The impact of Morocco’s historic run at the World Cup

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• Judy Woodruff:

  After an impressive run, Morocco's journey to the World Cup championship came to a close today after its match against France, a country that shares a complicated history with the North African nation.

  John Yang has more on the Cinderella story of the first African and Arab team to advance to the semifinals.

• John Yang:

  Judy, France scored early and held off pressure from Morocco to win 2-0. That sends France to Sunday's championship game and ends Morocco's historic World Cup run.

  Shireen Ahmed is a sports journalist. She's a senior contributor to the CBC Sports.

  Shireen, France, now going to the finals, tries to become the first repeat winner at the World Cup since Brazil in 1962. Why is it so unusual to have back-to-back World Cup champions?

• Shireen Ahmed, Senior Contributor, CBC Sports:

  Well, we could start talking about superstition. And very often those that have won the championship crash out in the group stages.

  And I think that France is trying to avoid that superstition and just go for it and play with how they're feeling. They have an incredibly passionate team. They have seasoned players. You have returning players like Giroud, who is one of the oldest players at the tournament, Olivier Giroud.

  And then you have young superstars like Kylian Mbappe. So there is quite a mix, and very storied careers already. I think they're ready to go again, and they're not ready to let up or give up their dream for another championship.

• John Yang:

  On the Argentinean side, of course, you talk about storied careers. The story is Lionel Messi, who has won just about everything but the World Cup.

• Shireen Ahmed:

  Yes, I can't lie and say that I don't want this for Messi.

  Where we are in this juncture, I feel, like, incredibly torn, because at the same time as — that I really would love to see France win — there's such interesting and rich discussion about their team, the makeup, the diaspora. But Argentina, having Messi and him having played with players like Alvarez, who adored him as a child, watched Messi grow up, because Messi is also in his 30s and probably definitely his last World Cup.

  So, do I want this for him? Yes. I consider Messi to be like the kitten of global football. You love him. How can you not love him? He's wonderful. He's got no drama surrounding him. He takes photos with children and his sons in the backyard. And he's lovely in a very banal way, despite his majesty on the pitch.

  He's incredibly gifted. But he's also a human. He's a dad. He's a husband. And he's a — he's a footballer. And we love to see it.

• John Yang:

  Morocco is not going to the finals. But they did make history today. They were the first African, the first Arab team to make it to the semifinals.

  Talk about the significance of that feat.

• Shireen Ahmed:

  I mean, I was very lucky to be in Qatar for Morocco playing Canada.

  And I can tell you, John, I have loved football for decades. I have never seen such exuberant fans, even to the point of, usually, Mexican fans are their most emphatic. I have never seen fans like this before. And it was — it was a treat to be. It wasn't even the adapted vuvuzelas or the whistling or the cheering or the flag waving. It was the heart.

  And Morocco went out and left their heart and everything they had on the pitch, but their fans and their communities and their families were holding them. And we haven't seen that.

  We like to think that we know a lot about football, but what Morocco showed us, particularly, was how community is really important, family is really important, and not just like dancing with your mama on the pitch, just how they were inviting everyone to witness this joy, particularly when this is such a masculine sport, and just to show how important their mental health and emotional health was.

  I think that leads into a greater conversation and one that's really important. I — well, they will be dearly missed in the next — in the final. I would have loved to see the final, but they're playing for third place too. Let's not forget, they will face Croatia. And Luka Modric is an incredible player as well.

  And that's not going to be an easy, easy match. But I think they have earned a lot of respect too. And this part of — that part of the world, North Africa, is often dismissed. And a lot of people don't know that the women's team in Morocco has qualified for the first women's World Cup. So football is certainly growing there.

  And, very often, we dismiss certain places in the world. But we truly have seen that this is the world's game. The beautiful game is the people's game.

• John Yang:

  You talk about how the Moroccan fans really took over the stands at the World Cup.

  Talk about how this sort of displayed the nuanced history and heritage of Morocco.

• Shireen Ahmed:

  I mean, it's quite complicated. And that's one of the things that I think people in different parts of the world need to understand, really, is that we like to compartmentalize, like, this is an African nation.

  It is definitely situated in North Africa. But the reality is, it's a nation that's comprised of many, many peoples. There are Afro-Arabs there. There are Arabs there. There are Amazigh populations, which is a particular tribe and historically been nomadic.

  So it is — it's far more complex and layered and beautiful at the same time. But there are still discussions about how Arab communities in the rest of the world have embraced Morocco as their own. But then there's other folks that struggle with that, because there is — there are issues of anti-Black racism within that country as well. So these are all fruitful discussions.

  And it's not simple. What we do know is, people found a love and a joy in something they can relate to, and they found it at the feet of the Moroccan players. And that's really important moving forward.

  I think there's some incredible writers out there. Maher Mezahi writes about them, for example, and he's a North African football journalist.

  And I think this is the other point, John, that's really important, that we centralize our coverage too often here. I think it's important to read about teams from journalists who know a lot historically, sociologically about those places. And that's one thing that I'm definitely taking away from this men's World Cup.

• John Yang:

  Shireen Ahmed, senior contributor to CBC Sports, thank you very much.

• Shireen Ahmed:

  Thank you for having me.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Great conversation.

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