Ismael Saibari's Injury a Major World Cup Blow: 'Morocco Can't Afford It'

Saibari's early exit in the clash against Canada was a significant blow, according to Boussaboun. “That was 100 percent a major setback for Morocco. Saibari is the man in form. He's a smart player, excellent on the ball, and makes clever runs. He's Morocco's top scorer in this World Cup. Losing him undoubtedly affects a team. I feel particularly bad for him personally. He's on a high and playing brilliantly in his new role. He's a joy to watch.”

While Boussaboun holds Morocco in high regard, he notes a significant difference compared to other top nations like England and their upcoming opponent, France. "They can rotate much more without a significant drop in quality. Morocco can't do that; they truly need their key players. They can't afford to lose them. Their bench isn't deep enough to compensate.”

Against Canada, Soufiane Rahimi replaced Saibari. "He's a true striker, but he can't replicate what Saibari did with Ounahi. They often interchanged positions. Rahimi is a runner, sometimes a bit impetuous. He works incredibly hard and plays opportunistically. If you purely look at quality, there's a big difference compared to Saibari.”

The final score was 0-3 to Morocco, but it certainly didn't look that way at the start of the match. “I actually had mixed feelings, because the beginning was quite difficult. I think Canada was tactically very clever. Their coach had really done his homework on how to counter the Moroccan team. You could see that Morocco struggled to play through them and find the free man. They usually do that very well. Canada's 4-4-2 formation was really solid."

"For Morocco, this was the first real challenge to see how they could play their way out of that situation," Boussaboun continued. "In previous matches, they hadn't needed to adapt. They always controlled the midfield then. That wasn't the case now. It was a test to see how they would handle it.”

Canada, therefore, caused Morocco more problems than the Netherlands, even though Boussaboun believes the Dutch national team has more quality than the host nation. “The Netherlands approached the game very differently. They basically showed beforehand that they were afraid of Morocco. Canada simply stood in a block and pressed at the right moments to make playing football impossible. I have a lot of respect for that."

Boussaboun praised Canadian coach Jesse March for his tactics against Morocco. "He did an excellent job and made it incredibly difficult for Morocco. Morocco hadn't faced such difficulties in their previous matches. So, it's even more impressive that they still won 0-3. The scoreline was a bit flattering. Winning when you play well is one thing, but winning 0-3 when you're not really in the game, that's even more impressive.”

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