{"id":7413,"date":"2022-12-06T18:20:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T18:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=7413"},"modified":"2024-02-08T10:08:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T10:08:25","slug":"football-morocco-beat-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=7413","title":{"rendered":"SPORT: Football, World Cup \u201822 – Morocco beat Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Bono, formerly of U2, now taking Morocco further\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, whilst working on the shed roof, I watched the Morocco vs Spain game. It wasn\u2019t the most exciting. For 90 minutes, then 30 more, the teams seemed pretty evenly matched. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
I was rooting for Morocco. They played better.*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But when it went to the dreaded penalty shoot out? Then things got very interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morocco just beat Spain on penalties. And I have to say, they deserved the win. As I said above, it was not the greatest match I\u2019ve ever seen. But Morocco dug in their heels, kept Spain under the cosh, and had the better opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This guy was a hero.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And when it came to the penalties, they were just better. They took them better, and their goalkeeper saved them better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Achraf Hakimi\u2019s penalty, and the celebration afterwards, were fabulous.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You could actually see it all in the player\u2019s eyes. The Moroccans clearly wanted it, and believed they could do it. The Spanish, by contrast, were weak; you could see the doubt and fear in their faces. Astonishing! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Oh, and I liked their kit better! I know this is silly, but sometimes I go with aesthetics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a separate but related note. I\u2019m really digging this current England team. Just saw Grealish talking about facing France. The guy is as solid as his Giant Redwood tree-trunk legs. And he\u2019s right. We have an excellent team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Sterling gone home, it\u2019s interesting that the England team still have loads of firepower. France have Mbappe (ok, they also have Dembele, Griesman, etc.). But we have Kane, Saka, Foden, Henderson, Bellingham, and Pickford in goal (oh, and Grealish, lest we forget!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
That\u2019s the spirit!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unusual for me to say this, but I have faith <\/em>in our team. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, whilst working on the shed roof, I watched the Morocco vs Spain game. It wasn\u2019t the most exciting. For 90 minutes, then 30 more, the teams seemed pretty evenly matched. But when it went to the dreaded penalty shoot out? Then things got very interesting. Morocco just beat Spain on penalties. And I have … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “SPORT: Football, World Cup \u201822 – Morocco beat Spain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[89,150,77,74,149,117,147],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1Vz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7413"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7413"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11600,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7413\/revisions\/11600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}