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Join on Telegram Rabat – The Moroccan Atlas Lions have been eliminated from the 2021 futsal World cup after losing 1-0 against Brazil in the quarter finals.
Rodrigo Aurijo scored Brazil’s goal at the 11th minute, giving his team the upper hand very early on in the game and cooling much of the history-making momentum that has marked Morocco’s participation in this year’s World Cup.
After an impressive performance at this year’s Arab Cup, scoring 27 goals and conceding only two goals during the entire tournament, the Moroccan team proved it has improved in recent years and effectively established itself as a serious contender for the 2021 World Cup throughout the competition.
The team qualified for the quarterfinals for the first time in its history, beating Venezuela by 3 goals to 2, Wednesday, September 22 in Lithuania.
In the group stage, the Atlas Lions beat the Solomon Islands (6-0) before drawing against Thailand (1-1) and Portugal (3-3).
With its eye-catching performances in this year’s World Cup, the Moroccan futsal team has integrated the top 15 of the best teams in the world, ranking 14th globally.
The team has gained seven places and totaled 1,369 points, according to the ranking published this Tuesday, making it the first African team to reach such a milestone.
Which is all to say that, this afternoon, Morocco came into the game against Brazil with an eye on its recent morale-boosting performances and the hope of ending their South American opponents’ long-running dominance in the futsal world.
Soufiane El-Mesrar, Morocco’s star player, said as much in a pre-match interview with FIFA.com. The Moroccan talismanic player spoke of the match against Brazil as the coming of age game Morocco’s team needed to make a statement about how far they have traveled, how they have matured.
“If you play in three World Cups but you never come up against Brazil, it’s frustrating!,” El-Mesrar said. “I’m finally getting the chance to do it for the first time.” He added, more pertinently perhaps, that despite Brazil’s impressive pedigree, “we don’t see the names on the jerseys or think about their reputations. They’re just five players that we want to beat.”
But the match against Brazil, undisputedly the world’s best futsal team, was the Atlas Lions’ toughest game in the tournament. After conceding an early goal, the Moroccan Atlas Lions tried to keep their composure and put in the kind of resilience and prowess they displayed in the 3-3 draw against Portugal.
But tried as they did, Brazil kept pushing and the equalizer never came for Morocco. Defeat is always disappointing. But sometimes the lesson, however humbling and soul-crushing, comes with a bittersweet taste of the sort of pride one feels when one has given all one could have.
The point is: After six defeats in their previous six Word Cup appearances – and two group exits out of their two previous participations in the tournament – this year’s performance has been both a vindication and a humbling reminder.
A vindication of the enormous progress that has made possible the team’s history-making performances in their recent matches, but a reminder that there is still a relatively long hill to climb to go further than this year.
Or, as FIFA.com concluded their interview with El-Mesrar, “even if the match [against Brazil] does indeed pan out the way most people expect it to, the Moroccans will be able to return home with their heads held high and with plenty of fond memories to look back on.”
