u/happysmile001

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This game completely exposed France, stripping away the hype and showing everyone their true colors. Being down 4-0 to England at halftime when England isn't even playing that great finally pulled back the curtain on France's actual level

It honestly feels like Morocco gave them way too much respect and overrated them. Morocco barely even gave it a shot because the mediaa built France up to be this invincible, Avengers level squad

Turns out it was all smoke and mirrors. Morocco blew their biggest chance in decades to reach a World Cup final, and those players are going to regret that forever.

Let me say something that might sting, but needs to be said.

In 2022, before Morocco played Croatia, I saw Moroccan fans predicting 4-0. Before Belgium, some said 6-0, 7-0. These weren't rival fans. These were our own people, and they said they were just joking. And even after we beat Belgium, the second-ranked team on the planet, some of you were still nervous. Still doubtful. Still finding reasons it wouldn't last.

We beat Spain. We beat Portugal. We became the first African nation in the history of this sport to reach a World Cup semifinal. And somewhere in the comments section, a Moroccan was typing "yeah their players got old..."

I'm not here to fight those people. I'm here to name what that is, because naming it is the first step to defeating it.

That is an inferiority complex. And it is not your fault. It is the residue of decades of being told, explicitly and implicitly, that your civilization, your continent, your football is second tier. That your players only become "real" players once a European club signs them. That Africa produces athletes, not tacticians, That you can surprise people, but you cannot belong at the top. That message got internalized so deeply that some of us now deliver it to ourselves before any opponent has to.

The psychological mechanism is predictable: if you predict humiliation, and you lose by less, you feel relieved. If you predict humiliation, and you win, you feel surprised, but your identity is safe because you never invested hope. Chronic pessimism isn't analysis, it's armor. It's a way of never being hurt by hope.

But here's what that armor costs: it makes you a passive spectator in your own team's history.

Now let me talk football, because I'm not making emotional arguments. I'm making factual ones.

This Morocco team, in this tournament, was the better side against Brazil for the first 31 minutes. They outshot a Vinicius, Raphinha, Ancelotti-coached Brazil 12 shots to 3 in that opening stretch. They led. They controlled. A wonder goal from one of the best players alive leveled it. That is not a defensive failure, that is world-class football happening to you, and it happens to everyone. Against Scotland, Morocco generated 0.97 xG to Scotland's 0.54. Scotland had zero shots on target across 90 minutes. The score was 1-0 but the performance gap was significantly larger than that. Against Haiti, the coach deliberately rested four starters, Haiti played with everything they had for a historic moment, and Morocco still won 4-2.

That is not a fraudulent team. That is a team in transition, from Regragui's elite defensive system toward something more ambitious, more complete, more capable of multiple styles of play. Yes, that transition has costs. Yes, it's messier than 2022. Every evolution is. A team that can only defend deep is a team every opponent eventually figures out. Ouahbi and Sacramento are building something with a higher ceiling, and you're judging the construction site instead of reading the blueprint.

Now about the Netherlands, tonight.

Here is a fact that doesn't get enough attention: favorites lose at World Cups constantly. This is not opinion. This is the defining feature of knockout tournament football. The bracket is littered with upsets every single edition. And Netherlands, specifically, have a historical pattern of underperforming relative to their talent in the moments that matter most. They have reached the World Cup final three times and lost all three. Tonight they face a team that eliminated Spain and Portugal four years ago.

Are Netherlands strong? Yes. Genuinely. Gakpo, Brobbey, Van Dijk, Dumfries. Real quality. But they also drew 2-2 with Japan, nearly surrendering a lead in the 88th minute. They conceded four goals across the group stage. They are not impenetrable. Furthermore, they are beatable. And Morocco has Hakimi, Bouaddi, Brahim Diaz, Saibari, El Khannouss, Chadi Riad, Diop, Bounou. The individual quality and collective intelligence to beat them are both there.

Saying this is not blind optimism. It is an accurate reading of the football. Morocco has earned the right to be believed in, not tolerated.

Now let me say something to the players, the staff, the families. Because we know these words sometimes travel further than people think. They reach hotel rooms, training grounds, family dinners. A comment posted at midnight doesn't stay online. It gets screenshotted, forwarded, read aloud. And doubt from your own people cuts differently than anything an opponent could say.

So hear this clearly: the noise is not Morocco. The performative pessimism, the preemptive eulogies, the people scoring points by predicting your failure. That is not us. That is a vocal minority stuck in an older version of what we are supposed to be capable of. They are still living in the world before 2022. You rewrote that world. You don't owe them a second of mental energy.

Play for the Morocco that was at the stadium in Qatar. Play for the people who cried when Hakimi scored. Play for the eight-year-old watching in Casablanca who doesn't know yet that some people think he's supposed to have low expectations. Play for yourselves, because you have earned every moment of this.

Finally. How to handle the negative people in your feed and in the comments.

Don't debate them. This is important. Debating a chronic pessimist gives them the audience they need to feel relevant. They are not offering analysis. They are performing identity. Your engagement is their oxygen.

The correct response is either silence, or one sentence: "I'll see you after the game." Then move on. Let the result answer for you. It has before. It will again.

And if they come back after a loss with "I told you so," understand that a person who roots for failure just to be proven right is not a supporter. They were never going to be in the stadium with you. They were never in it at all.

One last thing.

There are people right now saying we need Yamal, we need a different coach, we need different players, we need to wait for the next world cup. And I want you to understand something: those same people, with those same players, would find a different reason to doubt. Because the issue was never the players. The issue is that some people have built their identity around the idea that Morocco cannot fully belong at the top. No roster change fixes that. Only a change in how we see ourselves.

We already changed it once in Qatar, in front of the world.

Tomorrow we do it again, we'll make history again in Mexico.

Thank you for reading all of this, go support your team at 100% and Dima Maghrib 🇲🇦

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