RABAT, Morocco — In the picturesque city of Sale, the shock and euphoria of Morocco’s soccer staff advancing to the knockout spherical of the Women’s World Cup had been palpable.

“We did not expect this accomplishment,” stated Ghita Alaoui, an IT marketing consultant who was on the Hollywood cafe.

Especially after a 6-0 loss to Germany within the opener. But a 1-0 victory over Colombia on Thursday propelled Morocco past the group stage - a primary for an Arab or North African nation.

The staff’s success is being talked about within the bustling cafes and eating places of Rabat, the place information of the victory was spreading. Hicham El Haddaoui, a waiter at Abtal Al Cham restaurant, spoke about his newfound appreciation for girls’s soccer.

“I was not used to watching Moroccan women’s football,” he stated.

However, the World Cup video games have modified his perspective.

News of the accomplishment went viral on social media, although phrase unfold later within the day as a result of many individuals had been nonetheless at work - if not on trip. So there have been no rapid widespread road celebrations or automotive honking happening.

Still, the sentiment is overwhelmingly constructive.

“This achievement truly exemplifies the hard work and determination demonstrated by the Moroccan women’s team,” stated Ibrahim Barakat, a 25-year-old pupil in Rabat. “Despite suffering a loss in the opening game, they showed their true character by not only taking part but also qualifying (for the next round).”

While males’s soccer has lengthy been the dominant sport in Morocco, reactions to the ladies’s staff’s success have proven a outstanding shift. Even because the time distinction has affected spectator interplay, the ladies’s staff’s efficiency has sparked a surge of nationwide delight and curiosity in ladies’s soccer.

This is to not say that the accomplishment has been universally celebrated. In some components of the Arab world, the historic bias towards ladies’s soccer stays prevalent, as evidenced by the restricted media protection and a focus given to the staff’s efficiency.

Nonetheless, the staff’s historic run has created curiosity and introduced visibility to the ladies’s sport within the nation. This shift, though not seismic, marks a major step ahead for the game in a area the place it has historically been overshadowed by the lads’s sport.

At the cafe in Sale, a suburb of the Moroccan capital of Rabat, Alaoui stated the staff’s resiliency has satisfied her that they’re able to “even more impressive feats in the matches to come.”

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