France Cruises Into Semis VS Morocco!

Project 90 Soccer: All right, we are live, Marco. Welcome to Project Ninety. We're back with another match recap. Today was the first quarter final. We saw France take out Morocco two to zero. my name is Antonio.

Marco: Right now Marco is cracking.

Project 90 Soccer: What's cracking, homie? before we get into the game today, I just want to remind everyone to head over to Project90Soccer.com, find our socials, streaming platforms. like, subscribe, do your thing, leave comments. We want the fans to get involved in the conversation. Gives us something to bring up, something to talk about. We want to see and hear different opinions, different takes. with that being said, though, Marco, France, two zero to Morocco. Now My quick little quick little recap over this game was, you know, France played pretty good, but I think they got the victory more so not because they played good, but because Morocco was kind of lacking today. Uninspired, low energy. It felt like the Morocco we're used to seeing high energy, high tempo just did not show up today. What did you think?

Marco: Yeah man, I agree. I think Morocco went in there with respecting France too much. that's not the Morocco that was playing all tournament. They're basically playing, they were on their back foot a lot of the time. were, I don't know man, not a whole lot of chances created. And yeah man, the respect was there. I don't know what was the game plan going into that. I don't know if that was the game plan going into that, but clearly backfired.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Marco: And now France advances.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, France advances again. No surprise to many. I think just the way that it happened, though, was kind of shocking to see Morocco kind of fold the way they did. it started off early, obviously, in the fourth minute. Mbappe got a got a shot, led to a corner. big save, a header, close up from Upamakano. I think Banu was probably the MVP today for Morocco. A lot of big saves. throughout the first half, though, France just good pressure on Morocco, winning the ball back. Morocco really had no good possession throughout the first half, no real good opportunities. and yeah, man, I was shocked to just see, you know, some teams lose these games, but they can at least hold their head high and say that they they worked hard and they pressed, you know, the opposing team, but Morocco just looked like they were they were there to just play the ninety minutes and and and you know, go back home to Morocco after the game is what it felt like.

Marco: Yeah, man, it was interesting, especially watching the game. I was paying attention to the back and I was like, man, these guys are just booting the ball. Like Morocco doesn't really bring the ball up quite a bit from the back. But to see them just boot and try to get out of there, I don't know that's because they're afraid of the counter attack. They just didn't want to lose possession so far, so far up. In that part of the field. But yeah, I mean, just looking at the stats, mean, France 22 shots. to Morocco's five, right? On target, on target nine to Morocco's one. But the crazy part is Morocco had a lot of quite a bit of possession, 52 % possession in comparison to 48%. But no, it didn't.

Project 90 Soccer: Tish yeah. And it didn't feel like that either. That's the crazy part. Yeah. It didn't didn't like when you watch the game, it didn't feel as if they had that much possession of the ball, but you know, it's what they did with it, and they really didn't do much with it, to be completely honest. Felt like maybe in the last ten minutes of the game they had a little bit more of a push, which is something I was expecting more so throughout the game, It was in the what was it, twenty fifth minute here. Yeah, Duay won the ball back, right? Controversial there. They did a long VAR check, but that eventually led to Mbappe getting in the box and getting a penalty. and we know we were talking about the VAR the other day about taking so long, stopping the game, these pauses. I mean, it took over a minute for them to to pretty much say, okay, go ahead, take your penalty. And again, Banu came up big, saved the penalty early on, gave a little bit of a lifeline to Morocco's, probably a breath of relief for Morocco, but

Marco: or move.

Project 90 Soccer: The end of the day just didn't didn't really matter, did it?

Marco: Yeah, Maserati and like I mentioned the back lemon, they just look like they're one step behind these guys. And obviously France is pretty dynamic up top, but they really they dodged a bullet on that one. Leeds Maserati did because Bono or Bono, however you say his name, he's a baller. He's a baller man. He was playing for Sevilla. He's arguably one of the best goalkeepers in the league. But yeah, man, he's known for saving penalty kicks. But also, mean, Mbappé didn't really

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: hit the ball right under the ball. I don't know. When I was watching that, was thinking, was like, this VAR, like the amount of time it's taking to check this, right? That's also the striker starts thinking like, okay, but this way I'm gonna hit it that way once or twice. Let me fix the ball again. Here comes a ref. You know what I So you're just there waiting, waiting anticipation to shoot it. That can mess with you to where instead of going with your gut instinct to hit it in another part of the

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: The net, you go elsewhere and look what happened.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, you start second guessing yourself. Time's going on. It really hurts the the the person taking the penalty for sure. They get in their head a little bit. but I was shocked. Yeah. Kind of a terrible penalty, really. He's low to the to Bono's left. towards the middle, kind of middle, you know, left. It wasn't the greatest shot. And yeah, he missed it, which I was shocked. the first half, yeah, extra time first half, Dinier. Who I thought had a good game on that left side, along with Rabio coming over. They really shut down like Hakimi Bahim Diaz the whole time. They really weren't that effective. Hit a shot from outside the box. I think Banu got a little bit of a touch to it. They didn't give him a corner, but ended up coming off come off the the top bar right there. So that was a good shot from him. Good attempt. But totally what's up?

Marco: Yeah, that was weird. And I'm surprised that court didn't get called because I mean just watching it from the TV like you can tell Bono had a piece on it and if it was I mean the ref is there if it would hit off the post you would have clearly heard it and the ball wouldn't went where either up or back into play and so I don't know that was a weird one I'm nitpicking there but at the end of the day VAR we've been nitpicking at VAR

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, it was pretty it was pretty obvious. Makes you wonder. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's yeah. And that's what's interesting with this VAR. Buzz the referee in the ear and he changes call. But for that, they just don't even they give it not even the time of day, nothing at all. So I you know, I don't understand this whole VAR thing. I'm not really sure what the prew the prerequisites are for them to actually go to it, but To me that's that's a prime example of when it should be used, to be completely honest. Yeah.

Marco: What you think of Dua starting and throwing boricola on the bench?

Project 90 Soccer: You know, I like it. I don't mind it at all. I think Barcla could definitely start, but I think Due is equally can start. You know what I mean? They're both pretty dynamic. They're a little bit different as players. I'd say Due's more of a dribbler, more of a guy like that. And Barcla good with his link up play and creating chances, linking up with Elise and Mbappe when he's on the field together. So I mean, both of them it's kinda like a champagne problem. It's like who are you gonna start, you know? 'Cause they're both like world class players in my opinion. But yeah, seeing seeing Mbappe coming off in the second half too, kind of giving them a little bit of a scare. I saw after the game he's like icing his ankle or his foot or something like that. But then after the game he was jumping around celebrating. So I don't think it's something too too concerning to be completely honest. So it's good for France.

Marco: Mm-hmm. think at that point Deschamps was like, we got this in the bag. You're coming out, rest a little bit because we got to take care of you for the next game. Because I mean, look, how many times have we seen guys stay in there too long and the other team, the game is already lost. They don't care. They're going to try to mess you up.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Yeah, and there's no point at that point. You already went in two to zero. It was what in the in the upper seventieth, seventy-eighth minute, something like that. So props to Mbappe for just you know, walking off the field saying, just sub me out. Like, you know what I mean? Not trying to be that guy to say, let me stay on, I want to score some more goals. and that's the kind of the feeling I get from France is like they're they're all individually really, really good players, top players in their teams, but collectively as a team, I think there's a good Team spirit and they're all there for, you know, the purposes of the team. What can they do to help France win the World Cup? I don't feel any sense of like, This is about me, I'm the star, give me the ball, I'm the guy, you know what I mean? I feel like they're all on that field with one goal in common and it's just to to win, honestly, just to win the World Cup. Yeah.

Marco: They're freaking they're freaking dangerous man If we thought they were dangerous before like today just watching them up top all these say then belly You know what I mean? And Bob it do it like you're gaining from both freaking sides of the field and then at one point like Rabio He was going all the way up top also. He was trying to get his freaking Shots so the only thing I would say to that is I mean, let's say you play in Argentina that counter-attack is gonna be brutal

Project 90 Soccer: They are. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It is, man.

Marco: If you get caught with your pants down going so high.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, and you know, shout out to Rabio too is a simple player in the midfield, but he's solid, man. That guy really controls the game. him and Kone did well shutting down like Morocco's attacks, kind of in the holding mid position. So all around, just the whole team is on the same page. And man, they're you know, Dinier again, that guy wasn't even supposed to go. I think he was throwing in because someone got injured, and you know, look at him now he's starting. But anyway, into the second half here, the sixtieth minute, finally, breakthrough for France, Mbappe puts one past Banu. His 20th already, 20th. The guy's not even what? He's 28? What is he? 28 years old, something like that. 20th World Cup goal for France. 20 goals in the World Cup, eight goals in this World Cup, tied for the golden boot. I mean, the guy's just like undeniable. We talk about Holland being undeniable, all these other messy, but Mbappe, I feel like he is the World Cup player. Like he really, like the World Cup is his tournament. Every World Cup he's been in so far, he's made the final twice, won one of and it looks like they're pretty much on pace to make another final, if you ask me. To me, it's their tournament to lose at this point.

Marco: Yes. Yes, yes, they have a squad but I mean look at the last World Cup you put the he'll put the country on his back Right. It seemed like when when he opened up the scoring sheet today, I mean he could let that penalty kick mess with them, but he didn't clearly But we opened up the score sheet today it feels like all right a little bit of relaxation and it seems like there were shots come from all over the place and here comes the second goal and Overall man that they were just pretty dope up top. I had a quick thought

Project 90 Soccer: yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: after he scored, I'm like, man, arguably going to be, or it's probably going to be, can't be the leading goal scorer in World Cups, right? He still has another World Cup under him potentially. What after that? And I also thought, is this guy potentially going to be the greatest France player ever?

Project 90 Soccer: yeah. Yep. That's see, I think he's already kind of in that conversation for what he's already done with France. And now after this World Cup, you know, twenty goals, he's breaking these records. If he leads them to another final and they do lift the trophy, I mean it'd be kind of hard. You know, I know there's Zidane and all these other players in the past, but if you can't if you can't put Mbappe on the same level or or higher and really give him that title at this point, I don't know, man. I feel like I feel like he's already on his way to being the best. Player coming out of France of all time.

Marco: And you know what's gonna come out of it from the critics, the experts. I'm not an expert. They'll be like, well, he wasn't like Sedan. He wasn't like Platini. This guy's plays for himself. He's selfish. He's looking at stats. Cause you hear all the drama with him and cante and stuff like that, which is a guy I would like to see get a couple of minutes to tournament, but hasn't. But yeah, you see all that drama and all that narrative on social media. So I think that's the only thing that would probably prevent him.

Project 90 Soccer: Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Get in the way. Yeah.

Marco: Or yeah, get in the way and that's just algebraish. But clearly, clearly, clearly playing wise. Yeah, he's one and two right now.

Project 90 Soccer: It is, it is. Mm-hmm. He is, man. You see him like we were talking about their whole team chemistry. They're all there under, you know, with the with the same goal in mind. All these things you hear about Mbappe, you don't really see any of that. I don't I don't see proof of any of that showing up with France. To me, he's the ultimate team player. He's there he's there not to be, like I said earlier, the star. He's there to help France win a World Cup. Bottom line. So I don't see the attitude, I don't see the ego. I see the respect between him and his teammates, the coach, everybody. I feel like they're all on the same page and to me that's that's You know, the base starting point for any team that plans on going to win the World Cup. You gotta have that. And if you have that, you're gonna give yourself the best chance. moving on here, a couple minutes after Mbappe score, Dembele puts one past Banu so now two to zero. Mbappe getting the assists there. So again, he's not just scoring, right? Getting assists. Big player for France. And, you know, two zero up, seven what was this? The sixty-sixth minute or so. Doesn't leave much time for Morocco. Now they really gotta come out. They gotta press. They gotta go score. And it didn't seem like that turned anything on for Morocco. They still kinda looked a bit scared almost, or maybe just there there just seemed like there's no enthusiasm or no no urgency to get up there to press France to just throw bodies in the box and I don't know. This Morocco felt like they were they were just lacking in every department today.

Marco: I mean, just looking at more stats, man, I just can't believe they played this way. I mean, and then Ibrahim, you know, I don't know, man. It's just it's just odd how this played out. But but to your point, the former Ballon d'Or winner Dembele, potentially, you know what I mean? Can win it again. I'm pretty sure he's going to be one of the finalists. But yeah, I mean, even if if Mbappe wasn't on the team.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you still have him, right?

Marco: Yeah, you still have him and he can change the game at any moment.

Project 90 Soccer: I agree. I agree. You know, there was some late pressure from Morocco. They did get a free kick. I want to say it was Hakimi who laid it off to El Anui or someone like that. it took a good shot, but Manyan took care of it. but other than that, like nothing stuck out like sticks out sticks out in terms of Morocco and chances that they created. and really, I mean, it felt like a game where France came in, they knew they were gonna win. Morocco it looked like they knew France was gonna win and it really was just about getting through the ninety minutes, hearing the final whistle, and you're on your way. And that was it. It really it really just felt one sided the whole time and didn't live up, quite honestly, to the expectations I had for this game. So, you know, again, was it France being really good or was it partly because Morocco didn't show up that well today? And I think it was a little bit a little bit of both, to be completely honest.

Marco: And you know, so I was going to show up majority of that statement was red. I wasn't hearing any chance, any cheers. When Morocco started putting in the subs in, was like, these guys were looking checked out. I don't know, man. I just didn't see any any encouragement from anybody else. It was just they knew they were going to lose.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. They did, man. They did. And I want to give a shout out though on Morocco. You know, we're always talking about Hill Mora got a lot of lot of attention for being, you know, seventeen years old. He was coming on, making his debuts, Wonder Kid, right? Young player. But I think sometimes we kind of forget that on these other teams, there's Laminha Maul, he's only eighteen years old, obviously, right? But for Morocco, there was right here, and I wrote his name down because I didn't realize this kid's only 18 years old. He plays with Lille in France. yes, exactly. This guy, dude, eighteen years old. Starting in the World Cup for Morocco's been starting, he's been playing. You know, you don't hear a peep about it really. You you know, he gets mentioned, he's a youngster in the in the team. But I mean

Marco: Yeah. Booty. Yep.

Project 90 Soccer: Established player, plays overseas in Lille. He was born in France, you know, one of probably the many of the Moroccan. Yeah, real shocker there. but man, like I was watching him play. Simple, simple player, you know, made made a couple mistakes under pressure from France today. It wasn't just on him, though, it was the whole team, to be completely honest. But yeah, one to look out for, you know, one to look out for for Morocco. And it makes me wonder, too, where's Morocco headed? Because

Marco: Chopper.

Project 90 Soccer: Hakimi, Bahim, these guys sort of their star players getting up their age. 2022, they had a miraculous run. I saw a stat that like 15 years ago they were ranked 70th in the world, and now they're in the top 10, something like that. So, you know, big change for Morocco, obviously. but going forward, I don't know. I think something's got to change now for Morocco. They're gonna have to bring in some new players and and sort of regroup.

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: coming off of the African Cup of Nations they won controversial obviously with Senegal. But yeah, man, it was kind of underwhelming for Morocco overall, I think, this tournament.

Marco: Yeah, man, I don't want to kick mother down. not I'm not I'm not going to say that it's all downhill from for them because it's just one game. was a very important game. But I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm a look ahead and and hopefully they keep raising rising in the rankings. But I'm glad he brought Booty up. 18 year old kind of wanted to see him longer in the game, but the coach wanted to go for experience. And he went for a number about which I don't think.

Project 90 Soccer: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Marco: did much of any damage coming in, right? was just a lot of ball chasing or whatever the case may be, but didn't have the impact that maybe the coach was looking for. But then again, like I said, he may have just gone for experience, but Morocco has a bright future with that 18-year-old booty in that position moving forward.

Project 90 Soccer: No. No. Yeah. Yeah, I'm Rabat, dude. That guy. I remember him in Sedia, Fiorentina. Very experienced. I think he played Man United for a little bit, if I'm not mistaken. Did he? Yeah. wasn't good, man. So I think he was going for the experience there. But overall it's didn't work out. France rolls on. Tomorrow, Marco, we got another quarter final. Spain versus Belgium. This could be a game to me is gonna s you know, could swing either way. All right. I think it's a good opportunity though for La Mina Mall to come to life.

Marco: Yeah, yeah, not a good start.

Project 90 Soccer: To really take over the game, really show why is Lominia Mall, why Spain is there. And Belgium, you know, that whole USA victory. I you know, they haven't been playing too well. USA did not play well, to be fair. Belgium did get the win, though. So it'll be interesting to see how they respond, how they come out now against a better Spain side. I'd imagine they're gonna show up and play a lot better than the USA did this last round. So I don't know, man. What you what are your prediction for this game. Do think Spain is gonna beat Belgium? Do you think Belgium's gonna beat Spain? Lukako, you think he's gonna start? You think he's gonna score? What's gonna happen?

Marco: Well, I like Lukaku coming off the bench. But I'm not going to predict any goals. Clearly, I was wrong on this one. We only ended up 2-0. But for our followers, our future followers and future subscribers, check out the previous video where I made my analysis on who's going to win this game. So go check that out. But if you want to break down. But you know what? It was marinating and I like, man.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yep.

Marco: Spain can probably just roll through these guys.

Project 90 Soccer: Right. Yeah. And you know what? As a neutral fan, 'cause I'm not really I'm an Italy fan, as you know. It's terrible another terrible year for us, but as a neutral fan in this World Cup, you know, I just want to see a good game at this point. Quarter finals, going to the semis, I wanna see some strong games. I wanna see some exciting games. obviously the whole goal is to win. You win, you win. Like today, France they won. Wasn't the most exciting game, but you know, that is the end goal, but As a neutral fan, as many other fans, I think we want to see something exciting. We want to see the star players, you know, ball out, show out. Wanna see Laminia Mall just turn up. We want to see Lukaku come on, cause some problems, De Broyna, all these players. So look, man, anything can happen tomorrow. I'm just hoping for for a strong game, exciting game. And yeah, man, that's kind of it really for today, huh?

Marco: think we need to call it a wrap because what do we got in about an hour and a half our indoor game so who's gonna win that game we shall see

Project 90 Soccer: That's right. We shall see. For those who don't know, me and Marco on indoor team. Game number two tonight. Did not start strong last week, but hey, none of us have played. And it's behind us. We build into the season. As Tom Brady would say, if you're playing worse, if you play worse the last game of your season, then you didn't get better at all. And our goal is when that last game comes, we're gonna we're gonna, if it's our only win of the season, we're gonna be able to say that throughout the season we built momentum, we got better tonight.

Marco: behind us.

Project 90 Soccer: Call me crazy. We're going to win this one. We're going to win this one. We're going to update the pod next episode because I have a lot of faith in this team that we're going to come out with a dub. But until then, until our next recap tomorrow, this has been another episode of Project 90. Marco, I'll see you in a few hours. to all of our listeners, listeners, and subscribers and current, I believe we have four subscribers. Shout out to every single one of you. You guys are the real ones.

Marco: Yes.

Project 90 Soccer: for any new listeners, head over to Project NinetySoccer dot com. Like, subscribe, share, until the next one. Peace.

Marco: See ya.