Africa Football Discussion Thread || Current discussion: African teams at Qatar.

[dataispower]

I really commend Moroccan team for that good performance in that match , making it the only African team that is left in the world cup compition, I really encourage other African brothers to work hard in the next world cup.  I keep wondering why the African teams are not doing so well when it comes to world cup compition, when we have good talented players from the African space playing in Champions League and other various compitions around the world. The Africans need work hard in order to change that narratives.

African teams lack technicality. They believe so much in physicality and that hinders them a lot. The players may be technical but the ideology of African teams is just not technical. The teams are also poorly managed and this may be the fault of the country's government by not providing resources or the fault of the management team or the fault of the FA.

There are African players who are very good in Europe  but when its time to represent their country, they're not as good. This may be due to the fact that the football structure of the team is bad. African teams don't learn, they do things the same way, same pattern even if its clearly not working. They don't invest as much into football and sports in general.

These issues lead African players to nationalize in other countries and play for them. There's still the issue of corruption in the national teams despite the poor funding. We've heard of players who wanted to train or play for their national team but they'll be ask for bribes before they can be accepted.  These things derail the growth of African teams.

[Oluwa-btc]

Unfortunately, my interlocutors were right. And despite the fact that this defeat cost me dearly (because of this, I was eliminated from that competition with 0.5 mbtc bets), I'm glad that shitty football was punished. I don't like Tiki Taka at all, but Spain was able to play even this shit very badly. If you want to make a million passes, then why take extra touches? Naturally, if you receive the ball, then work it under the foot and make pass with the third touch, the opponent will have time to block the zones and this is a very slow game. I don't know what Spain hoped for and I don't know why a brainless coach seeing that his plan wasn't working didn't try to change anything. The Spanish national team remains a team with one plan A. It's too little to win serious games.

In addition I'll say that L Enrique could have just changed tactics to Four Four Two using double attacking players since his plan A wasn't effective enough to break Morocco. The likes of Fati and Morata should have been used and then maybe, Pedri, Olmo on the wing Sergio Busquet and someone else, the coach should have known better.

Millions of passing but non to hurt the opponents, Barcelona gotten from Manchester City shouldn't have been called, Busquet also, Rodri of Manchester City shouldn't have been used as a defender if Ramos was called up, I think he would have been a better option or Thiago Alcantara to Sergio Busquet. They failed but I hope he learns. I don't wish Morocco luck ahead, I'm team Portugal come Saturday.

[trendcoin]

Morocco have come this far by playing great football, but they will face a tough test against Portugal. In the Spain match, they managed to keep the score and carried the match to penalties, but I think they will not be able to achieve this in the Portugal match because Spain had problems scoring goals and getting into the goal position, but the Portugal have more talented players in this regard. They brought excitement to the tournament by eliminating favorite teams like Belgium and Spain, but I see Portugal as the favorites in this match. Moroccan defense will face a tough test in this match.

[minime0105]

Morocco have come this far by playing great football, but they will face a tough test against Portugal. In the Spain match, they managed to keep the score and carried the match to penalties, but I think they will not be able to achieve this in the Portugal match because Spain had problems scoring goals and getting into the goal position, but the Portugal have more talented players in this regard. They brought excitement to the tournament by eliminating favorite teams like Belgium and Spain, but I see Portugal as the favorites in this match. Moroccan defense will face a tough test in this match.

For Morocco to manage to play Spain and win them that means wining Portugal will come as surprised to people, because i know that some people did not believe that Morocco can win Spain or never thought that the match will be penalty, so that is why i do tell people that the list team in soccer is not suppose to be listed or ignore that they can't perform well. So if Morocco can so far to play in group and come out from the group, that means that if Portugal did not plan or strategies well Morocco will take them unaware and win them, but it will be difficult for them to win.

[SatoPrincess]

OK, we will see. I hope my analysis turns out to be correct, because I do not just believe in Spain, but made a bet on them. And I would not call the Spanish national team inexperienced, there are many young players but also dinosaurs like Busquets. Perhaps this is the optimal combination for success. In general, I think that even if Spain has problems with defense, they can compensate for them with their line of attack, which looks very dangerous.

Well, what can I say? Morocco are doing what everyone expected them to do, and Spain are labouring more than I expected them to. Didn't actually take a bet as I thought odds were too poor, so a draw is what the Africans would have loved, even if both sides could have won it at the death. Now we got 30 more minutes of extra time, expect this to be incredibly dull or incredibly exciting. Now the World Cup is feeling a lot more familiar haha.

Unfortunately, my interlocutors were right. And despite the fact that this defeat cost me dearly (because of this, I was eliminated from that competition with 0.5 mbtc bets), I'm glad that shitty football was punished. I don't like Tiki Taka at all, but Spain was able to play even this shit very badly. If you want to make a million passes, then why take extra touches? Naturally, if you receive the ball, then work it under the foot and make pass with the third touch, the opponent will have time to block the zones and this is a very slow game. I don't know what Spain hoped for and I don't know why a brainless coach seeing that his plan wasn't working didn't try to change anything. The Spanish national team remains a team with one plan A. It's too little to win serious games.

Right from history, Spain are known for this style of football, the tiki taka play is their known trade mark and they have stock to it for many decades and don't look to stop it now. They played well against Morocco and created few chances because Morocco had a very solid defense and were able to read the game and understand the tactic and attacking strategies which made it so difficult to break their defense. We just have to give Moroccans the credit and not entirely blame Spain for the loss.

[Sithara007]

I was looking at the poll, and was surprised to see Yassine Bounou not featuring in it. I would have voted for him, as he was the one who give Morocco a win over Spain. And in the end that win made sure that Morocco is the only team from the CAF to feature in the quarter-finals. The defenders did their job well - especially Achraf Hakimi, Noussair Mazraoui, Nayef Aguerd and Romain Saïss. But IMO, the impact made by Bounou was much greater than that made by any of the other players in the Moroccan lineup.

[EarnOnVictor]

Morocco have come this far by playing great football, but they will face a tough test against Portugal. In the Spain match, they managed to keep the score and carried the match to penalties, but I think they will not be able to achieve this in the Portugal match because Spain had problems scoring goals and getting into the goal position, but the Portugal have more talented players in this regard. They brought excitement to the tournament by eliminating favorite teams like Belgium and Spain, but I see Portugal as the favorites in this match. Moroccan defense will face a tough test in this match.

This year's world cup is never like before, some lower-rated teams played brilliantly, while some higher-rated teams played poorly. I was one of those who underestimated Morocco, I never thought they would get this far, thinking that they could not get past Spain in their last match. But the team has proven to have improved beyond expectations, which will not make me take sides tomorrow when they play against Portugal.

If Morocco could defeat Spain through, though, in a penalty shootout, anything could also happen if Portugal did not have luck with their attacking.

[buwaytress]

Right from history, Spain are known for this style of football, the tiki taka play is their known trade mark and they have stock to it for many decades and don't look to stop it now. They played well against Morocco and created few chances because Morocco had a very solid defense and were able to read the game and understand the tactic and attacking strategies which made it so difficult to break their defense. We just have to give Moroccans the credit and not entirely blame Spain for the loss.

Yup, don't think enough people give credit to Morocco, and too much discredit to Spain. On another day, they might have gone through and then no one would be talking about it -- do think they're just not flexible enough when other teams do prove they can adjust to the opponent.

Morocco to go one better this round, though? They now must also prove they can adjust to a Portuguese team who know how to play the same battle of attrition.

[Slow death]

I assume there is some people who supported Morocco but definitely most people didn't expect to see them progressing this far.
Morocco isn't the first African team to achieve that but it is the first Arabic and northern African one doing so if I am not wrong. Besides, Morocco eliminated Belgium and Spain which isn't easy at all!

I also didn't put any hope of seeing morocco get this far, mainly because they had very strong opponents, but to my surprise morocco against spain was a game in which morocco had many chances to win the game without even needing to reach the penalties and spain played so badly that they didn't even look like the same spain as usual, morocco needs to improve a lot in attack, if they don't improve in attack then they won't have any chance of beating portugal who have a lot of good players in attack, defense Morocco is good, but its attack is very bad. but i'm already happy to see a team from africa get so far, i hope that in the future we'll see a team from africa win the world cup

Morocco to go one better this round, though? They now must also prove they can adjust to a Portuguese team who know how to play the same battle of attrition.

portugal is a very strong team, there is no doubt about that and morocco's attack is something bad, for me this game morocco will lose, i just hope that morocco doesn't suffer too many goals in this game and that he manages to score at least 1 goal

[Rruchi man]

We just have to give Moroccans the credit and not entirely blame Spain for the loss.

Spain's loss is hyped because of the big expectations for this Spain team that many people had for them first getting into the world cup, an expectation that they reinforced by scoring very many goals in their first game, and completing many passes in the competition, more than any other team. We thought they will go far and not get knocked out by an African side. Their coach Luis Enrique has been sacked as a result of the dissapointment the loss brought to the country.
source

[Franctoshi]

We just have to give Moroccans the credit and not entirely blame Spain for the loss.

Spain's loss is hyped because of the big expectations for this Spain team that many people had for them first getting into the world cup, an expectation that they reinforced by scoring very many goals in their first game, and completing many passes in the competition, more than any other team. We thought they will go far and not get knocked out by an African side. Their coach Luis Enrique has been sacked as a result of the dissapointment the loss brought to the country.
source

Exactly , there was this much expectation on the Spanish team this world cup, And this amounted pressure on the entire players.
But on before the world cup, the Spanish team is not what they used to be before, there was a drop as regards to their performance, so what makes it to become a headline and a big defeat was the fact that people was not expecting a team like Morocco to send them packing.

[KTChampions]

Unfortunately, my interlocutors were right. And despite the fact that this defeat cost me dearly (because of this, I was eliminated from that competition with 0.5 mbtc bets), I'm glad that shitty football was punished. I don't like Tiki Taka at all, but Spain was able to play even this shit very badly. If you want to make a million passes, then why take extra touches? Naturally, if you receive the ball, then work it under the foot and make pass with the third touch, the opponent will have time to block the zones and this is a very slow game. I don't know what Spain hoped for and I don't know why a brainless coach seeing that his plan wasn't working didn't try to change anything. The Spanish national team remains a team with one plan A. It's too little to win serious games.

In addition I'll say that L Enrique could have just changed tactics to Four Four Two using double attacking players since his plan A wasn't effective enough to break Morocco. The likes of Fati and Morata should have been used and then maybe, Pedri, Olmo on the wing Sergio Busquet and someone else, the coach should have known better.

Millions of passing but non to hurt the opponents, Barcelona gotten from Manchester City shouldn't have been called, Busquet also, Rodri of Manchester City shouldn't have been used as a defender if Ramos was called up, I think he would have been a better option or Thiago Alcantara to Sergio Busquet. They failed but I hope he learns. I don't wish Morocco luck ahead, I'm team Portugal come Saturday.

I think that replacing the defender with a striker and playing in a 3-4-3 formation was also a normal option. Against three defenders Morocco would have to attack and it would be an open game where Spain is obviously better. Let them concede a goal or two but they could score 3-4 back. Sometimes the maximum reliability (which Spain chose) is not the right decision, because you win the battle (solving the local task not to concede a goal) but lose the war (match).

[Asiska02]

Exactly , there was this much expectation on the Spanish team this world cup, And this amounted pressure on the entire players.
But on before the world cup, the Spanish team is not what they used to be before, there was a drop as regards to their performance, so what makes it to become a headline and a big defeat was the fact that people was not expecting a team like Morocco to send them packing.

That is what makes football so entertaining to watch. An unexpected team defeating a team that everyone expects to win a match. Spain had played their best till that point. They were able to keep Morocco at bay until penalties, despite having the majority of scoring chances in that game. To me, penalties do not assess a team's perfection, thus their exit was just unlucky for them, whereas Morocco benefited from the penalty that day.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I see so many who are proud of what Morocco has achieved, this is indeed not the first African team to reach the quarterfinals, several other teams have done this, but what makes me quite curious is whether anyone was brave enough to bet on Morocco yesterday? to be honest i didn't do that just bet on over 2.5 too bad it didn't work. Congratulations to Africa, which still has one team playing in this World Cup.

Yes I think everyone knows this because in the previous world cups the likes of Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana has achieved same success but what makes this one different is the fact that Morocco has done this in an impressive way. They got the highest point by an African team in the group stage, defeated the heavyweight teams that were in the group and ended up topping the group. They have done all this without losing a single game and now they're in the quarter finals. It also came to my knowledge of recent that the Arab nations are now coming Morocco with headlines like then been the first Arab nation to achieve this and only Arabic team left in the competition.

Once again when they win they're been called Arab but when they lose African, well I'm grateful the coach made it very clear of Morocco been an African nation and we'll be routing for them today. International I'm supporting Portugal and if Morocco can't go on to win the tournament then they should step them for Portugal who has a higher chance of winning since the likes of Brazil are out of the tournament.

[mrongoz_imut]

Exactly , there was this much expectation on the Spanish team this world cup, And this amounted pressure on the entire players.
But on before the world cup, the Spanish team is not what they used to be before, there was a drop as regards to their performance, so what makes it to become a headline and a big defeat was the fact that people was not expecting a team like Morocco to send them packing.

That is what makes football so entertaining to watch. An unexpected team defeating a team that everyone expects to win a match. Spain had played their best till that point. They were able to keep Morocco at bay until penalties, despite having the majority of scoring chances in that game. To me, penalties do not assess a team's perfection, thus their exit was just unlucky for them, whereas Morocco benefited from the penalty that day.

It's true that as you said, the unseeded team can beat the seeded team, Spain was eliminated by Morocco, while the Brazilian national team was surprisingly defeated by the Croatian national team. It is indeed very difficult to make predictions in this year's world cup, because the seeded teams must return home one by one, most likely Morocco will surprise again and be able to beat Portugal tonight, most likely Morocco and Croatia will advance to the world cup final this year this, because they have a very solid defense at the back and they also have a strong team with extraordinary cohesiveness.

[Davidvictorson]

Once again when they win they're been called Arab but when they lose African, well I'm grateful the coach made it very clear of Morocco been an African nation and we'll be routing for them today. International I'm supporting Portugal and if Morocco can't go on to win the tournament then they should step them for Portugal who has a higher chance of winning since the likes of Brazil are out of the tournament.

These famous words of the Moroccan coach Walid Regragui - "I am not here to be a politician. We want to fly Africa's flag high just like Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon. We are here to represent Africa." needs to be framed for posterity. It beats my imagination that some so called journalists would want to twists the narrative for their own selfish and political discuss. Absolutely disgusting.

On the other hand, I do not care if the represent the Africa, the Arab world, the Asian continent or whatever, I just want to watch good  football today. I sincerely wish Morrocco win because I love seeing underdogs prove the public wrong just like what happened with Brazil. I hope their hearts and their heads stay in the game. But whatever the out come is in the end , they have fought a good fight.

[Docnaster]

Exactly , there was this much expectation on the Spanish team this world cup, And this amounted pressure on the entire players.
But on before the world cup, the Spanish team is not what they used to be before, there was a drop as regards to their performance, so what makes it to become a headline and a big defeat was the fact that people was not expecting a team like Morocco to send them packing.

That is what makes football so entertaining to watch. An unexpected team defeating a team that everyone expects to win a match. Spain had played their best till that point. They were able to keep Morocco at bay until penalties, despite having the majority of scoring chances in that game. To me, penalties do not assess a team's perfection, thus their exit was just unlucky for them, whereas Morocco benefited from the penalty that day.

The Spanish team did not do anything special about their team before coming to this world cup. It has been the Spanish team we used to know if you can remember in 2018 World Cup at Russia spain faced Crotia and they were able to complete 1000 passes and they could not win the match. history repeated itself against Morocco they had 1050 passes and still lost the match. most of their passes are not forward past, they pass sidewards and backward pass this is not what is needed in the World Cup to make a win and Crotia has a good penalty history

[Slow death]

Once again when they win they're been called Arab but when they lose African, well I'm grateful the coach made it very clear of Morocco been an African nation and we'll be routing for them today. International I'm supporting Portugal and if Morocco can't go on to win the tournament then they should step them for Portugal who has a higher chance of winning since the likes of Brazil are out of the tournament.

These famous words of the Moroccan coach Walid Regragui - "I am not here to be a politician. We want to fly Africa's flag high just like Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon. We are here to represent Africa." needs to be framed for posterity. It beats my imagination that some so called journalists would want to twists the narrative for their own selfish and political discuss. Absolutely disgusting.

On the other hand, I do not care if the represent the Africa, the Arab world, the Asian continent or whatever, I just want to watch good  football today. I sincerely wish Morrocco win because I love seeing underdogs prove the public wrong just like what happened with Brazil. I hope their hearts and their heads stay in the game. But whatever the out come is in the end , they have fought a good fight.

despite being a fan of morocco because i am african, i am also a fan of portugal and being neutral i must say that portugal has excellent players in their attack, something very different from morocco has been wasting clear opportunities but in this game they will be playing against portugal, which is a completely different team from spain, who preferred to play more in possession of the ball, portugal will attack morocco more than staying in possession of the ball, and morocco will have to be very careful every time they go on the attack to avoid If they lose the ball and suffer a counter-attack and they score a goal, I see Portugal winning this game, I very much doubt that there will be a favorable result for Morocco

[KTChampions]

despite being a fan of morocco because i am african, i am also a fan of portugal and being neutral i must say that portugal has excellent players in their attack, something very different from morocco has been wasting clear opportunities but in this game they will be playing against portugal, which is a completely different team from spain, who preferred to play more in possession of the ball, portugal will attack morocco more than staying in possession of the ball, and morocco will have to be very careful every time they go on the attack to avoid If they lose the ball and suffer a counter-attack and they score a goal, I see Portugal winning this game, I very much doubt that there will be a favorable result for Morocco

Yes, I also do not see options for Morocco to win (of course, there is always a share of randomness and all teams have a chance). Portugal is not the kind of team that you can completely give the ball to, like Spain, and defend in your own half of the field. At the same time, playing open football with the Portuguese national team means getting a result similar to the one in the Portugal-Switzerland game. Quite a difficult choice for the head coach of the Morocco national team.

[Ratash]

despite being a fan of morocco because i am african, i am also a fan of portugal and being neutral i must say that portugal has excellent players in their attack, something very different from morocco has been wasting clear opportunities but in this game they will be playing against portugal, which is a completely different team from spain, who preferred to play more in possession of the ball, portugal will attack morocco more than staying in possession of the ball, and morocco will have to be very careful every time they go on the attack to avoid If they lose the ball and suffer a counter-attack and they score a goal, I see Portugal winning this game, I very much doubt that there will be a favorable result for Morocco

Yes, I also do not see options for Morocco to win (of course, there is always a share of randomness and all teams have a chance). Portugal is not the kind of team that you can completely give the ball to, like Spain, and defend in your own half of the field. At the same time, playing open football with the Portuguese national team means getting a result similar to the one in the Portugal-Switzerland game. Quite a difficult choice for the head coach of the Morocco national team.

I agree the spain match seemed easier to me since not only spain prefer the possession but most of their players are inexperienced and not that good individually i see portugal team more dangerous individually and that might be the key to their victory since morroco defensive strategy is really good and it will come down to players skill to crack it and i think thats what will make the difference for portugal today.