Morocco chases history at FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia

Morocco will make its historic debut at the FIFA Women's World Cup being held in Australia on Monday as the only team from the Arab world to make it to the tournament.

The Moroccan team will be the underdog when it plays Germany in its first match in the group stage on Monday. Then the squad faces South Korea on July 30 and Colombia on Aug. 3. Morocco is vying to compete for the round of 16 that begins on Aug. 5. This year’s World Cup is being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Morocco qualified for the quadrennial association football/soccer tournament last July after it finished second in the Women's Africa Cup of Nations. In that tournament, the Moroccan team made it to the final but lost to South Africa. King Mohammed VI praised the team for their “seriousness, perseverance and patriotism” at the time, according to the official Maghreb Arabe Press.

The qualification to the Women's World Cup is historic, as Morocco is the first team from an Arabic-speaking country to qualify for the tournament. Soccer has traditionally been dominated by men in North Africa and the Middle East, but women are increasingly entering the game. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the Moroccan team’s success in inspiring more girls to play in the country and the wider region. Saudi Arabia's women soccer team won a regional tournament early in the year, but did not qualify to play in Australia. 

The Moroccan squad has a few notable players. In a preview of the World Cup, The Guardian identified forward Ghizlane Chebbak as “the face of Moroccan women’s football.” Chebbak plays for the Moroccan club AS Far. Her late father, Larbi, also played for the men’s national team in the 1970s.

Another standout player is Rosella Ayane, who plays forward for Tottenham Hotspur. Ayane was born in the United Kingdom to a Moroccan father and a Scottish mother. She represented England in her youth, but later chose to play for Morocco, according to a July profile on FIFA’s website.

Still, Morocco will have an uphill battle the World Cup final. The United States, led by star Megan Rapinoe, won both the 2019 and 2015 World Cup, and is seeking to make history by winning it a third time in a row. South Africa, who defeated Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations, has also qualified.

The Moroccan women’s team qualification for the World Cup follows the Moroccan men’s soccer team’s historic run at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Morocco became the first team from an Arabic-speaking country to reach the semifinal, where they lost to eventual runners-up France.