![\"Moroccan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782853155_194_default.jpg\")
Moroccan players celebrate following victory over the Netherlands on Monday. (Ricardo Mazalan\/The Associated Press)Morocco looks to end Canada’s run<\/p>\nAfter Canada\u2019s men beat South Africa to head to their first Round of 16, they celebrated as though they had won the World Cup itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9, who suffered a horrific broken leg in the group stage against Qatar, tossed aside his crutches and somehow danced in the dressing room, Tani Oluwaseyi and Promise David dancing beside him.<\/p>\n
Not long after, Kon\u00e9\u2019s teammates poured through the mixed zone, talking to reporters about how happy and excited they were to be moving on. Kon\u00e9 skipped it, instead slowly making his way through the bowels of Los Angeles Stadium to Canada\u2019s bus.<\/p>\n
One instant he was dancing, fuelled by joy and adrenaline. The next, he was hobbled again, the rhythmic sound of his crutches on the cement floor mimicking the ticking of a clock. The dressing room was the dream. The tunnel was a reminder of the less happy reality.<\/p>\n
The Canadians flew to Houston on Monday, uncertain of their opponent on July 4. They learned late Monday night that it will be fearsome Morocco, the sixth-ranked team in the world and one of the modern game\u2019s giants.<\/p>\n
The Atlas Lions advanced after coming back to draw the Netherlands in their Round of 32 matchup, before dispatching the Dutch on penalties in one of the most agonizing shootouts imaginable. It was a shame that two titanic teams had to meet so early in the tournament, separated by such fine margins: the width of a post, the ricochet of a spinning ball.<\/p>\n
Moroccan players celebrate following victory over the Netherlands on Monday. (Ricardo Mazalan\/The Associated Press)Morocco looks to end Canada’s run<\/p>\n
But the Moroccans \u2014 World Cup semifinalists in 2022, finalists at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2025 \u2014 prevailed, deservedly, and they will look to end Canada\u2019s dream run next.<\/p>\n
They are reality, waiting to reassert itself: tick, tick, tick. Soccer\u2019s lure is that it always offers hope, however, and Canada could find it in Paraguay\u2019s suffocating win over heavily favoured Germany earlier on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Head coach Jesse Marsch will no doubt spend this week schooling his side, ranked 30th for comparison\u2019s sake, in similar tactics, in the sinister craft of haramball.<\/p>\n
Haram is Arabic for \u201cforbidden,\u201d and haramball has become a trendy term for the ancient strategy of weaker teams playing stifling, negative soccer against higher-flying ones. Defending is easier than attacking, in the way that it\u2019s easier to ruin something than to build it.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s men can\u2019t compete against Morocco\u2019s as artists, as creators, especially without Kon\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They can when it comes to mettle.<\/p>\n
The difference between the two sides is most easily seen in their passing abilities. The Moroccans are gorgeous movers of the ball. In the game against the Netherlands, they completed 92 per cent of their 780 passes, an incredible efficiency given the stakes.<\/p>\n
In their group stage, the Moroccans won over Haiti and Scotland with similar levels of passing success. Even in their draw with Brazil, they completed 88 per cent of their attempts. <\/p>\n
WATCH | Soccer North recaps Canada’s big win:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782691511_886_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
South Africa vs. Canada: Soccer North Reaction Show<\/p>\n
Soccer North hosts Donnovan Bennett & Amy Walsh break down Canada\u2019s knock out match against South Africa.2022 World Cup match<\/p>\n
Canada attempted 392 passes against South Africa and made only 82 per cent of them. Morocco passed against the mighty Netherlands nearly as efficiently as Canada passed in its best performance, against dismal, nine-man Qatar.<\/p>\n
A lot will be made about Canada\u2019s previous meeting with Morocco in the 2022 World Cup, when a 2-1 result belied the gap in quality between the teams. But the difference between Canada\u2019s side now and then\u2014only five starters from that game remain with Marsch\u2019s squad \u2014 is arguably starker than the difference between Morocco and Canada today.<\/p>\n
It will help Canada\u2019s levelling cause that Morocco had a far tougher Round of 32 game, playing more than 120 minutes in sweltering Monterrey, Mexico and now with about 34 hours less rest before Saturday\u2019s kickoff in Houston.<\/p>\n
It should also help, psychologically rather than physically, that this World Cup, even expanded to 48 teams, has demonstrated soccer\u2019s built-in capacities for upsets. Morocco is better than Germany, but Canada is better than Paraguay. Roughly the same distance will need to be closed, as considerable as it is.<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t be forgotten\u2014it should never be forgotten\u2014that Canada has advanced to this World Cup\u2019s Round of 16 when storied sides like Uruguay, Germany, and now the Netherlands have not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regardless of the result in Houston, this team\u2019s success will remain a historic one. But today\u2019s reality doesn\u2019t always have the final say over tomorrow\u2019s achievements, and that shouldn\u2019t be forgotten, either. Sometimes what seems destined doesn\u2019t come to pass.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, just often enough to make life and soccer beautiful, the inevitable makes way for the impossible, and the unlikeliest dancer is the one who does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Canada\u2019s men beat South Africa to head to their first Round of 16, they celebrated as though…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-771841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}