In the world of fairy tales, the feud between the rooster and the lion is almost non-existent. Maybe because the location of their habitat is far apart. So it’s hard to assemble the fable. If there is one, the author searches on Google, the fairy tale between a rooster, a lion and a donkey. Greek children’s fairy tales, caption. But in that fairy tale, the rooster only plays a supporting role. The noisy clashed cunning lion and donkey as the main character. Like the story of the mouse deer and the crocodile in our country.
Imagining a rooster and a lion fighting, it doesn’t seem fun. The rooster loses everything to the lion. No chance and the rooster will definitely lose. While the lion? This is the beast king of all beasts. Big body, looks fierce. Its fangs and claws are death. The roar of his voice alone, already makes the hairs fall out of the neck. Thursday, 15 December 2022, there will be a match between the Roosters-France Team against the Atlas-Moroccan Lions Team. In the crucial and prestigious round, the 2022 World Cup Semifinals Qatar. This is not a fairy tale. This is history and will really happen at Al Bayt Stadium.
The match between the team nicknamed the Roosters and the Atlas Lions is intriguing. Millions of pairs of eyes of world football people are waiting for. The superiority of European football will be tested for the prowess of African-Arab football which is currently on-fire at the Qatar World Cup stage. Represented by a country called Morocco.
As a rooster, France is not just any rooster. Manly, well-established, shrewd, and accomplished. He has won two world cup titles. In 1998 and 2018. Was also runner-up in the 2006 World Cup. The French national team, with all its history and football legend, is an honorary participant for the World Cup. Without France, the World Cup is less tasty.
Like the current World Cup without Italy and the previous period in Russia 2018, the World Cup feels less spicy. If the analogy is eating lunch at noon. While the Moroccan national team, actually, its football status is far below the French national team. As a lion, the Moroccan National Team can be said to be a big new lion. The lion yesterday afternoon, although it has appeared six times in the World Cup since 1970 and comes from the Atlas Mountains on the North African peninsula.
It’s different from France, where even though it’s a rooster, the Roosters are good at it. Nan has gone through 15 full moon World Cups since 1930. It has become 16 times with the current Qatar World Cup. Why is a team of French class called the Roosters? It has a long history. But what is certain, for the native French people whose ancestors came from the Gallic background and most of the farmers, the rooster symbolizes pride, determination, courage and productivity.
Currently, the French national team’s virility spur icon in Qatar, is represented by the game expertise of Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud. Mbappe is a bomber. Griezmann is a warhead. Giroud became a penalty box stealth. Their teammates will all become sharp bullets for attacks which at the same time can become mines for every opponent who competes against them.
Facing France, Morocco will certainly be complicated and tired. Want to attack a lot, France is a team that is good at warding off attacks with attacks. Wanting to survive a lot, France is a team that is good at ruminating through the opponent’s defense.
The Moroccan squad could be frustrated by the French troops. Even though they are young lions for the World Cup, the Moroccan national team is stubborn and fierce at attacking its opponents. Evidently, the football giants of Spain, Portugal and Belgium have been torn apart and returned to their countries.
Morocco must be wary of the spurs and spurs of the French cock’s poison and auspiciousness. Morocco’s triumph at the Qatar World Cup could be stopped by France, who have established everything as a team. It is believed that the rooster with its big name and honor will immediately damage every line of the Lion’s defense, from the first whistle the referee sounded.
Didier Deschamps, French coach and son of a French native, doesn’t want to embarrass his forefathers who are known as conquerors. Both as conquerors of the vast plains during the colonial era, as well as conquerors of gridiron football since the days of Just Fontaine, Raymond Koppa to Michael Platini.
Moreover, that was served by Morocco, which in the history of the war in 1912 the French were once conquered through a treaty or Fez Treaty, so that a war called Rif broke out. Based on record of the match between France and Morocco, France excelled. In five meetings between 1988 and 2007, France always won and only lost once on penalties.
Even though it seems that the Lion will lose to the rooster—an antithesis to the real world of animals, the match is believed to be fierce and exciting. Morocco as semifinalist debutants will play loose and happy. This is dangerous for France who will serve it by shouldering the burden of the defending champion, history and the underdog.
Moreover, 14 of the 26 Moroccan players were born in Europe, such as the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and France. They also play a lot in European and French leagues. More or less their upbringing was European football education, even though what they carried was the African-Arab banner.
Most Moroccan children not only speak French because they were once colonized by France, but also understand the character of French football. Because as a child of immigrants, it is said that many of them studied at SSB (Football School) there. Along with other African friends who are currently French players.
In addition, the Moroccan coach, Walid Reragui, born in France with a Moroccan passport, is very good at fueling the motivation of his troops with narratives of “war” which so far have been able to ignite the enthusiasm of the young Moroccan team’s lions in the World Cup.
Reragui’s final narrative, which the author read in Kompas last Saturday, was, “We look to the sky. We don’t want to stop yet because we will be a team that is difficult to beat. Then, why don’t we dare to dream of winning a trophy (the World Cup)?” Walid Reragrui’s claim is very ambitious.
ASL
