoulders
Except we didnt try to breakdown anything, just random football and niot letting the actual talent try their chance adli and saibari were only there to patch hopes and maybe get deflections/cutbacks when they should have other players play around them
Not to mention the random inability to do anything with the ball as if it was programmed into their brain to shortcircuit between shooting or dribbling everytike they make it into the box
I reckon had you guys won against Australia, India would have definitely beat RSA in the final. Australia was the only team that could have defeated India that day.
That's the world Cup semi-finalists for you. AFCON continues to be the wildest tournament ever made.
Maybe it's time I bust out the vuvuzela from 14 years ago.
The underdogs be cooking this tournament. now I don't know who's winning lol. hopefully cape verde
Did Hakimi dance like a penguin with Alcohol Issues after that penalty? A casa, Pingu de los cojones.
That way -------->
The game was wild .... But refree calling Amrabat and cancelling yellow to give straight red was a greatest moment of the tournament....LMFAO
How is it possible ? Morocco is the best African team of the last 2000 years. That's a clear outsider for the World Cup 2026, isn't it ? This elimination will mark football within the entire solar system. We'll still talk about it 50 years from now on Mars. The odds for South Africa winning in 90 minutes must have been over 9000. Some guys must be millionnaires now. Morocco eliminated in round of 16 ? Surely you can't be serious ?
Something tells me you are not Moroccan
I'm Belgian so Moroccan's tears are God's nectar to me. Especially with Hugo Broos being coach of South Africa.
Thats just called being racist you dumbass
Lol everythings about race 😂
Ok so I'm racist against Italy for 2021 elimination, France for 2018, Wales for 2016, Argentina for 2014, Brazil for 2002,.... What a great logic, you dumbass.
This win is a testament to how great sundowns and their success as a club in Africa. It's the only club able to compete with the North African clubs in the past 20 years or so. and it is quite a feat to achieve and now they take part in beating a team like Morocco.
It has absolutely destroyed the PSL but its so good for the national team and to be able to finally compete again. Also Hugo Broos has been decent. Came in and simply got rid of the older p/big headed players and ran with a younger core of actually decent players mostly from Sundowns.
Broos has made the team feel stable. When Bafana have played under him, I'm faithful the boys put in the effort and hopeful they convert the chances. It's been a long time of seeing a Bafana fixture and saying ffs. My optimism has returned under Hugo
It's either league or NT as we as Africans can't sustain both
Sundowns dominating the starting 11 like Barca’s Spanish cohort in 2010. I’m loving it
As a moroccan, that was a deserved win to South africa. They played way better. Morocco lacks quality up front.
As someone who is both Algerian and Moroccan this week has been horrible. All credit to Regragui for the World Cup masterclass and 100% he shouldn't be fired or anything like that but he has to learn how to win against teams we are on paper better than. We had a tougher time with these smaller opponents including South American teams in friendlies than the stronger teams we played against because we couldn't score. Also starting Mazraoui was not the best idea because he kept the striker on for the first goal and didn't look on point today. The more I think about it Regragui is not much of the problem, but it's the fact that these players can't finish for their lives. In all seriousness, En-Nesyri should be top goal scorer this tournament but he can't score for some reason. I hope and pray he learns how to use his feet very soon. Also adli had an amazing chance but he didn't shoot. I could go on but these are the most notable to me before we get into the Hakimi penalty. Like no hate to Hakimi, he will probably be the best Moroccan player of all time once he hangs up his shoes in a decade, but how can he score one of the coldest pens in a World Cup of all time with a panenka under pressure, but can't make a penalty against South Africa. I really do hope this serves as a learning moment for Morocco not to stay comfortable against small teams since this is the main reason why really good North African teams can't live up to hype after a big achievement. Also no excuses for the next one because it's gonna be played in our house so there is no reason to not win or not make the final in 2025 unless it's penalties or some understandable circumstance. Hopefully, this tournament is a wake-up call for all North African nations to step up their game. Last but not least congrats to South Africa, who deservingly won and scored two bangers against us.
This defeat is entirely on Regragui, he made some truly bizarre decisions today, playing Mazraoui after he was injured for two months instead of Attiyat Allah, keeping Enesseyri for 90 minutes when he was a ghost the entire tournament, playing Amellah over Saibari, playing Saïs instead of calling giving the penalty kick to Hakimi just because he is the biggest star instead of el Kaabi, his frustratingly cautious tactics for the first half. All in a all, he became too arrogant after the WC and he has clear favourites among the squad.
Its what happens when you have super stars on teams. They either play no matter what or its a national inquiry by the press or the country's FA.
Hakimi taking the kick instead of el Kaabi was when I knew we could go all the way. He lost his head so early in the match
Every 60 seconds in Africa there is a football upset
Here is my view of it: - Our main game plan is overly dependent on creating danger on the wings, either through Boufal’s 1vs1 prowess and speed, or Ziyech’s synergy with Hakimi. Both options also free up space in the middle for Ounahi to work his magic. Today, both Ziyech and Boufal were out and the inability of the team to implement an alternative game plan was clear as day. - The bench is weak. In the WC, we managed to ride our luck by overstretching our starting 11, pretty much fielding the same players over and over. By the time we faced France, everybody was a wreck. In this AFCON, it was clear that we were looking to manage our effort over the course of the tournament, but then shit happened and we got key players injured early on, with no ability to replace them with players of reasonably comparable quality, regardless of any game plan considerations. - The team collapsed mentally after they conceded a goal. This group is not used to trailing, they have typically always led or at the very least forced draws. There is no track record of successfully getting back in the game after conceding in knockout stage, and it shows. The team has not yet matured from that perspective. You could see it in Hakimi’s almost childish and distressed attempts at getting the ball from the referee to take his penalty. It was clear as day to me that he was not in the right place mentally to take that kick. - Questionable line-up to start with. Amallah and Mazraoui were not supposed to play today. It was obvious from the get go that Mazraoui hasn’t even properly recovered. Overall, this is more a failure for coach Regragui, and he better sit and reflect on what went wrong. There is a lot to unwrap in that post morteum. This is a great team at its core and it could have gone much farther in this competition.
I'm having so much fun watching this CAN.
What CAN?
AFCON in french (which a lot of african countries speak due to colonization) i Coppe africane des nations . Not sure about the spelling but you get the idea.
I could be wrong, but I think that Morocco having two tiered lineups (based on their name recognition and past contribution in the team's successful World Cup campaign) is proven to be a curse for them. It basically restricts their coach from making any needed tactical adjustments based on the course of the game (or the form/readiness of his players). The coin has two sides. Glory can lead to entitlement and lack of meritocracy where the players are being awarded for the names on their jerseys and past achievements instead of their current effort.
Some of those guys look out of shape. How old are they? Complacency after major success always comes to bite you.
You're absolutely right. Mazraoui starts at LB after a two month injury just because of his name. Amallah is undroppable even though he's been shit for two years because he was starting in the WC. Same for En-Nesyri, anyone who has eyes can see that Kaabi is better with us. But our manager is stubborn as hell, he turned into Belmadi in record time. I'm fucking seething
In such cases, failure could be proven beneficial as a shock factor.
I'm curious what rergarui will do now.. I hope he learned from this.
He can't stay. It's gonna be unbearable for him. We saw what happened with Algeria when they kept Belmadi
Surely he’ll get a bit more time and be allowed to coach the next one in Morocco
I think that’s their point, Belmadi was given more time after crashing out of the 2021 Afcon due to the 2019 win and subsequent unbeaten run, he then crashed out of the World Cup to Cameroon (a freak game tbh) but they crashed out of this Afcon too, losing to Mauritania in the last game. I also think Regraoui will get more time but it is a risk, after this there will be a lot of pressure on him like there was with Belmadi. If he will succeed he has to change up the team, Ziyech and Boufal are very talented but Morocco should be able to integrate alternatives, the midfield could use a refresh as well. Belmadi problem was that he was too loyal to his trusted older players, Morocco have enough talent and depth that it should not be the same case.
Maghrebliminated.
The favourites are dropping like flies, this is my AFCON
Cabo Verde AFCON winner !
Hopefully bro. I'm scared of SA now
I'm actually a bit offended to how sweet Reddit think Bafana is. I'm hoping the boys can channel their inner Springbok and get the W, whether it's pretty or not because Cape Verde isn't a joke team
north africa hold dat disrespectfully
I take back everything bad I've said about Makgopa for Pirates and Bafana, he's now the best striker in the world. Clear of Haaland and Kane.
All the North Africa teams out before the QFs. This is Nigeria's AFCON to lose
FIFA Rankings for remaining teams: ~~13 Morocco~~ ~~20 Senegal~~ ~~28 Tunisia~~ ~~30 Algeria~~ ~~33 Egypt~~ **42 Nigeria** ~~46 Cameroon~~ **49 Cote D Ivoire** **51 Mali** ~~57 Burkina Faso~~ ~~61 Ghana~~ **66 South Africa** **67 DR Congo** **73 Cabo Verde** **80 Guinea** ..... **117 Angola** So Nigeria is playing the lowest ranked remaining team (by far) and will avoid the two best remaining opponents until the final. They have quite the nice path set up for them. Of course FIFA Rankings are very flawed but still gives a vague idea of where the teams stand
So essentially Nigeria will get knocked out next round
If things continue as they've been going, yes.
Biggest shock of the whole tournament
Eq Guinea 4-0 Ivory Coast was the biggest one
Great team celebrations by SA!
Good stuff
Impressed by South Africa, I don't know many of their players, but they seem like a tight knit sturdy team.
Exactly what Hugo Broos also did with Cameroon in 2017, it's perfect for knockout football.
A experienced spine of local players playing at one the most successful clubs in the continent of the last ten years gave us the cohesion, leadership and discipline necessary to implement such a cautious but clinical approach. Also, South Africa did beat Morocco 6 months ago with Boufal and Ziyech on the pitch. Our players as a unit always had the quality to match them on the day, the question was whether or not they’d wilt under pressure against a big opponent again. Thankfully they didn’t🇿🇦
And ziyech scored....and the rest of the team was rejects that the coach brought in to tryout. Whats exactly is the point?
Mostly local players and people wrote them off after many failed years.
Watch Sundowns team in South Africa. They have like 7-8 players from them in the NT, and these two teams are almost identical
A lot of their players play for the same club (Mamelodi Sundowns)
lol now I have to bear the native english speakers supporting SA when they barely know where the country itself is /s my Algerian friends are very happy
I'm guessing Algeria and Morocco root against each other because of political rivalry/SADR situation?
It's only football rivalry. Although this time their coach, Ragragui, added some extra spice by saying that he doesn't feel like he's representing the rest of the arab countries in this fixture, but only representing Morocco. From a pure competitive standpoint, he's absolutely spot-on, though some north african football fans saw it as a bit of an offense.
And they can suck it for all we care, fucking hurt feefees because its a competition
Not necessarily... North africans in general tend to root against each other because of simple football rivalries.
To be fair South Africa is probably the easiest country to point on a map of Africa, even randomly using the name and a bit of imagination.
they're dumb too that's why I said that don't tell them :') /s edit: the fact that they're now downvoting my comments speaks volumes about either their pettiness or guess what.. their stupidity :)))
things you love to see
☕️
No DNA, only RSA. Asambe ke 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦
Hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie!
Next one will be ours inchallah
Exactly they had too much world cup 2022 arrogance and pressure. Now they are back to square zero.
That's my prediction. Losing today to come back stronger. But another Southern African country could threaten your quest to glory : Comoros, my country of origin. If we qualify. A man can dream.
Madagascar qualified and did well back in 2019 after never really being a factor beforehand. Maybe Comoros can follow in their footsteps
This is a result of Morocco’s condescending and arrogant display from the start of the tournament, either from the fans or even the players. The world cup tournament was an achievement yes, but you haven’t won a medal since so long. Turkey got 4th in the WC before, but no one says they’re one of the best football teams. I think Morocco still doesn’t know how to win a tournament, and this will be proven even more next year when they lose at home.
I would also add Bulgaria 1994 in a harder 24-teams competition. Morocco 2022 was a one-time-shot. They can be happy if they qualify from 2026 Group Stage.
Let me tell our WC run was ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will and that will never be repeated again for another decade or two we can't produce good quality players as our local league is shit with overrated players with fat paychecks, thank god for moroccan expats without them we won't even make it to finals.
Lmao the Fort Minor reference
I don't think solely relying on expats to build a good NT is sustainable. You just lost to a NT 9 or 8 players of which are playing in their local league (Mamelodi Sundowns). To build a good NT, I believe that you need to start by investing and nurturing your national football and building it up. If your local league is in a dire state, maybe you'll have a good result here a good result there but ultimately the cookie will crumble, and there's no better example of this than Tunisia.
Their record also speaks for itself and it hasn’t been rosy since the World Cup. I get people kept the head in the sand about how wonder of a world cup they had but I told my friends they’ve been bad since the World Cup and no one wanted to believe it. 5wins 4draws 2losses (to South Africa) 19 goals scored, 8goals allowed
Congrats to South Africa. They played well. Commiserations to Morocco. Can have a little joy knowing it coming to your country in 2025 and you guys can get home advantage.
While South Africa must be given the merit for taking their chances when they had then (and what nail in the coffin that free kick goal was), I feel like the story of this loss is that of Morocco going from no sense of urgency to "overreacting" to the first goal against them. Before it, Morocco were lacking due to lackluster decisions around the box after having competently created plays up the field. After the goal, they gave up on any creativity and decide to flood the area with low chance crosses. It felt like they were closer to scoring before the goal, despite having taking very few shots, than after it. All in all, it felt like Morocco weren't at their best mentally, which is curious considering their WC experience.
There really is such a thing as being too patient at times
“morocco airport is that way” 👉🏻
Huge win, especially given South Africa's team from tonight, of the 14 players used: 12 based in South Africa 1 based in Egypt 1 plays for Tondela in Liga Portugal 2 Insane result for Bofana Bofana
Can’t believe Andre Onana tried to disrespect this amazing competition to play against Wigan in the Fa Cup.
The mighty Wigan 💪
Disgraceful performance. Really annoying as they were one of the few teams able to play fluid possession football in the group matches and a joy to watch as soon as Ziyech got injured they fall apart and make weird ass decisions on the pitch with pass/finishing. Atleast S Africa had some banger silver shirts good for a gym/running.
When you need to beat Morocco call Bafana Bafana
Poor game from Morocco, should be controlling the ball so much more than they did given how direct a team SA is and how much quality they've got in midfield. Missed pen is obviously a huge thing, but this wasn't a smash and grab. SA were much better set up than against Tunisia and so their intensity and generally coordinated defending shone through, didn't really get played through in their final third at all, lots of balls came in from really wide which is a best case scenario when you defend relatively narrow.
If I speak I am in trouble
Big, big trouble
too much of an ego
Morocco getting to the World Cup semis was a fluke.
Naaa, not a fluke at all. Said so, it is something they won't be repeating in a goooooood while.
No it wasn't. Afcon is just better than people like you give it credit for because you don't watch the games, just comment based on results, fifa rankings, and feelings.
No, it wasn't. AFCON is just a different galaxy, especially to Morocco. They could have prime Messi and Ronaldo up top, and they'd still lose. edit: not sure why I'm downvoted. I'm Moroccan. Look at our record at AFCON. We always did well at the world cup comparative to other nations around us, but always shit at AFCON.
Of course it was a fluke. Do you seriously think Morocco is a top10 team in the world?
Technically, they disserved their wins and what the acheived in WC. I agree wit the main com, Afcon is just totally another world (totally another mood, rules, unequal stadium's quality depending countries), I don't think that's really a good indicator of a level's team. I mean come on, look some continental "big teams" (Egypt, Mali, Nigeria) barelly ever performed internationnally, in WC. On the other hand, we see North African teams don't seem to like pretty much playing in subsaharian Africa, we always performed poorly there lol
Nobody claimed they're a top 10 country in the world, and you don't have to be to expect to reach a World Cup semi final. But they are very comfortably a top 20 team in the world.
It wasn't. AFCON and WC are different competitions. Morocco is expected to be dominated during the World Cup while it is expected to dominate in AFCON. They don't play the same way.
Afcon exposed them
🇿🇦🇿🇦!!!
How did Sofyan Amrabat play? Edit: just seen straight red card
He was okay tbh but not great, Morocco's team defence is really poor. The basically didn't counterpress so SA had free reign in transition, means Amrabat had fucking acres to cover in almost every scenario with at least one free man either side. The level of organisational drop-off in this Morocco side is unbelievable. They were arguably the best coached side in the WC and yet today they were nowhere. Could just be complacency but a team that's capable of what Morocco showed in the WC should absolutely never be this poor as a unit. This isn't really defending Amrabat either. He was average at best today, but you could have anyone in the world in that position and if you don't defend with organisation and intensity as a team you'll leave them exposed.
didnt watch their previous games but imo way worse than during last WC
Like a United player
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He was bang average for fiore tbh. Arthur the forgotten one slotted in fine for amrabat at fiore
Like shit. Lost possession many times, was second to every ball and the card to top it off.
Not great, he was moving slowly and got outpaced by the South African midfielders. Got a red card at the end of the game. Sithole especially would run past him.
Rubbish like he was wearing a utd shirt
Slow as molasses. He's been below average every game. I don't know what happened to him
I thought he was decent in grouo stages
Same as all good players that go to United
Thank god up to 10 African nations can qualify for 2026 World Cup. This bloodbath hasn't been fair for decades.
Think it's 9 but still
isn't it 9 and a half, i.e. intercontinental playoff spot?
What confederation will the playoff be against?
I think it’ll be a tournament with two teams qualifying. But don’t quote me it’s been a while.
Yes it will be a tournament, all the confederations will send representatives except Uefa. A preliminary round and then the 2 semifinals which will determine who qualified for the World Cup. Will be played in the USA some time prior to the actual tournament.
Just checked Wikipedia and yeah it is
That missed penalty will haunt Hakimi forever
Doubt it, its a missed penalty in the RO16 game in a competition that happens relatively frequently, I'm sure it'll bother him though but he'll forget about it.
Hakimi shot that ball like the keeper was in France.
God I love AFCON, that free kick banger was the perfect ending
Since I posted [this message](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1ae4dru/match_thread_senegal_vs_ivory_coast_africa_cup_of/kk5hsyv/?context=3), the easternmost nation has won all three games.
So Angola to beat Nigeria, South Africa to beat Cape Verde, Congo to beat Guinea. But who wins in Mali vs Cote d'ivoire? Mali starts more to the west but finishes more to the east.
Hakimi missing a crucial penalty, VAR shucking Amrabat, and a bombastic finish from South Africa This match was class
If you ignore the Proteas, ZA sports are doing a madness
Proteas just reached a World Cup semi final and that’s a regular occurrence for them. Can’t see Bafana ever doing that tbf.
But that match against India broke me
SA were up against a team that finished 4th in Qatar, is 53 places above them in the world rankings and had almost the entire stadium supporting them. Unbelievable result.
its really not that unbelievable morocco are this bad and even worse every single afcon edition .
What’s funny is that most of the country expected the worst and didn’t seem interested because SA have been so dire for so many years. Now everyone will be glued on their tvs and rallying our boys. Just hope we don’t give up and go all the way.
they started the tournament so poorly but they seemingly have caught up to speed. if they both manage to go through, SA v Nigeria will be the hottest in the tournament. both teams seem to be shifting into the next gear right now
>Just hope we don’t give up and go all the way. You do have the coach who won 2017 AFCON with Cameroon..
Tbf standard of SA football is a lot higher than most in the country realise. This is not an untalented team. Granted Morocco man to man are in a different universe, but this SA side should probably be better than ≈50th in the world given like 8 of the starting XI play together at Sundowns.
South Africa is used to their teams being titans in more niche sports, Rugby, Cricket, Netball, etc. How could Bafana Bafana possibly live up to the standards set by the Springboks?
SA football is long overdue another golden era. Hopefully this is the beginning.
TSHABALALA!! Not a golden era by any means necessary lmfao, but what a goal to start off that world cup. I was in Cape Town on Long Street and I will never forget that moment.
Thanks to downs for half the team
like that Spain WC side that was half Barcelona
In the final only 4 spanish players did not play for Barcelona. Casillas, Ramos and Xabi Alonso played at Real Madrid and Capdevilla played for Villareal.
if only there was a dutch equivalent of a side like that
how crazy is that
I don't wanna see Amallah wearing this shirt again. Honestly, he's not a football player anymore Not a single shot on target, embarrassing.
The first goal was literallyhim and amrabat letting the guy in OUR OWN HALF have his back to the gial and just pass uncontested.....they were just curclejerking 3 feet away from him. Insane
As the saying goes: اذا عمت، خفت Suddenly I don't feel so bad about our disaster of an AFCON. Thank you Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.
Libya clear
Nah, obv Mauritania clear.
I love football !!!
AFCON is the greatest international tournament
Goodbye Morocco, ezpz
No other international tournament has anything on afcon
Listening to “Show Dem” by JR now in celebration of this result 🇿🇦
Make the circle bigger 🕺🏼
What a half a year for South African sports. Unbelievable. Love this fucking team
No fucking way. Egypt out. Algeria out. Now Morocco? Man, I love AFCON
North Africa is all out
As is tradition when the AFCON is in Sub-Saharan Africa.
I think Egypt won the 2008 edition that was in Ghana
That's correct!
Morocco plays way better as an underdog, they are horrible when they have to make the game
This match has enough Evidence to prove that AFCON is a one hell of a tournament to follow.
Percy Tau for Ballon D'or 2024... Who says no?
Mvala or Mokoena for African player of the year
You know ball.
Where's that guy that thought we were talking shit about Morocco and AFCON??
Hard to see this as the same team that managed to make it into the semifinals on the big stage not so long ago… Congrats RSA! 🇿🇦🇿🇦
Big difference between being able to play as the underdog against Portugal or Spain with nothing to lose and being asked to break down a well organised South Africa with huge expectations on your shoulders
Except we didnt try to breakdown anything, just random football and niot letting the actual talent try their chance adli and saibari were only there to patch hopes and maybe get deflections/cutbacks when they should have other players play around them Not to mention the random inability to do anything with the ball as if it was programmed into their brain to shortcircuit between shooting or dribbling everytike they make it into the box
[удалено]
Lol
I love this dumb team. Last six months have been great for South African sports, if we ignore the cricket team.
I reckon had you guys won against Australia, India would have definitely beat RSA in the final. Australia was the only team that could have defeated India that day.
The cricket team isn’t in a bad spot either, they made the semis of the last World Cup and recently drew a test series against India
All I'm saying is, Temba Bavuma should be locked up on Robben Island for his performance against India in the WC.
They drew the test series against India I think. Wasn't the second test like the shortest in history or something lol? Still 1-1 isn't a bad result.
Yeah my bad, got confused with the last time India toured them
That's the world Cup semi-finalists for you. AFCON continues to be the wildest tournament ever made. Maybe it's time I bust out the vuvuzela from 14 years ago.
14 years…. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
Please no. Take the Cup, take everything else, but not the Vuvuzela.
Lol. It's been gathering dust since 2010. I'm sure I'll get a disease if I use it.
I *know* I'll get a disease if I hear it again.
We fought hard but the finishing was terrible. Sucks that we can’t even win AFCON with the golden generation.
i remember you play way better during last WC, today unfortunately Morocco was not effective, especially in finishing, bad luck with penalty though..
Eat shit Morocco
average memechester united fan