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WCAD 3-46: Senegal-Egypt, Morocco-Nigeria, One Goal, Lots of Drama
115 Plays2 months ago
Austin and Amit recap the AFCON Semifinals, starting with Senegal's tactical 1-0 win over Egypt before reveling in the joy of Morocco-Nigeria, which culminated in a topsy-turvy penalty shootout. The guys close out by previewing Sunday's Morocco-Senegal Final.
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Transcript
Introduction to World Cup After Dark
00:00:01
Speaker
I got to tell you a bit. I look at my watch. 1030 local time. Pitch black outside. I look at your video screen. Pitch black outside. Been a while since we have a World Cup after dark. Truly after dark.
00:00:14
Speaker
That's right. It's the that's how you know it's the knockout round of a major tournament. and Get into the namesake. That's the good stuff. I feel like we're prepping for the World Cup because of late kickoffs coming in. It's going to be right in your office hours, right in your time. No 5 a.m. Lots of midnight, 11 Exactly. As the listeners know, I prefer ah fur to be burning the midnight oil much more than trying to to wake up with the the birds. So ah great. Love the darkness.
00:00:41
Speaker
This is the World Cup After Dark podcast.
Hosts Introduce AFCON Discussion
00:00:43
Speaker
He is Amit Malik. I am Austin Miller. On today's show, going to break down the APCON semifinals and we'll take a look at Sunday's final. Amit, going into the semifinals, if I would have told you that one of the games is going to finish nil-nil and go to penalties, which of the two would you have picked?
Analysis of Senegal vs Egypt Semifinal
00:01:00
Speaker
ah But probably the game with Egypt, right? Yeah, that's what they do. We've seen it before. We've seen it before and it wasn't. It was Morocco, Nigeria. If I would have told you what of the game is going to finish one nil on a kind of weak goal, which game would you have picked?
00:01:16
Speaker
mean, probably still Senegal, Egypt. So it didn't disappoint in that sense. It did. Let's start there, right? Senegal 1-0 winners over Egypt. I mean, on this show, we we don't often tune our horns. We don't often go back to what we do right. We more often than not go back to to what we do wrong. Again, there's a there's there's a large graveyard of of amidst major tournament boys just sitting in a round of 16s and early group stage exits. But I will say...
00:01:43
Speaker
Senegal, Egypt, and also Morocco, Nigeria. We were pretty much spot on with how these games were going to go, how they were going to play out. We whacked some goals in Morocco, Egypt, as we'll get to.
00:01:54
Speaker
In Morocco, Nigeria, I should say. But in Senegal, Egypt, a 1-0 win for Senegal in a 78th minute goal that was slightly controversial, but not all that controversial at a game which Egypt didn't record a shot in the first 75 minutes.
00:02:08
Speaker
All of this felt like it was the game Senegal wanted to play and it was the game Senegal played. Yes, their game control is exceptional, not just in Africa and the world. It's why big high-level picture. They're a team that's really intriguing in the World Cup. And to take a team like Egypt that...
00:02:29
Speaker
was able to unsettle Ivory Coast with its strike partnership of Salah and Marmouche and kind of, what did you say, no shots in the first half on goal?
00:02:41
Speaker
No shots in the first 75 minutes. that Their only shot on goal came in the last few minutes of stoppage time yeah from Marmouche, it was pretty tame. And so that is just a complete stifling performance from Senegal. Now,
00:02:57
Speaker
you know Egypt lived with that. right Senegal took them 78 minutes to score. We knew it was going to be mucky. But I think the the place to start is Senegal's ability to nail the game plan. Which, again, at this point in tournaments, we've seen these teams solve. We said this earlier a few podcasts ago.
00:03:16
Speaker
We're using these knock-in rounds to learn how they problem-solve at the highest level. And Egypt kind of showed a really great dimension of them that we hadn't seen against Ivory Coast. That's on tape, right? Like Senegal knew it. And then it leads to the second thing, which was like, all right show me something once. I'm intrigued. Show me something twice. And I think I might buy it.
00:03:37
Speaker
So England, Egypt, I should say. they They showed it to us once against Ivory Coast. It was like, look okay, let's see if you're for real. They had a chance to show it again against Senegal. And it was like, okay, yeah, no, they don't have that game just sitting in their bag that they can pull out whenever they need to. They pulled it out once. Pulling it out again was going to be hard.
00:03:54
Speaker
Correct. And then it went back into kind of what we thought about them, which again, they're a little better, but what we said is they need to get a 0-0 win on penalty kicks. And that was their plan here, um basically after not really having a lot of attack in the first half. And they frustrated Senegal, I think.
00:04:11
Speaker
The second point of it that we talked about is Senegal was very reluctant to commit that extra number forward. Because they I think in their heads, they said, we respect Egypt too much. We can't go two on three, even two on four, right? We're going to leave guys back to deal with how good Sal and Marmush are. And that respect led to a pretty cagey game.
00:04:34
Speaker
But even in that game state, right... Egypt's got to do more to unsettle them. yeah it Like that was the, that was the truth of it is that Senegal, the whole game were too comfortable. It was more of a question of zero, zero pens when not, if they score a goal. And again, the goal we're going to talk about in a second wasn't like brilliantly worked in that Senegal had been hammering.
00:04:59
Speaker
But as a thing we like to say, it happens oftentimes, the tightening of the screws was happening. Yes. And and it felt, and and I think we can sometimes get a little lost here and say, oh, you know, it took Senegal until the 78th minute to score. And that's true.
00:05:12
Speaker
But in a knockout game, the 78th minute isn't actually the 78th minute, right? It's the 78th minute, but you have a whole other half an hour to go. So it felt like, oh, you know, Egypt, they almost pulled this off and they kind of did.
00:05:24
Speaker
But also there were still 40 plus minutes that they were going have to see this out if they were going to see it out. And as you said, It felt more like when, not if for Senegal. and And you made this point to me during the game, and I think it's a really great one.
00:05:37
Speaker
Senegal is so comfortable at playing that stalemate-y like game because they have players that can make a half chance into something in that game state.
00:05:48
Speaker
And we haven't seen them have to break out of that yet because there hasn't been anybody on the continent of Africa that has challenged them enough to say, okay, we can't just win if we go four on four, five on five, you know, whatever. We do need to put that extra guy forward. We do need to bring that extra man in attack and leave ourselves vulnerable because we're down a goal and chasing or because it's tight and we don't want to send it to penalties. We haven't seen that yet from Senegal because nobody's brought that out of them.
00:06:13
Speaker
We saw it in African qualifying when DR Congo went 2-0 up. right It was so taxing that they couldn't hold on in 90 minutes, and they gave up a 3-2 collapse, which again shows you that gear that, as you just said, Senegal hasn't even had to show here.
Patterns and Outcomes of AFCON Tournament
00:06:30
Speaker
So we are, both of us, I think, very, very impressed because – this kind of ugly stalemate soccer is what you start seeing at this level of, you know, the the back end of big tournaments and something we bemoan about the world's cup and kind of brought in by the Garrett South gapes and Didier Duchamps of the world. And, you know, we don't want those ideas to get to, to AFCON, but it kind of has this on the whole. and we're going to talk about another game too. And,
00:07:01
Speaker
this AFCON has been very favorites heavy. It has been lower event. It has been less chaos because the best teams are able, able to exert their will, uh, just cause they're, they're really good. And listen, it's one tournament, you you know, play this tournament again. We'll see if I'm sure we'll get some chaos happened to be that way, but maybe, yeah.
00:07:21
Speaker
and Maybe two years from now when this tournament is taking place in Kenya, Uganda, maybe it's a different tournament because it's not as polished as it might have been. in right You know, this feels like a big European tournament because in a lot of ways it is right. Like the pitches are pristine. The stadiums are new.
00:07:39
Speaker
And that, I think, kind of can shift some of that. So again, i don't we don't need to make the big you know AFCON conclusions from all of this. But the point of this game, I think, is that Senegal are particularly comfortable playing that style.
00:07:52
Speaker
And that should bode well for them as we look ahead six months from now, because that's all it is until Senegal is playing probably a big knockout round game. They're comfortable doing that. Agreed. And another point that you hit on that's so big in these matches is the 120 versus 90 minutes. 78 isn't really 78.
00:08:10
Speaker
And Senegal didn't even... The 78th minute, they had scored before their subs came on. Because you're seeing when... Especially less so in the quarterfinals, but this round particularly... The managers are waiting to bring in reinforcements. They're saying, I want 80 minutes out of my guys because my subs might have to give me 40.
00:08:30
Speaker
forty And I just can I can put a little more mileage on those legs when it comes to semifinal, a big game. And that even being said, right? it would have been much harder for Egypt to withstand that big depth advantage for Senegal, right? The players they, they brought on Ismail Assar, um, Labine Kamara, you know, are better depth pieces than who Egypt are bring on really out of, you know, I can't say I'm familiar with the Egypt's rotational pieces. I know Trezeguet and he's a name, but he's also like 30 and a
00:09:04
Speaker
Bit level attacking player like Egypt just never had the death. We knew that this whole tournament and that was also going to get them if they tried to keep playing this game. well At some point, they just they needed to bait Senegal in at zero zero enough to break open the other way. And truly, that could have taken 115 fifteen minutes Good job, Chesuke. 31, I just checked. pretty good Pretty good pull for you. And also, he was really the only option that Egypt had on the bench in that condition. all right, you want to talk about the goal here for Senegal? Yeah. It felt like the type of goal that was going to win this type of game, right?
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah, you you you nailed it with the half. or the Senegal has players that can score the moments. The ball goes in over the top. It's kind of reworked. It gets recycled in the middle. Kind of hits an Egypt defender. Doesn't clear it. Not necessarily a bad clearance. But then there's Sadio Mane, yeah guy the man of the hour, who you know isn't as dynamic a as having an impact for 90 minutes as he has earlier in his career. To his credit, has been very good this tournament.
00:10:09
Speaker
He has, and i it's the team around him is allowing him to do less and pick his spots. and like That's such a cliche way of doing it, but like how else could you describe this?
00:10:20
Speaker
There was a loose ball 25 yards out, and you need a guy to strike this ball really well on the ground, low away from the keeper. How often do we see that have-a-hit moment, and you just blast it, boom.
00:10:35
Speaker
into Rosie because that's what you do when you get excited. That takes some class. That's a cultured finish from Sadio Mane and just very instinctual, right? Like exactly kind of the, the half moment, make it a moment. And it's working for him. He's a hit man. That's a good role for him at this point. And especially there's so much running around him. He just can pop up and be the the final third finisher.
00:11:00
Speaker
That's a great role. So Yeah, i don' that was it. It was it was a fitting goal. It wasn't pretty, but like eventually enough balls were just going to pop up to someone on Senegal and they would have hit them.
00:11:13
Speaker
And I think the response from Egypt is notable in that there really wasn't much, right? Like, what are Egypt going to do to get back in this game when they're down a goal? There's not a ton of time because then it's funny, right? I said the 78th minute isn't really the 78th minute until it is, right? Because they're going to get up 1-0 and now the 78th minute is the 78th minute. And for Egypt, you only got 10 minutes to try and get back in the game.
00:11:34
Speaker
And it felt like there really wasn't a whole lot that they could do. They were also spent from what they had done in previous games. Kind of felt like this was going to be the end of the line. Agreed. It's a good way to put it. And we knew kind of that ah rest advantage or miles advantage or Senegal was going to show up at some point. And this is another problem with the slightly smaller teams like Algeria, like Egypt, is you have to play...
00:12:00
Speaker
Mo Salah. You have to play Rian Mares. And even, not comparing the two, absolutely, but, you know, older stars who, the defensive work is a lot to ask of them. But you have to have them on their field because of their game-breaking ability.
00:12:14
Speaker
But, The minutes of the game where you could do your most damage, they're less valuable because they've been doing so much defensive work that isn't even their forte, right? they had to Egypt had to do so much running to just stay in this game and get 10 behind the ball and hurt Senegal. And...
00:12:33
Speaker
you know, Salah and Marmouche just want to hang out and give you problems the other way. And Senegal just never gave into that game plan. It was really smothering. And then in the last 12, Marmouche had to work with other guys to try to do things because Salah was easily double, triple teamed and didn't have the work rate he used to have to just force himself to get open, right? Like ah ah you see a guy drop deep and get the ball. It's not even what he's good for. So I think you said, well, like Egypt weren't really sniffing anything in the last 12.
00:13:03
Speaker
And that is also credit to Senegal, who I think we we said it just to start with. And I think that's kind of the the main point here. Senegal played the game they wanted to play. And so much of international football is asking your opponent to do something they are not comfortable doing. Right. Can you dictate the terms of the game to be what you want it to be and to not be what your opponent wants it to be? And Senegal, I think, did that perfectly in that Egypt never really dictated this game, even when they were a goal down. And when Senegal got a goal up, they didn't really have to change all that much because they'd been suffocating any possession that Egypt wanted to look at anyway.
00:13:41
Speaker
Egypt's idea to make Senegal uncomfortable was to make the center backs defend in space two-on-two. They got one or two moments. Khalidou Koulibaly, we've highlighted him over and over again as the potential weaklick, picked up a yellow card.
00:13:55
Speaker
But yeah honestly, out of space once, you take your yellow. And when else was Egypt free and running at Senegal? Very rarely. So they needed more of that, and it's tough to...
00:14:09
Speaker
against the lesser team than Senegal, they can kind of win some turnovers, even Ivory Coast, right? They, they get, they got that chaos. Senegal were just very, very smothering. And I have a feeling if Ivory Coast played Egypt again, they try to copy the Senegal game plan. Like, Oh yeah. so we They would not go behind in the first five minutes, right? Like that conditions the game very much early change games and credit to Egypt. The last round, like,
00:14:35
Speaker
they they had to do They needed some luck, right? In this game, there was no luck, no no no bounce for Egypt. They were just forced to play Senegal's
Focus on International Football Dynamics
00:14:44
Speaker
game. As you said, this was the game they wanted.
00:14:47
Speaker
That's what a good team does. Yeah, that's credit to Senegal too, right? You take out... Look, we can hate on it all we want. The reason you play low event football is because the fewer events that there are, the fewer things that can go wrong and change and be weird. And that was kind of what Senegal was able to do here. So credit for them.
00:15:04
Speaker
They're through to the final. i mean On this podcast, we cover a lot of international football, right? We watch a lot of games. And a lot of times, the games we watch are dramatic. They are high stakes.
00:15:17
Speaker
They are emotional. However, they are sometimes not very good. There is many a time on this podcast where you and I have sat down to talk about a game or we have watched the game. We've said, man, this was big. This was high stakes.
00:15:28
Speaker
But it wasn't exactly very good. And what that does. And look, I'm not knocking that at all. Look, we've done 40 plus episodes of this podcast. This go around. It's obvious that we like those games. We appreciate those games. We have room for those games.
00:15:41
Speaker
What those games do is it makes you appreciate a high-level, high-stakes game even more. And so when I sat in front of my TV to spend two and a half hours watching Morocco-Nigeria, even though it finished nil-nil and it went to penalties, I loved every second of it because it was everything that we love about international football, the high stakes, the drama, the emotion... And it was also really good high-level football mixed in.
00:16:08
Speaker
And it was a perfect concoction for a game. And I didn't even care that there weren't any goals because it was that good of a game.
Review of Morocco vs Nigeria Semifinal
00:16:14
Speaker
It was a great spectacle for a Wednesday afternoon, a great semifinal, and it's Morocco who ended up going through on penalties, but it really could have gone either way.
00:16:23
Speaker
Truly, i think you you nailed the setup and the vibe of this game. It was every... back and forth, just you could feel the the tension in it and the the the way they were feeling each other out. It was such a good matchup.
00:16:40
Speaker
um you know Styles make clashes. These two teams were perfectly built to play each other almost. And that 0-0 is fitting. It would have been a lot of fun to see one of the teams have to crank it up to go.
00:16:54
Speaker
But in the way that... like You know, ah ah many great ah chess games. I don't know why that was the like the contest that came, but truly, like you know it's you don't want to give up this, or you're you're taking space, and then you're leaving a guy here. and It was the threat of both attacking forces was constantly being a calculus for both teams.
00:17:17
Speaker
But crucially crucially, it didn't make it into a you know stalemate where nobody's doing anything because neither of those teams wanted that game either. Yes.
00:17:28
Speaker
They were just taking turns trying to introduce chaos carefully or taking turns trying to pick on a defender. There was so many good one-on-ones between awesome men and the Morocco center backs. There were so many moments where Brahim Diaz worked himself into just a little pocket of space and you can feel the stadium knows like there's danger in this moment. Oh, the star player is in the position. Yeah. But then also credit to what made it a great game despite the 0-0 is the scrambling on both sides was excellent.
00:18:00
Speaker
And the goalkeeping on both sides. It's not that we didn't have shots. This was not a low as you exactly said not a low event 0-0. There were a lot of good half to decent chances in this game that required some good goalkeeping to keep it 0-0. That's a sign of just both attacks were...
00:18:16
Speaker
Working the patterns they wanted. And then to the point overall, Morocco had slightly more, slightly more in this game, but taking out penalties. I thought it was a better game for them. They deserved more of it.
00:18:29
Speaker
But Nigeria also weren't like Nigeria weren't played off the pitch. It was just that that push pull. I think Morocco, as this game went on, started to tilt it just that little bit more. And there's a lot of reasons that we can get into for why that happened. i think the first hour or so of this game was fairly even both ways. Like you said, there were chances for both sides. Victor Oshman got himself into space. Brahim Diaz got himself into space. There were some opportunities for for both teams. the The man that we've seen shine so much for Morocco in this tournament, El-Khabi, had a chance where he kind of could have
00:19:06
Speaker
come up with one more moment, right? And gotten his foot around the ball and turned it on goal. And instead he wasn't able to there wasn't any one clear cut chance that felt better than the other, but they were probing, they were incisive and they were good and they were creating opportunities both ways.
00:19:21
Speaker
100%. I think Nigeria definitely missed Wilfred Ndidi here. yep They had a good they had got a good performance from Odjeka. But I think on the whole of it, the way the game went, Morocco was not scared to to really try to put Nigeria's backline under pressure, hunt space, like hunt the ball and create space, introduce space. um And they got moments in transition.
00:19:45
Speaker
And I think Elkabi, like you said, had a few... dangerous moments in the box. Hakimi Mizra, we had those overloads that we had talked about. Like, it kind of went that way. But there was, you know, Lukman also had a few shots from distance. Everyone that we kind of expected to play a role, at some point, their number was called. And it almost was like, at some point in this game, almost every big player in the field is going to have a moment to do something. They all, like, took good efforts, but no one really found that that breakthrough. And that was a bummer. And I think...
00:20:20
Speaker
both goalkeepers were excellent and it's particularly Nigeria's goalkeeper, or bolly you know, I think he's a little worse than Bunu just in terms of pure talent. Did, were any of the saves he made like rewatching like, Oh wow. Jaw dropping. But I've seen him make, I've seen him make mistakes on those. Yeah. I watched Nigeria-Zimbabwe two years ago, right? like I've seen those type of chances turn into goals for the opposition. The point you make about Morocco being unafraid to test the Nigeria defense, I think is interesting because they put pressure on them in multiple ways, right? They put pressure on them by going at them and and attacking space and looking for the ball. They also put pressure on them in a way that we also saw them in in the last round do against against Cameroon.
00:21:02
Speaker
By making them make plays, asking them to make plays. Morocco nearly scored in the first five minutes of this game because they asked the Nigeria backline to play out of pressure because they told the Nigeria backline, OK, you make a play, right? Work your way through us. And they kind of weren't able to. That said, I still thought Calvin Bassey had a really good game for Nigeria. I thought he was crucial in defense and a lot of trackback challenges that were huge.
00:21:25
Speaker
He made so many one-on-one plays in space against those dangerous Morocco attackers. That was great observation. he He kept them in it. And not necessarily tracking back and saving like the last-ditch play, but stopping the play that would have led to the play, right? Cutting off the attack before the pass becomes the dangerous pass that leads to a chance.
00:21:46
Speaker
Yeah, and that's that's the whole... These are the things you say of a a really great center back game. even you know Not even. The color commentator was very quick to point out, you know he was he out of position the entire game? It didn't feel like that. He he had he was really excellent. And that is a Premier League caliber center back stopping a very, very good attack. So...
00:22:10
Speaker
Credit to Nigeria in a game like this. They were defensively solid against Morocco for 120 minutes. i mean, not, not, you know, rock solid brick wall solid, but like defended well enough to get a zero and not be crazy.
00:22:25
Speaker
How do you say, how do they not do this all the time? That is the eternal question with Nigeria and the one that we will consistently ask about them and the one that, frankly, we don't have the answer for. So what is it, Amit, that kind of led to Morocco finding a foothold in in the last kind of edge of this game? Was it simply that Nigeria ran out of legs?
00:22:44
Speaker
Was it that Morocco were able to bring in slightly more dangerous players than Nigeria could? Is there anything that you can point your finger to? Because it certainly did feel like in actual time, Morocco were closer to this than Nigeria were.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, i I think Nigeria spent a lot of energy defending in the 90. And particularly... In way that they're not accustomed to doing, right? Yeah, because they they don't play... They don't necessarily play that way. They... yeah They like to... You know, they can defend with low energy, but to defend Morocco, it's defend with high energy. And they just... They're not a team that likes to give that A gear in defense. Like, that's... Just politely.
00:23:22
Speaker
And I think that hurt them. And I think specifically you saw the front line. Awesome. And... It's in a high-level game, right? When your striker work rate drops defensively, everything else comes downstream from that, right? It's not just your back line. And that's why...
00:23:38
Speaker
Bassey and Ajayi get so much credit for how much they had to mop up. But I think Nigeria at their best was buying themselves time and pressure with hard striker runs. Awesome Man is such a run-in behind or check back, force the center backs to follow him.
00:23:56
Speaker
When that work rate drops, it was tough. um I thought Chukwese also came in for Onyeka, which... help them get an attacker on the field, but kind of messed around the the the defensive balance of the midfield. I think that was in Nigeria hoping for a little more talent in the game, but that sub didn't help them.
00:24:16
Speaker
It helped them lose control for sure. Um, and then to your point, yeah, I think, I don't think the Morocco subs necessarily better on talent, but the legs were fresher for Morocco at, in the last 30 minutes. It was clear. um Yeah, I think also the one-two of Elkabi and Naziri, neither of them are like very fast, very dynamic strikers, but high work rate strikers. yeah And as you said really well earlier, consistently asking questions the Nigeria backline. At some point, you're just saying, I can't answer that question. Have the ball. like yeah but like We got to take up a defensive position. So I think you know it slowly Morocco ground the game
00:24:58
Speaker
into a state they liked, but never enough to get the goal. i It's fine margin. Yeah. So then we go to penalties, but before we get to the penalties, I think there's a couple of interesting things that we need to point out. The biggest one is the fact that Eric tell Nigeria manager takes off Victor Oshman in the 118th minute, which felt like a very weird time to take off Victor Oshman who admittedly, was spent, right? He had no more legs. It was very clear that he was empty, which is fine. It happens. Work rate, whatever. If you're going to take off Oshman for being empty, do it 20 minutes ago when you can do something.
00:25:37
Speaker
But don't take him... Victor Oshman should probably be taking a penalty for Nigeria, right? And if he's made it 118 minutes, he can make it three or four more minutes to take that penalty. Agree completely. That's the take I have. And There's a there's a weird a weird thing you're saying by doing that, right?
00:25:58
Speaker
Like, I just feel like he's so important to this team. He's the best player in the region. And I agree, if he was less effective, you should have taken him off. But to take him off of penalties, it's you're saying, like, I don't trust him to take a penalty?
00:26:13
Speaker
is are In training, is Victor Oshman secretly not good at penalties? Like... I feel like you want his penalty very clearly. In fact, him scoring a penalty should give your team some energy. Now, we have seen every once in a while, a player is so spent that they brick their penalty because they're spent.
00:26:32
Speaker
In my mind, it i don't process how you can miss a penalty because you're so tired. But truly, like when your hamstring is that gone, like the run-up can do you. I i see i saw Emmanuel Adebayor do this once, and I was like, okay, I get it.
00:26:47
Speaker
So like maybe truly some alarm bell was off like a physical indicator that, oh, I think he might miss penalty. That's how bad it is. But at that point, like when he's that again, to your point, get him off earlier. So something about that doesn't smell right. And from the second something doesn't smell right in a shootout, it's not good. And the second is something doesn't smell right with Nigeria, right? It's going to snowball. It's going to spiral.
Penalty Shootout Analysis
00:27:11
Speaker
So let's go into the penalty shootout here a bit. It's very interesting. A lot of substitutes took penalties, right? Guys who came on, right? You talked about Chukwese.
00:27:18
Speaker
He took a penalty. Onowachu came on in the 118th minute. He took a penalty. Ben Sengir came on in the 118th minute for Rocco. He took a penalty. So often, those substitutions can backfire. And I think we maybe saw that with Chukwese, right?
00:27:30
Speaker
The first two penalties go in, and then Morocco missed their penalty, and Chukwesi has a huge opportunity. It's 2-1. It's 1-1 in the series. He put Nigeria ahead, and he doesn't score his penalty, doesn't take a very good one, after Stanley Wobali had made a great save to keep to put give Nigeria that slight advantage, right?
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, I also messed up an earlier point about Chikwazy. I was talking about the sub for Akhor Adams, which kind of unbalanced him extra time. i almost forgot. Chikwazy was sent on to take a pen, which made this even funnier.
00:28:02
Speaker
And he missed it, right? And and he missed it. And in a big moment, right? You bring a guy on to take a penalty. That's the penalty he has to make. He doesn't make it. And then Morocco go on. Both teams scored their their next penalty, Ben Sagir and Nelly Bashiru. Hakimi scores for Morocco. And then the pressure, the fourth penalty puts a lot of pressure on the team, right?
00:28:19
Speaker
When you are the second team taking the fourth penalty, it's pretty much already kind of half match point. So that is the situation that we came in. And that is where ah ona vchi Bruno Onyamechi, who played a great game at left-back Nigeria, he comes in and takes his penalty.
00:28:35
Speaker
And we've watched a lot of it in international football, right? We've seen a lot of penalty shootouts. We've seen a lot of penalty saves. I don't know that I've ever seen a penalty save like the save that Yasin Bonu had on this penalty.
00:28:48
Speaker
He almost overran the save. He left so early, committed so early that he was going to his left that he had to kind of stop and go back to his right to make the save. What is this?
00:29:03
Speaker
the The more you talk about it, the more I think about it, I almost think that it was like a, it's a faint. Like yeah i'm going so that you think I'm gone and you're going to go down the middle and then I can save it.
00:29:16
Speaker
But the way Boudou moved, he like, he almost was halfway to the, more than halfway to the post. He had to change direction. Now, if the goalkeeper has time to change direction to save your poorly taken pen, it was a very poorly taken pen. and There shouldn't be any reviews. Yeah, like,
00:29:37
Speaker
so Okay, we've we've talked about penalties a lot on this podcast. And as you, listener, probably are understand penalty kicks. If you're waiting for the goalkeeper, right? It is a cheat code in modern penalty kick taken.
00:29:50
Speaker
In about the mid-2000s, Cristiano Ronaldo was like, oh, you could just take as much time as you want. And if you wait as long as possible, the goalkeeper will go. And then you send them the wrong way. And now every...
00:30:02
Speaker
every variation ever, they've broken out basketball moves, right? You've got a hop step, a stutter step, right? You could Euro step into this. You could Simone Zaza and do like 20 jog steps, right? So it's become an art, but very clearly... He's still stepping, by the way. He still hasn't taken that pedal.
00:30:19
Speaker
If you're going early, you have to know. You have to read the goalkeeper. And I think sometimes you go early and you think, oh, this is going to be genius. I'm going to read him go.
00:30:31
Speaker
and then i'm going And then I'm going to go the other way. do you know how hard it is in real time to change your mind on a penalty kick? Right. Like truly, I think the, that's why a great penalty kick taker picks a spot and goes. And so I think, you know, on your Mechie, not a great penalty kick taker in his head. He's thinking I'm going middle.
00:30:53
Speaker
I'm going middle. The keeper's going to go, I'm going middle. And he just, he just like didn't, he got, he didn't really even go middle. He went in the weird zone. He goes like middle, right? It's like, that penalty only works is the goalie's going the other way.
00:31:12
Speaker
And you know how, yeah you know, if the goalie's going the other way, you see him go the other way. And you know what he could have seen? The goalie didn't go the other way, right? yeah and And so, Yeah, so go ahead. It's one thing if the goalie leaves early and you've chosen, okay, going try to pick out the quarter or hit the post. and you may Okay, that's one thing. If you take a penalty this poorly, just look up and take it this poorly, but to the other side because it was wide open. Yeah, we're both in agreement. It's one of those things where if you've decided that's the game you're playing, you have to read it. He he may have been thinking right
00:31:44
Speaker
middle, like I'm going right middle. And then he saw him go and his brain probably just froze, which like, again, it's a lot easier for anyone to sit here and say, you got to make your penalties, which you do. It's international football, but at the same time in the moment is tough. Right. And,
00:32:02
Speaker
ah Something about those lanky goalkeepers kind of guess in your head. Because he probably also thinks like, oh he went, but I'm putting it behind him. he probably like how many How often can you change direction and do it? It never happens because...
00:32:16
Speaker
you don't believe it poorly right I think it was an incredible play by Bunu. That's an underrated part of... It's a gaffe, for sure. It's ah it's a bad pen. it You can't leave a pen in that height, in that coordinates of the horizontal axis. I like it. I like that. can't leave it there. But Bunu, like...
00:32:37
Speaker
Also, as a goalkeeper, you don't really practice going left to the back right, right? like That's not something that you're thinking about doing. I almost half think it was like a feint, kind of. Like when you're trying to bluff someone in a yeah Yeah. I don't know. But again, like if he just, you know, goes the other way, it was not, you're not getting that yeah far back from it. It was comical. It was comical. The other thing that was in the penalty shootout was, um, the toss was won by Nigeria, right?
00:33:03
Speaker
By Moses Simon. And they went second. They deferred. And they also took the bad side. How do you lose both? Yeah. ne nigeria is but listen
Morocco's Mental Strength and Final Preparation
00:33:17
Speaker
vgie if something smells and you take off victor usman before the shootout it's gonna go a little wonky this is the team that missed out on the world cup because they lost the shooter to dear congo and claimed voodoo the real voodoo was in her heads all along loves all this there's there's a bit there there's a bit there to pull out um and then for their right marco get the penalty that they they want to make and they make it and and they're going to the semifinals. I think this was this was a good response from Morocco, right? like This was always on the cards for this game. I don't think we necessarily expected it to to get there at nil-nil, but it got there at nil-nil.
00:33:51
Speaker
And I think Morocco being able to withstand that and survive that is a big thing in their favor because the pressure was firmly on them in this situation, right? like I understand Nigeria, you know massive talent, whatever.
00:34:03
Speaker
There were... in some ways, playing with house money here, right? They're not going to the World Cup. They're not playing on home soil. They don't have 60, 70, 80,000 people in the stands supporting them like Morocco did.
00:34:15
Speaker
The pressure was kind of on Morocco and it looked like they might fold and then they were able to bounce back and take advantage of it. I think that is in their favor and probably also helps because you know what's very potentially likely to, not likely to happen, but what is definitely on the cards for a final against Senegal is another penalty shootout.
00:34:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They're certainly going to be playing for it. It's a fascinating matchup. Senegal-Morocco. And I think heading into the tournament, those are our two favorites. And and certainly we had Ivory Coast close.
00:34:48
Speaker
um We maybe had, um I don't think we had Egypt right there, but they were they were in there. um But these have been the two best teams. It's going to be it's going to be a truly incredible game.
00:35:01
Speaker
And i don't know if it could go to pens. I think Senegal is going to try to really, really push them. But one last thing before we talk about it. I just I agree with you. The vibes part of that for Morocco.
00:35:14
Speaker
was very, very important. Regardless of what happens in the final, like obviously I do think there's pressure on them. In terms of the World Cup thing from 2022, that semifinal, it was not fluky, but we have constantly asked, when are we going to see it?
00:35:30
Speaker
This was a very tough game and it was not ugly and they didn't get what they wanted. they they got They scored zero in extra time. you know Yes, the bar is being mentally tougher than Nigeria, but that's some tough stuff.
00:35:43
Speaker
Yeah, and losing a final to Senegal, I don't think this... Whatever happened in the final is probably not going to change Morocco's trajectory heading towards the World Cup. That said, this is a final that they obviously want to
Preview of Senegal vs Morocco Final
00:35:55
Speaker
win. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about this matchup that we're going to get on Sunday.
00:35:58
Speaker
What can we expect from it? And I feel like... I think it's pretty easy for us to sit and more or less expect what we're going to get from both sides. Senegal are going to be organized. They are physically stronger. They are not necessarily more consistent, but they can kind of control a game and make it low event more than Morocco can. We haven't seen Morocco...
00:36:21
Speaker
We haven't seen Morocco play this type of opponent in a long time, right? We've seen them play the low-block muckers of the world, but we've seen low-level executions of that, right?
00:36:32
Speaker
We haven't seen them play a high-level team that can... kind of impose their will in the way that Senegal can. So what happens on Sunday? Do Morocco get free reign of this? Is Senegal able to kind of wrestle the midfield and control things?
00:36:50
Speaker
Is Senegal willing to venture forward and, you know, be more aggressive? Will this get to a point where they don't have any choice and they have to get more forward and and be aggressive? Where do you want to start with this?
00:37:02
Speaker
I think you framed it really well. and i think what we've learned from Senegal is that their approach is inherently more cautious. And I think Morocco... kind of different from their identity in 2022, which against some of the bigger dogs in the world kind of hierarchy of things, we're kind of going to play against it.
00:37:22
Speaker
i think what we saw against Nigeria was they thought it was in their ability to take the game to them because different than 2022, they have Brahim Diaz and they also, their their next two best players probably are their outside backs. So it benefits them to introduce space into the game.
00:37:41
Speaker
And they're, we're not afraid of Nigeria. And I think they will not be afraid of Senegal's back line. um And they think they're going to pick on Doof and Diada and now Koulibaly's out.
00:37:54
Speaker
There are four, those four backline players for Senegal. I want to ask them as many questions as possible. If I'm Morocco, the issue for them, multiple questions, right? Ask them different questions. Ask them to make play. You're not just yeah asking questions. Doesn't just consist of going at them and making them defend. It also challenges their overall game and what they can do going forward, contributing to attack, because that is so key to controlling possessions.
00:38:19
Speaker
100%. So that is an interesting point where this game could get interesting. What makes it tough is that Senegal's midfield is excellent. Much better than Cameroon's.
00:38:31
Speaker
I think close to Nigeria is better than better than Nigeria's. And the issue is if they just make it a physical duels game and it's more about like a mucky, okay, you're going to ask us to play the ball. We don't want to play the ball.
00:38:47
Speaker
Boom. There it goes. Yeah. And then you have to play through our midfield, which they'll try to do. Like then this game gets very hard to parse where i think Morocco is going to have the ball be working in not so good space. Definitely not in transition and open space in close space in their own half, trying to introduce chaos. But Senegal is going to be very dangerous in saying, if you make a mistake here,
00:39:15
Speaker
We're going to run at you the other way. And I think that's kind of, it's the question is, can Morocco play through the Senegal midfield? And very quickly, if the answer is no, Morocco is going to retreat and play...
00:39:29
Speaker
the bunkering. um If Morocco has a great day, then yeah, Senegal will defend. But um even in the sense that Nigeria asks Morocco questions, Nigeria's ball progression has hit the ball to Osman long and over.
00:39:44
Speaker
Senegal is like... hit it in the middle and like play a little bumper ball and then run at you. So that is, that is a different trickier physical or even more physical challenge for Morocco. So I think that Senegal just presents a very, very difficult problem.
00:39:58
Speaker
The other part of it specifically that why Senegal can play more mucky and, Say you have to play through us and we're going to make this no space, no fun game is Senegal has more depth and now has more legs because of the 120 minutes Morocco had to play against Nigeria, which we would have gotten to um is a big, is a big part of it.
00:40:18
Speaker
I know I liked Morocco's depth, but it's not the same, right? They're, they're less difference makers on that bench. Senegal has difference makers. So the more this tilts, the more Senegal is going to feel better again.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yes, a Morocco early goal would be so great for them to try to introduce chaos. We just saw Senegal feels very comfortable mucking because the level of team to unmuck them, i think, is a little bit higher than Morocco has to offer. But they're going to they're gonna try, right? Hakimi is going to try. Diaz is going to try. And they're going to try to make the Senegal outside backs as uncomfortable as possible. Senegal is going to avoid having the ball in that area as much as possible.
00:41:00
Speaker
So then I think that leads to my next question, which is, is there a game state other than Senegal being behind that sees them be adventurous going back to the way? Like, is there a point in this game where Senegal says, all right, it's nil-nil. I think we have enough of a foothold here that we're going to try and go for it.
00:41:22
Speaker
Or does that not really happen until maybe the last five or ten minutes ahead of penalties? Is Senegal going to feel confident enough to put that other that next guy up there, which we haven't really seen from them this tournament?
00:41:37
Speaker
say for And again, it's totally different. Sure, against Sudan, maybe they did, but they also kind of didn't really even need to. I don't think so. I think the way they played Egypt, the way they went up 1-0 on Mali and didn't do it like a game that could have been killed very easily by doing it It's also like Diaz is scary. Diaz is very scary. Hakimi's scary.
00:42:01
Speaker
Hakimi's scary. The whole race. They're petrifying, right? Yeah. So I think that is they're going to leave that left side back all game. I think they're going to try to attack on the other side, which is good for Ilman and Dai. And I think Sadio Mane might say, forget about the left side. We're going to do this entire thing. Like I'm going run over here.
00:42:20
Speaker
like The midfield are going to come right here. We're going pick on you know Masrai, who is a fine defender, but we're going to just make also your your midfield have to track back that way.
00:42:31
Speaker
So the answer is no. I think Senegal has shown that they're a little too cautious and conservative for that. Now, for the 1-0 Morocco game state is where you throw everything out the window and we're just going to see players make... players are going to have to make plays. Senegal is going to have to... classic zone, Yeah. note yeah so And it might take some simmering to get to the good stuff, but that is where things could get really fun. And even even the other way, you know, Morocco trying to break down the Senegal block down one is is great. Like, I don't think Senegal has an easy just hit you on the counter. It's just going to be very mucky. And then you're really going to see...
00:43:08
Speaker
how good of a cross can you get? How good of a cook can you get from Diaz? So it's, I think it'll be, it's not rocket science. It's going to be in between the two games we just saw.
00:43:19
Speaker
I think that's, that's a good way of looking at this. and And I think it's, it's also interesting of it. And I think we kind of maybe need to, to, to make the point here. Major finals generally aren't good, right? Like,
00:43:33
Speaker
ah From a neutral perspective, major finals probably aren't good. And the recipe is there for this one to not be that great either. I agree. And on top of that, again, the Morocco legs plus the home crowd, right? Morocco has the pressure on them. And I think it's just you're going to see...
00:43:53
Speaker
what is the best path for a tired team to like steal the win? Yeah. It's gonna, they're going to be like, okay guys, we already just put in a crazy shift.
00:44:05
Speaker
We're going to have to like do it again. Just defensively. i don't know. I mean, maybe it's, they've got what? 10 minutes of like, we're going to try to kick your butt. And I'm not even sure the first 10 are the best ones to spend it, but yeah.
00:44:20
Speaker
It's interesting. It's intriguing, and I think there's there's a lot of of good questions. I asked you this but before the 75s. Do you have an X-Factor for me?
00:44:29
Speaker
I mean, Ilman and Dai was my Senegal X-Factor all tournament. I think generally, unless things go wrong, the game we're going to get is Morocco eventually are going to be forced to defend against Senegal in a very mucky game where Senegal isn't going to be taking that many numbers.
00:44:50
Speaker
But if Indai is going one-on-one versus Hakimi and also pinning him back and really cooking and kind of coming inside to combine with Jackson and Mane, that's the pattern for Senegal. That's the pattern to to work and overload and get a goal.
00:45:04
Speaker
um The other one, I think, you know, Bunu. He could steal a game. And there's something about a big game. We've seen the big game goalkeeper like has totally swung it. Mendy hasn't had a lot to do.
00:45:16
Speaker
So like, i I guess he could be. But like, there is also going to be a certain sense that the more this trends and smells and looks like penalty kicks will give Morocco the leaf.
00:45:28
Speaker
So that's interesting. I think it will, but winning back-to-back penalty shootouts is always such a weird proposition to try and pull off. I don't think... i't I don't know the data on this. but you It's a coin you like like one in four. you don' Right. like like Again, penalties obviously objectively aren't a lottery, but like in a way, like counting on the penalty magic back-to-back feels like it's when you are as talented as Morocco is, that's maybe not the ideal strategy. I think my X factor for for Morocco is Ayubel Kabi. We've seen him come up with kind of that half moment into something. He had that half moment against Nigeria. right I mentioned it earlier. He couldn't kind of get it.
00:46:07
Speaker
He couldn't get his foot curled around the ball in the way that he needed to, to put it in the back of the net. But in a half chance like game, that's the type of player who kind of is riding his all tournament hot streak and can score one, maybe out of nothing or next to nothing that can swing a final and completely change the complexion of the game.
00:46:27
Speaker
I agree completely. And the way that could happen is set pieces, which yep again, major tournament, any big game, especially a final Alexi Lalas is rolling in his grave that it took us this long to say, but in a game where Diaz and Hakimi might be neutered in open play, right?
00:46:44
Speaker
They're still dead ball specialists. to win free kicks in dangerous spots. In fact, if diaz isn't again if Diaz isn't effective, his next best thing is make ah force a guy to foul you. right And that's where specifically El Cabe could get the service to his head and have a moment for a header, big towering header. you know I think we we think Senegal has a physical advantage, but that's one where...
00:47:09
Speaker
Alcabi is a force to to guard in the box and Kulibaly is the biggest guy and he's gone. So, right. That was the point that I was going to make. I think the key to that organization, on that type of situation, at least is Kulibaly. He's the captain. He's the center back, right? You expect that guy to be the guy marshaling everybody. He's suspended because of yellow card accumulation. He won't play.
00:47:28
Speaker
That also brings in a new variable into the Senegal defense. We'll see what they choose to do with that second center back spot. But you have to think that's a spot that Morocco is looking at both in open play and from set pieces to try and put whoever is in there into making decisions, defending, having to play the ball, having to try and break Morocco down. That is another place where this this game could absolutely sway.
00:47:52
Speaker
Agreed. He is a great choice and Naziri too can do the same kinds of things when when he gets on the field. So there's a lot of paths for Morocco to get in this game. It is certainly not going to be ah close to Senegal one-way traffic at all.
00:48:09
Speaker
I think the the legs are tough. That is the the biggest concern. And I think I'm interested to see if we see something else from Senegal, if they have to play a different note here, because we haven't seen that in this tournament, right? They drew 1-1 with the Arcongo in the group stage.
00:48:26
Speaker
Okay. There wasn't the the necessarily, there wasn't the pressure that they needed necessarily to go out and and and win that game running away and necessarily do something, um you know, and then they came out and they smashed Benin to win the group on the last day.
00:48:41
Speaker
They went behind against Sudan, but they were never really in trouble against Sudan, right? We didn't see them have to really crank it up. So do we see that from Senegal? I think that would be really interesting for me personally, for us as a podcast to see from them heading into the World Cup. And obviously, I think it would make for really interesting because...
00:48:56
Speaker
As you said, Morocco want this game to get stretched out for there to beat space. The best way for them to do that is to score and make Senegal ask questions the other way because that's when Hakimi is leading the break. That's when Diaz is coming back, getting the ball and going. That's when they're creating three-on-two, three-on-three, four-on-three, three-on-four type situations.
00:49:17
Speaker
Agreed. These are two really good managers. And I think the we were both impressed at the level of Nigeria-Morocco. And Nigeria, who not always are the tactically up for it, we're were very dialed in. Well, Senegal are are a complementary, almost South Gadian in a way, in how they are you know use their effectiveness to play a game. That's a great chess match. Because Waleed Rougagri is a great knockout manager. So I think...
00:49:46
Speaker
But Morocco, if there are things they can find, like they will find them. um So it's it's really, really spicy in that sense. I'm hoping that we're going to have to see these teams show everything. And it's a final, unfortunately, that rarely happens.
00:50:05
Speaker
It's not the general sentiment of where the major tournament final goes. Obviously, Papadial, the Senegal manager, not a ton of experience, but has been really good with Senegal since taking over. Obviously, on on the project that LOSC built and and and managed for for such a long time.
00:50:19
Speaker
This is... a Look, it's a major tournament final. I feel like I say this on every podcast. For the finals, it's like, oh, this is a really good... but Yeah, of course. They're all good final, dummy. like Outside of France, Croatia in 2022, bad finals don't really exist. It's a final. And so the worst case scenario, you're still getting a dramatic penalty shootout. So anyway, you should tune in on Sunday afternoon for the AFCON final. You should come back and and hang with us after the match on either Sunday or Monday when when we have our final review podcast. because we are, you know, less than six months now from the opening day of the World Cup. But we have one more major tournament final to go before we get
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:50:55
Speaker
there. If you like what we do here on the World Cup After Dark podcast, and again, it's 50 minutes into a show about the AFCON semifinals and final, there's a good chance that you do.
00:51:04
Speaker
And if you would like to support what we do, you can do that at patreon.com slash WCAD. $3 a month gets you access to subscriber-only content like the show that we did after the Afghan quarterfinals, like so much of our World Cup content, like so much of our World Cup qualifying content. And you help us, you know, finance what we do here and we enjoy doing it. So if that is up your alley, we encourage you to do that. If you like what you heard today, you can like, subscribe, click buttons, stars, smiley faces. If it's if it's if it's pointing up, we we want it. So do that. If it's pointing down, again, you're 51 minutes in. You're probably not pointing down at this point.
00:51:41
Speaker
So anyway, if if that's your fancy, we would greatly appreciate that. We hope you enjoy the AFCON final on Sunday. And Amit and I will be back on the other end. Take care.