GERMANS WRECK MOROCCANS, BEAT THEM 6 – 0
David Oku
On their debut, FIFA Women’s World Cup match, Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses was walloped by two-time winners Germany in Melbourne. The Europeans made a mincemeat of the Arab nation in a 6-nil drubbing.
The result is the biggest margin of defeat suffered by any team so far in this year’s World Cup after Japan crushed another African side Zambia 5-0 days ago in Hamilton.
The final whistle put an out-of-sorts Morocco out of its misery, but the margin of Germany’s victory and the manner of their domineering display made a real statement of intent and laid down a marker.
The North African’s inability to deal with crosses cost them dearly. Having gone down to two Alexandra Popp goals in the first half, the game got away from Reynald Pedros’s side immediately after the break when Germany scored within 30 seconds of the restart.
Back-to-back own goals from Morocco kept the scoreboard ticking over until Lea Schuller wrapped up the proceedings for Germany in the closing stages.
African teams at this year’s Women’s World Cup have endured an indifferent start with only Nigeria (the 9-time WAFCON Champions) faring slightly better with a point earned against Canada WNT in Melbourne.
How the other representatives (South Africa, Zambia, and now Morocco) have been outplayed and outfoxed has left a lot to be desired.
There’s been inferiority about the way they’ve approached their games with the tactical prowess of their respective technical benches questioned.
Zambia looked like lambs taken to the slaughter against Japan in a horror show while Morocco was all at sea defending crosses into their box and South Africa lost to an 89th-minute corner against Sweden.
In the coming days, the 4 African teams will need to improve in all aspects of their game to stand any realistic chance of progression to the round of 16. Failure to do that beginning with Nigeria vs co-hosts Australia on Thursday will amount to the ignominy of a group stage exit.
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