Tonight the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team will face Morocco’s national team in the Titan’s Coliseum. It’s the first of a three-match warm-up series before the World Cup which starts next month.
The Moroccan National Soccer Team narrowly missed a chance to play in the World Cup. But some Moroccan ex-patriots couldn’t miss the chance to see their home-team play a rare match in the United States, even if the outcome won’t make the record books.
Abdellah Bougrine leads the Moroccan American Community Development Organization. The group is based in Washington which has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Moroccan nationals.
Bougrine organized a bus-trip so D.C.-Moroccans could attend the game. He says the pre-World Cup match is an opportunity to build a bridge between his native-country and America.
“Maybe most of us are Moroccans and Americans because we have our citizens, so we’re trying to encourage our Moroccan team since they didn’t qualify and second, we want to support the U.S. team because they are going next week maybe to Germany for the World Cup…Our team missed it, but we have another team here.”
Some amount of mystery has surrounded the Moroccan team. Several of the starters will likely not play tonight because of injuries and contract disputes. The U.S. team expects a fast-paced game that will be similar to the style of Ghana – another North African team that will likely face the U-S in World Cup-play.
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