There was a lot of talk about the lack of freedom of expression, freedom of the press and human rights before the World Cup.
Just one thing:
Not having someone who could imagine scoring became an issue.
I feel boring.
After spending Tuesday watching Denmark 0-0 Tunisia 0-0 Poland and Mexico 0-0, I felt a certain sense of security ahead of the morning game between Croatia and Morocco. Not that I necessarily need goals to love football, but it doesn’t hurt. There’s a limit to how much balanced midfield or linebacker play you can crank up before you need to see that honest old rattle.
And here was Luka Modric, who usually guarantees goals. and Dejan Lovren, who usually also guarantees goals. Morocco with the Hakimi-Ziyech axis on the right, the elusive Onuahi and the all-round super-strong Eleven.
Things will happen here!
It won’t happen at all.
It centered around Modric
After a pulsating opening few minutes in which Morocco rose high, stole the ball and were there with one foot from Croatia and one leg keeper there from getting anything really interesting, this match was very solid in caution and tactical precision. Walid Regragui (who took over after Wahid Halilodidic took Morocco to Qatar) knew very well that a) in this group it would be too bad to lose in the opening match, and b) that against Croatia you should not concede Luka Modric. Midfielders in it. Morocco played from this point of view, shrinking in the middle when losing the ball, and playing with elements of man defense in the middle, while making sure to double the number 10 in Croatia.
This version of Croatia has gained some experience since the last European Championship, but they don’t have (like Denmark or Mexico yesterday, like the Netherlands in a way) any hardworking and mobile world class player to lead attacks in the way that Mandzukic could before.
They have to play their way, and because Luka Modric, even at the age of 37, is the only coach in the world who looks as if at any point during a match he would stop, lace his boots and still have full control of the ball. And 21 players around him, everything started to revolve around him. The Morocco game was about Modric, and the Croatia game was about him. Already at the opening of the match, he went down between Gvardiol and Lovren to start playing, where he was given oxygen. I had hoped to see him reach the level of the viola lion Soufiane Amrabat, but he rarely progressed that far.
You would think that a team featuring Brozovic and Kovacic should have an easier time finding triangles that would allow Modric to push forward, but that rarely happened. This was the same match I watched twice yesterday. A lot of quality, a lot of caution, not a lot of scoring chances.
Croatia’s attempts were mostly limited to playing a quarter-back from Modric, and Morocco looked nervous in their own game and may have mostly hoped that they would lose Hakimi or Ziyech once or twice. Free kick, corner kick, something like that. Before the game, Regragui talked about the most important thing being focus – and he’s really got a team focused. They focused too much.
Maybe it will be a target?
It may seem like I’m a wanderer, but I’m not. If I were after those kind of points I would have written more about Dejan Lovren (anti-waxer, crazy brow and owner of an amazing collection of Kinderegg toys), this is just a statement of fact:
Two teams met here that were not intended to lose.
Nikola Vlasic approached Borna Sosa’s cross before the break, Hakimi fired a superb shot straight at Levakovic after the hour, but there was nothing here that led to any expected goals from the metre.
I played Croatia in the World Cup final four years ago, and they score goals beyond me, and believe in their chances now too. Morocco still interferes against the World Cup finalist, as well as where where. They’ve earned their point, and they can certainly grow with it too, and now they face Belgium.
I think this is a match you would like to see in certain areas of Brussels or Liege.
Maybe it will be a target?