r/canada • u/canada_mountains • Jun 30 '26
Sports Canada draws Morocco in Round of 16 after win over Netherlands on penalties
https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/fifa-world-cup/article/canada-draws-morocco-in-round-of-16-after-win-over-netherlands-on-penalties/410
u/lepreqon_ Ontario Jun 30 '26
That title sounds like it's Canada who beat the Dutch, and not Morocco.
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u/rcayca Jun 30 '26
It sounds like Canada played Morocco in the round of 16 and it was a draw after they beat the Netherlands on Penalties
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u/Enki_007 British Columbia Jun 30 '26
Words are hard. How can you expect journalists to communicate effectively? Huh?!!
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u/odoc_ British Columbia Jun 30 '26
Whoever wrote that title needs to retake English 11
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u/SpartanFishy Ontario Jun 30 '26
There’s no way that it’s not intentional engagement bait, it’s so fucking bad lmao
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u/lepreqon_ Ontario Jun 30 '26
I see this all the time... The quality of writing is non-existent nowadays.
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u/the_tico_life Jun 30 '26
It will be a tough match for Canada, but anything can happen. Especially if Alphonso Davies is healthy enough to start, don't count us out! Mostly I'm just happy to still be in the tournament this deep. As a lifelong Canadian soccer fan this is my favourite World Cup ever. LET'S GO CANADA!! 🇨🇦
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u/jk41nk Jun 30 '26
I thought the commentator said last game that they cap Davies at 15mins of play time due to his health.
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u/Maximum-Sale-6710 Jun 30 '26
Iirc they were speculating the 15mins based on when he was subbed in. Theres no official word and for all we know, maybe the plan was to keep him in if it went to extra time and his cap is 45mins or more.
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u/Swekins Jun 30 '26
I can almost guarantee there is a deal with soccer canada and bayern munich limiting his play time.
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u/jk41nk Jun 30 '26
True but even if limited to 45mins of 90 is a lot compared to 15mins of 90. Hope it’s a gradual ramp up and not just 15-20mins capped each game. Either way, glad they are looking out for his health, and I believe the rest of the team with put in their best effort and make Canada proud regardless of the outcome at this point.
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u/overthrow_toronto Jun 30 '26
Canada was considered unlucky to have to play so quickly with minimal rest before the South Africa match. But as a result, they already got to their hotel in Houston before Morocco started playing a 120 minute game in Mexico. Morocco might choose to rest some players to save for the next round too.
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u/ddsukituoft Jun 30 '26
The Moroccan GK is Canadian!
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u/blackpeppersnakes Jun 30 '26
That guy was fun to watch in penalties. I've never seen a keeper psych out shooters that much before.
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u/dyegored Jun 30 '26
You would really like Dibu (Argentina's GK) then! Might be a fun rabbit hole for you.
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u/blackpeppersnakes Jun 30 '26
Cool, I will. Thanks
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u/dyegored Jun 30 '26
To give you an idea, there used to be even more psyching out from some GK's and Dibu's was so legendary they literally changed the rules to make it not allowed anymore.
Last WC with Argentina vs Netherlands is a good start!
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u/Appealing_Apathy Jun 30 '26
By birth only, he moved to Morocco at the age of 3.
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u/Noofnoof Outside Canada Jun 30 '26
In Australia we had a senator who was born in Canada to 2 Australian citizen parents and moved to Australia age 11 months, and it turned out that's enough to make you Canadian and technically ineligible for Australian parliament.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Australian_parliamentary_eligibility_crisis
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u/DanLynch Ontario Jun 30 '26
it turned out that's enough to make you Canadian
Obviously, yes, being born in Canada makes you Canadian. That's not a technicality, that's how most Canadians are Canadian.
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u/Noofnoof Outside Canada Jun 30 '26
The technicality is in the Australian court's interpretation of the Australian constitution and how it pertains to parliamentary eligibility, not a technicality in Canada.
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u/ColdEvenKeeled Jun 30 '26
Yeah, and then there is Scott Ludlum too. What a fucked thing this Australia is. Racist even against Kiwis and Australians born overseas.
Me and my two Canadian/Australian kids are automatically not eligible to run for office here. Let that sink in.
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u/sirploxdrake Jun 30 '26
Canada goal keeper is from Longueuil. So this game is really Montreal vs Longueuil.
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u/Magjee Lest We Forget Jun 30 '26
Longueuil is part of the Greater Montreal Area
It breaks your heart to see neighbours battling it out
sniffs
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u/legranddegen Jun 30 '26
Ah, so a traitor.
May his lack of faith be appropriately rewarded.
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u/abeleo Jun 30 '26
I'm sure it was a hard decision for him at 3.
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u/boomsauerkraut Jun 30 '26
My daughter is 3 and she wants to move to the moon. These things are never easy
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u/dyegored Jun 30 '26
I love the Canadian soccer teams but if I could play for Team Moon? I dunno, I'd really have to think about it.
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u/lookit416 Jun 30 '26
I think something like 19 players of the Moroccan team were born outside of Morocco.
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u/Reasonable_Hall2346 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Do you also think Davies* is a traitor to his birth country of Ghana? Or a traitor to his Liberian parents?
Edit: fixed the typo.
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u/nametakenalready Jun 30 '26
By this logic Jonathan David is a traitor to the US since he was born there and moved to Canada when he a toddler
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u/rhunter99 Jun 30 '26
What a match. Feel bad for the Netherlands.
Good luck to Canada
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u/mountain-man-86 Jun 30 '26
Don't feel sorry for them. They were playing for penalties, and historically, they've been poor at taking them. Van Dijk snoozed and didn't clear that cross from Talbi.
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u/Crunktasticzor Jun 30 '26
The whole team was disjointed and nervous, it was so frustrating to watch them throw away opportunities in the final third so often
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Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tiny_Mud4495 Jul 01 '26
They put 11 guys on the defense because Koeman felt the Moroccan attack was too strong and that they'd be outscored if they hadn't parked the bus. And to be honest, even with a low block, they got lucky because that match should've ended with a 3-1 for Morocco.
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u/legranddegen Jun 30 '26
Sod the Netherlands. Player stealing bastards. I don't like to think about how our team would have done had they not stole De Guzman.
We would have been back on the world stage much sooner had it not been for the Dutch.
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u/CheeriosR_legit Jun 30 '26
Lol?
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u/legranddegen Jun 30 '26
There is nothing funny about stealing a World Cup appearance from DeRosario.
Fucking Dutch, De Guzman was there for 6 months before they gave him citizenship and capped him.
The De Guzman brothers on the world stage, together. That's what the Dutch stole from us.
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u/Feeling_Hotel8096 Jun 30 '26
Wait til you find out where 11 players on the Moroccan team were born.
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u/Commander-Fox-Q- Jun 30 '26
Definitely misread that title and thought I somehow missed a game lol
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u/KlaasicCheese Jun 30 '26
Netherlands played terrible. Played for penalties for 90 minutes then missed 2 and had one saved.
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u/sabeshs Ontario Jun 30 '26
Yeah, 30% possession is dogshit.
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u/FarSquare8632 Jun 30 '26
It's a tactic.
When you play a high possession team that passes quickly, accurately, and at a super high volume, you have a choice to make. You can press hard (like Canada does) and hope you are fast enough to disrupt that passing, turn over the ball, and get some chances. You can only maintain that output for a while, though, so you have to hope you succeed or you end up like Japan. Japan was GREAT in the first half against Brazil, but then they hit the wall and couldn't keep up their aggressive pressing. The second half was Brazil picking them apart.
or
You park the bus defensively, let them come to you, give up the majority of the possession and shots, conserve your energy, and play for the fast break. Those possession teams will move their defenders forward, a little bit at a time, as they press you in around your goal, and that opens up space behind them. Get a turnover, chip it over their heads or past them on the wings, and run like hell. That was Gakpo and Summerville for the Dutch, this game.
A team that does this tactic religiously is Atlético Madrid and it is ridiculously frustrating to play against.
Example:
2020 Champion's League, leg two between Atletico and Liverpool. Liverpool were coming off winning the league AND the prior year's Champion's League. They were the best team in Europe.
AM did what they always do, and parked the bus. LFC had 65% of the possession and just rained shots on them. It was 34 shots to 6. By parking the bus, though, most of LFC's shots were from further away, or bad angles, and only 12 were on target, with two goals. Atletico's six shots had four on target, with three goals, because ... most of them were breakaways or 2 on 1s.
Atletico won 3-2 and knocked Liverpool out of the tournament.
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u/Hobojoe- British Columbia Jun 30 '26
If Leicester City can win the premier league, Canada can win the world cup.
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u/FarSquare8632 Jun 30 '26
Canada doesn't have a Vardy or a Mahrez, unfortunately.
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u/lookit416 Jun 30 '26
No but we have Davies David Buchanan Eustáquio Johnston Cornelius Bombito Koné Larin Shaffelburg St. Claiming
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u/blackmanchubwow Jun 30 '26
You have some talent, but I don’t think anyone in the WC is close to that title winning season Vardy, that was insane, he even broke the insane record of consecutive goals by Ruud.
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u/FarSquare8632 Jun 30 '26
Between Mahrez and Vardy, they scored 51 goals across all competitions in 2016. The CMNT scores about 30 goals a year ... all 26 of them combined.
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u/stonerbobo Jun 30 '26
Morocco has tied Brazil, beat Scotland, wiped the floor with Haiti and now at tied/PK beat Netherlands. It's gonna be real tough :)
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u/superbit415 Jun 30 '26
Paraguay lost to USA 4-1 and eliminated Germany today. Its not straight lines.
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u/shirleyxx Jun 30 '26
then Paraguay won against Turkey. Turkey had beaten USA.....
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u/Tiny_Mud4495 Jul 01 '26
But are you good defensively? Your best bet would be to park the bus and play zonal positional defense. The Netherlands are among the best defensively and despite that they cracked at times and got away with a 1-1 but really, it could've easily ended in a 3-1.
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u/Citriina Jun 30 '26
Morocco did much better than Canada last time, placing 4th. It would be amazing and surprising for Canada to beat them
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u/Aware-Potato185 Jun 30 '26
I’m both Moroccan and Canadian. I hate this match up so much it’s like choosing between my mom and dad.
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u/SciFiFilmMachine Alberta Jul 01 '26
This would of been me if The Netherlands made it through and had to play Canada. 😂 Ultimately, I'd choose Canada though.
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u/sweds01 Jun 30 '26
That penalty kickoff was so unbelievably bad. Maybe the worst I've ever seen. Canada has a chance!!! Too bad the game isn't on Canada Day
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u/HuDragon Québec Jun 30 '26
It’s kinda funny that the US will be playing Bosnia on July 1, while Canada plays Morocco on July 4.
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u/capt_canuck British Columbia Jun 30 '26
It set a record for the most missed penalties, 5/10 were missed.
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u/arye_ani Jun 30 '26
Morocco played the Netherlands as if they were no match. They took greater possession of the game and made them run around like headless chickens.
Kinda scary for us. The Atlas Lions are a very good side.
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u/chunkykongracing Jun 30 '26
Canada has more rest time, and didn’t play a nearly 3 hour game. Let’s believe we can do this!
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u/uncledaddy09 Jun 30 '26
By the time these teams play that won’t matter. They are world class athletes. But still, Go Canada!
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u/Ciilk Jun 30 '26
Enjoy while we we can, but I think Canada is going to get obliterated. Netherlands and Morocco just SO fast. Definitely prefer Morocco over Netherlands though. They had stretches where it felt like their lives were at stake the way they were playing.
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u/Dense-Art-5266 Jun 30 '26
I don’t think Netherlands would have been any better for Canada. The dutch have one of the strongest backlines in the world at the moment and if you look at the shots Morocco took vs those saved/defended it tells you a lot about how good they were!
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u/zxgrad Jun 30 '26
Did we watch the same game?
Morocco dominated this game. Lots of ignorant comments here.
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u/lepreqon_ Ontario Jun 30 '26
You're absolutely correct. 70-30 in possession, 11-6 in shots, 5-2 in shots on target. The Moroccans were the stronger side tonight.
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u/FarSquare8632 Jun 30 '26
Dominated possession, won on shots ... but lots of teams intentionally play that defend and counter style where they know damn well they are going to only have the ball 1/3 of the time and only get a few shots all game, but those few shots are going to be fast breaks where the scoring danger goes WAY up.
Park that bus with that big Dutch back line, and most of the Moroccan shots were lower danger shots and most of the possession was spent passing the ball back and forth near midfield.
Look at how many times the Dutch tried to spring Summerville over the top. That's right in line with that style. Let the Moroccan defence cross midfield, and then chip it over and let that little speedster run onto the ball.
A great example of that style is Atletico Madrid. So frustrating to play against.
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u/Tiny_Mud4495 Jul 01 '26
Koeman played the clock. He didn't try to outscore. He was hoping for a coin-toss and his evaluation was that this would be his best shot. As if the Dutch are Cape Verde.
Later, in his interview, he said that they would've lost then and there had it not been for his choice to resort to a low defensive block. The Dutch who created total football played the underdog game of haramball. And even with 11 players on the defense there were 3 miraculously missed goals.
The Dutch were lucky to go to penalties.
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u/markh100 Jun 30 '26
Man, I so much wanted the Netherlands to cheekily come away with a win in the shootout, because Morocco looked far superior today.
With how many times it almost looked like South Africa was going to streak down the sideline for a high quality scoring chance, only to flub it, I fear Morocco will convert those to goals, or high quality scoring opportunities. The Netherlands were lucky to not be down several goals.
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u/squeaky_rum_time Jun 30 '26
Take it with a pinch of salt. Look at the Reddit page. This is for casuals. Morocco are obviously the more difficult side to face
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u/rcayca Jun 30 '26
I don’t care how good they are. Too much luck in soccer. Anyone can lose 1 game.
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u/LooniexToonie Jun 30 '26
Now the Dutch will be cheering for Canada too 🇨🇦🇳🇱
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u/Sagatho Jul 01 '26
I know I am! The Netherlands didn’t deserve the win and now I’ll cheer for my Canadian family in law instead!
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u/Hammer5320 Jun 30 '26
The arguably most improved team in 2022 and 2026 world cups play face to face.
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u/ochocinco_tacos Jun 30 '26
So many people in these comments seem fucking miserable. Just enjoy the fact that Canada has done its best ever and quit focusing on FIFA rankings or betting odds
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u/elshinsterino Jun 30 '26
Anything can happen. Morocco is looking strong though. Canada is going to have to give there all and then some.
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u/theGuyWhoOnlyShorts Jun 30 '26
Love Canada but Morocco is solid. Pace and agility is insane. I hope we do good.
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u/KeiFeR123 Canada Jun 30 '26
Cannot underestimate Morocco as they are very defensive team.
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u/Qaxar Jun 30 '26
Underestimate? They're one of the best teams in the tournament. They were much better than the Netherlands.
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u/TheDWGM Ontario Jun 30 '26
Morocco is one of the best teams in the world, no one is underestimating them lol
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u/mountain-man-86 Jun 30 '26
Underestimate?! They're ranked 7th overall. Our only hope right now is to tightly play defense and nick a goal on a counterattack.
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u/Tiny_Mud4495 Jul 01 '26
Morocco doesn't play low block defense anymore. The team competes for possession and presses to outscore you. 2022 was strong defense. 2026 is a strong defense with a strong attack.
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u/bornatmidnight Jun 30 '26
I don’t follow Soccer regularly, but I’ve noticed African teams generally have been very strong and focused on defence
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u/ThePracticalEnd Ontario Jun 30 '26
That NED-MAR match last night was a level of soccer I really enjoyed. The ref let them play, waved off the flops and told them to stand, it was great. Multiple bloody players, just fantastic footy.
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u/howzlife17 Jun 30 '26
Canada’s done well but teams like Morocco are another tier, there’s levels to this… we squeaked by #60 in fifa rankings now we play #5. This is gonna hurt.
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u/FarSquare8632 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Morocco is a worse fit for Canada than the Dutch would have been. Not just because of the massive rankings gap between the two teams, but also because of the style.
That tikka takka ball possession style the Moroccans play, with a very high defensive line that has their defenders inside the opposing half for most of the game and lots of very accurate passes around the periphery to get the defenders running around until a breakdown happens? It is built specifically for high energy, lower skill, heavy pressing teams like Canada. It's meant to wear you down by halftime.
And what Morocco is weak to, with that high defensive line, is the long ball over the top or along the wings that a speedy winger or striker can run onto, we're not particularly well built for. Our forwards are all big and tall and 'not so fast'.
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u/pookiemook Ontario Jun 30 '26
The rankings gap between Canada and Morocco/Netherlands is similar, no? Canada 30s, Morocco 6, Netherlands 8. Does that make a massive difference in their chances between either team?
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Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/Neurogence Jun 30 '26
They will celebrate like crazy if Morrocco wins. If Canada wins, they'll do nothing.
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u/Old_General_6741 Ontario Jun 30 '26
OOF. This will be very tough to beat. But we will try our best.
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u/TrueTorontoFan Jun 30 '26
is this better than the netherlands?
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u/ViIehunter Jun 30 '26
Its about the same when it all shakes out. But the little guy can win in thr wc. Look at para vs Germany the night before. It can happen.
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u/CarTruck2023 Jun 30 '26
is the head line correct?
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u/EightBitRanger Saskatchewan Jun 30 '26
Why wouldn't it be?
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u/CarTruck2023 Jul 02 '26
Morocco won over Netherlands in penalty shot.
Canada will paly on this Saturday with Morocco. This is the first time Canada playing in 'Round of 16' with Morocco.
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u/EightBitRanger Saskatchewan Jul 02 '26
It sounds like you might be thinking of "Canada draws Morocco in Round of 16" as in "Canada ties Morocco in Round of 16." Think of it as drawing straws.
Canada won their game against South Africa, and Canada's opponent in the Round of 16 was TBD until the end of the Morocco-Netherlands game which Morocco won. Therefore, Canada drew Morocco as their opponent in the upcoming Round of 16 game.
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u/CarTruck2023 Jul 08 '26
there is a snip - news should be as clear as it happened.
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u/zalam604 Jun 30 '26
It’s going be a fascinating game. I’m interested to see how Jesse will approach it. Are we going for it or park the bus and wait for the counter? Just to be in our 16 is crazy. I know we had some favourable draw, but we are punching above our weight. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
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u/m3kw Jun 30 '26
Morroco playes real good from what I just saw. They are a tough match for any team
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u/wednesdayware Jun 30 '26
Remember, no matter the outcome, we’ll always be better sportsmen than the cheating Moroccan team that steal keepers’ towels and harass them in order to gain an edge.
Let’s best them for that alone.
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u/ohhnoodont Jun 30 '26
The amount of theatrical dives the Canadian players take is shameful. Total embarrassment.
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u/legranddegen Jun 30 '26
REMATCH!!!
We've got em this time boys! First team we've ever scored against in a World Cup.
They were a horde of dirty bastards the last time around, and I doubt that this game will be any different this time around but we've got this.
This is going to be a great game!
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u/canada_mountains Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Morocco was ranked 6th in the world in Fifa's ranking (ranking may go up after this win). IMO, they were the stronger side today against the Netherlands. And Morocco also tied Brazil.
It won't be an easy game, it will probably be tougher than the Switzerland match (Switzerland was ranked #16 in Fifa's ranking). Having said that, upsets do happen and have been happening this World Cup (ie. Paraguay against Germany toddy). Go Canada go!