Neutrality allows you to go with two teams at once and not be crazy. Advantages of preferring a Moroccan victory? Many and varied, all not strictly football in nature. The game of the North African team has not always entered our eyes, although at times yes, it is more of a sentimental matter. Support for the weakest was born at the same time as sport (hence the word weakness, it is supposed) and these days in Doha it has become difficult not to be infected by the gaze of the thousands of Moroccan fans who walked their flag with that illusion recognizable in the rookies who knock on the door of the seniors for the first time. There is also the admirable Sofyan Amrabat, a midfielder without a showcase who has built one for himself in this World Cup after successively gulping down Belgium, Spain and Portugal. And the necessary vindication of the African continent, assumed by Walid Regragui, a pragmatic coach on the field but emotional, serene and charismatic off it.
Advantages of preferring a victory for France? Less, but enough. Elitist, if you will, but you have to give credit to a final between the French and Argentina, a poster that Morocco cannot offer yet. There are so many incentives to savor. The albiceleste and the bleus equal two World Cups (1978 and 1986, the first; 1998 and 2018, the second) and will have to break the tie on Sunday. There is also the duel between continents, decided in favor of Europe for too long since the South Americans have not won a World Cup since 2002, when Brazil did; and there is of course the confrontation between Messi and Mbappé, between divinity and lightning, wisdom and insolence, the crack that is leaving and the one that is coming.
France beat Morocco in the 5th minute. It sounds strange to sum it up like this after seeing all the efforts the Arab team made throughout the game to deserve better luck, but when an emerging team concedes just one goal in five games and everyone It says about you that next to you the Chinese wall is as high as a curb, and at the sixth game some thugs come and put one in you, devastating you offensively at the beginning, it is that the implacable weight of football history has come to visit you.
France may not enter through the eyes either, but it is a tunneling machine. To sum it up, Amrabat had competition in front of him this time, Tchouaméni came upon him, a midfielder who is hard to find fault with. He covers a lot of space, he’s muscle but he’s also soft enough to get the ball out when several lions surround him at once. Griezmann, that disconcerting footballer depending on the geography, usually appears in help to get him out of trouble: in Barcelona he was so out of place that he threw confetti into the air to celebrate a goal, you have to be lost in life; in Real, Atlético and especially in France he turns into oil to deoxidize everything. As he floats he appears to solve problems, almost always within one or two touches. The guy was elected man of the party fairly, like who doesn’t want the thing. Then there is Mbappé, of course, but this one has to be stopped more than described. And defenses that can do it in the race and static (note the play of the second French goal), because they are not abundant. Maybe there aren’t.
He has one game left in the World Cup. We discount third and fourth place because it doesn’t give a medal like in the Games, it’s a rubble that defines very well the cruelty of soccer: either you win or everything is a failure. 32 teams started and there are only two left, France and Argentina. The winner will be happy and the loser, a sea of ??tears. Football is like that (I can finally finish an article properly, Messi willing).
