National coach Walid Regragui said he bears responsibility for the Moroccan national team’s loss in the quarter-finals of the African Cup against South Africa.
“This is a coach’s failure. We made many mistakes, and we lacked patience in building the game. We got a penalty and we would have been back in the game,”Regragui said in post-match press statements.
The national coach apologized to the Moroccan fans for their disappointment and said the “Atlas Lions” will learn from this unexpected failure.
I’m sorry, but your time is over.
The performance not only against South Africa but against any team that let’s us lead the game is appalling.
I have played football since I was 5 and never thought I’d see the astonishing quality I’m seeing in this Moroccan team, it’s really a joy. However, apart from what I believe to be a great source of inspiration and connection to motherland in Regragui for mostly diaspora players (including myself), it’s his lack of a “football brain” that worries me.
A team of the caliber of Morocco should not have quality players hiding from the game, completely unaware of any tactical planning, emotionally infantile giving the game away when there was 15 min left and the overall feeling that all Moroccans had; a team that could not score if they had the whole day to do so.
Very young players like Hakimi shouldn’t apologise or bare the heavy weight of the failure, nor should the manager mention the missed penalty as if that goal would’ve solved anything.