Morocco the Star of This World Cup

12/11/2022

"Maybe these boys I stumbled upon long ago in a Marrakech back street were dreaming that one day Morocco might be in the Final Four of a World Cup. Or that maybe one day they might even get to play in a World Cup semi-final, maybe even the Final. This week that dream is coming true. Go Morocco!" ---Text and Photo: ©John McDermott (John has covered seven World Cups. GV)

Nobody could have imagined Morocco in the World Cup semifinals, the first African team to ever reach these heights. The Moroccans have been the highlight, with their skilled young players and their energetic young coach, just hired early this year, and their joyous fans. Morocco plays France on Wednesday in Qatar, after Croatia plays Argentina on Tuesday, both matches at 2 PM, Eastern USA time.

Luka Modrić

And speaking of Croatia, my favorite player of this World Cup is Luka Modrić , who runs the team.
Modrić reminds me of the great backcourt players of earlier basketball generations -- Cousy and McGuire, Wilkens and Nash, alert, unselfish.
With his darting eyes and sharp beak, Modrić also reminds me of a hilltop perch in upstate New York, where I sometimes watch hawks circling, catching a draft, looking for...something.
He swoops into an opening, goes as far as he can, dishes the ball off to a teammate who can handle his soft, accurate pass. Sometimes Modrić dips a shoulder or points his fingers to direct a teammate or two, but never to show off, only to improve position.
He is 37, veteran of brutal schedules of European club and national schedules, but he continues to catch the currents, seeking the best chance.

On Tuesday, in the first semifinal, Croatia plays Argentina, which has Messi, a totally different type.
Modrić vs. Messi.
And on Wednesday, surprising Morocco against the champion, France, with Kilyan Mbappe against the darling upstarts of this World Cup, which has perhaps saved the best for last.

Altenir Silva

12/11/2022 08:02:16 pm

Dear George: since the start of the tournament, I’ve been rooting for an African team. Let's go, Morocco. The party will be at Rick’s Café. Play it again, Sam, or it’s Bogie.
Be well/Altenir

12/14/2022 05:22:17 pm

Altenir: didn't happen....but they had a wonderful run. G

Tim Schum link

12/12/2022 02:45:18 pm

Hi George: I attach a link to a soccer book I've just published: https://cardinalpub.com/product/relentless/.

If you'd like a digital copy for review purposes please let me know.

Your email address is?

Best Wishes - Tim Schum. 607-727-5921

Randolph

12/13/2022 10:28:29 am

George,
It is a joy to watch Morocco and Croatia. They are throwbacks to a time when teams really were teams.
Thanks for including the magical photograph from John McDermott.
R

bruce

12/13/2022 05:26:16 pm

george,

well, the dream's over after that whupping today.

i enjoyed croatia's run and morocco's, but would prefer to see the two heavyweights in the final.

#10 seems to have regained some of what made him messi after many thought he was turning into a shell.

i'm interested to see how the japanese pitcher does with the mets.

the boys from nippon have been uneven since they started arriving in force after nomo made a splash.

a little more than two months before spring training starts.

bruce

12/14/2022 05:27:58 pm

Bruce, uneven, maybe, but I have two words: Shohei Ohani.
He is one of a kind, going beyond where the Babe went in versatility.
I can't say I am eager for baseball.
I think I have one column about the departure of DeGrom....after I un-sports myself for a few days after the WC final. (No DeGrom/free agency dialogue here, please, until next week....) GV

bruce

12/14/2022 05:51:08 pm

george,

i wonder what would've happened if the babe had been used like ohani has been.

they wouldn't have been as 'tender'.

ready to opine on the WC final?

bruce

bruce

12/15/2022 04:38:33 pm

Bruce, perhaps its all those summers in Magog, Quebec, but I am for France and Mbappe. Nothing against Argentina and Messi, just like Mbappe. Je me souvien.

bruce

12/15/2022 04:47:52 pm

ed,

i returned from france 6 1/2 weeks ago...probably mentioned it was my 27th trip with 10-12 to quebec as well.

so i'm leaning that way but i'd love to see messi have a great game.

probably most of all i'd like to see a classic game--with as little diving as possible.

croatia saturday.

almost blew it tho.

i assumed the final would be at 2 est only to have my daughter tell me it was at 10. i had to move back my xmas lunch 75 minutes.

bruce

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
More and More, I Talk to the Dead--Margaret Renkl

NASHVILLE — After my mother died so suddenly — laughing at a rerun of “JAG” at 10 p.m., dying of a hemorrhagic stroke by dawn — I dreamed about her night after night. In every dream she was willfully, outrageously alive, unaware of the grief her death had caused. In every dream relief poured through me like a flash flood. Oh, thank God!
Then I would wake into keening grief all over again.
Years earlier, when my father learned he had advanced esophageal cancer, his doctor told him he had perhaps six months to live. He lived far longer than that, though I never thought of it as “living” once I learned how little time he really had. For six months my father was dying, and then he kept dying for two years more. I was still working and raising a family, but running beneath the thin soil of my own life was a river of death. My father’s dying governed my days.
After he died, I wept and kept weeping, but I rarely dreamed about my father the way I would dream about my mother nearly a decade later. Even in the midst of calamitous grief, I understood the difference: My father’s long illness had given me time to work death into the daily patterns of my life. My mother’s sudden death had obliterated any illusion that daily patterns are trustworthy.
Years have passed now, and it’s the ordinariness of grief itself that governs my days. The very air around me thrums with absence. I grieve the beloved high-school teacher I lost the summer after graduation and the beloved college professor who was my friend for more than two decades. I grieve the father I lost nearly 20 years ago and the father-in-law I lost during the pandemic. I grieve the great-grandmother who died my junior year of college and the grandmother who lived until I was deep into my 40s.
Some of those I grieve are people I didn’t even know. How can John Prine be gone? I hear his haunting last song, “I Remember Everything,” and I still can’t quite believe that John Prine is gone.
-----
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/opinion/death-grief-memory.html
Jan. 30, 2023

Morocco the Star of This World Cup

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