{"id":3778,"date":"2023-05-08T18:44:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T17:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3778"},"modified":"2023-05-08T18:50:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T17:50:33","slug":"atlas-cubs-take-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2023\/05\/08\/atlas-cubs-take-control\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Atlas Cubs Take Control<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 30<sup>th<\/sup> 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Politically Charged Absence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morocco\u2019s historic run to the semi-final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup quickly had consequences as the Atlas Lions did not come to Algeria to defend their African Nations Championship (CHAN) title. The Algerian government had broken diplomatic ties with the Kingdom of Morocco and refused to allow Morocco\u2019s national airline (Royal Air Maroc) permission to fly directly to Constantine as the Moroccan FA had demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The situation was ramped up by Algeria\u2019s invitation to Nelson Mandela\u2019s grandson Chief Mandla Mandela. His politically charged speech calling for support for Western Sahara ruffled Moroccan feathers \u2013 it was bound to<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The failure to reach a compromise resulted in the local Atlas Lions\u2019 absence from the CHAN robbing Constantine of the presence of the defending champions, but a compromise was reached after intervention from CAF to ensure that Morocco\u2019s youngsters are here \u2013 they beat South Africa 2-0 in the second of tonight\u2019s opening matches in Group B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Cubs Roar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a goalless first half Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal opened Morocco\u2019s account after 73 minutes from the penalty spot after his opposite number Benjamin Wallis was penalised for handballing Abdelhamid Maali\u2019s cross from the left wing. Boudlal scored to Kyle Jansen\u2019s right after sending the keeper the wrong way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ten minutes later Adam Hanin doubled the Atlas Cubs\u2019 lead. A tame cross from the right produced a horrible misunderstanding between Jansen Stellenbosch\u2019s Tyler Cicero with ball hitting the defender and being deflected into the path of Hanin for an easy goal. It was one of the first touches by the Moroccan substitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mamelodi Sundowns\u2019 forward Siyabonga Mabena had the first effort of the match a poor effort that sailed well over the crossbar. He grew into the match, setting up a presentable opportunity for Vitesse\u2019s Michael Dokunmu, but the Dutch-based striker fluffed his opportunity badly just over half an hour into the match. Mabena pulled the strings for South Africa, but his next shot was similarly well off target. In the second half South Africa\u2019s went close to being gifted an own goal with a sliced attempted clearance by Smail Bakhty, but it went comfortably wide. South Africa\u2019s defensive frailties cost the young Bafana Bafana dear, leaving them bottom of Group B after the first round of matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 30th 2023) Politically Charged Absence Morocco\u2019s historic run to the semi-final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup quickly had<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[425,427,428,20,430,429,342,414,432,81,433,426,254,424,423,431,422,315],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3779,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions\/3779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}