Morocco made history beating Portugal in the quarter finals while Cristiano Ronaldo shed tears and France beat England. The day before my other home team, Brazil was beaten by Croatia, and Argentina won against Holland. All in all, unexciting quarter final matches considering both my teams lost.
Actually, far from boring as if you consider Qatar is a country located in the Middle East within the continent of Asia which lies on the Northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The nation shares a border with Saudi Arabia as well as maritime borders with the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Bahrain. Hence, Morocco is another Arab country though set in North Africa (a country of the Middle East) while home to 99% Muslims and Berbers.
Incidentally, Berber, self-name Amazigh, plural Imazighen, means any of the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa. The Berbers live in scattered communities across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania. One of my students, Astrid is going to Morocco on holiday this week.
The Arab World consists of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Arabs and Moroccan communities from all around the world celebrated winning 1-0 while also laughing over the humiliation for Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal having to say goodbye to the World Cup. Morocco’s captain Walid Regragui who led his team to victory has meant they have advanced to the semifinal to face France on Wednesday at 4pm Brazilian time.
The French beat England with excellent performances from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and Giroud's header goal at the Al Bayt Stadium on Saturday in their 2-1 triumph. The current champions, France continue on target of winning the hat trick (three-time winner of the World Cup, 1998 and 2018, and 2022).
Either France win, or we see Morocco in the final which could be against Argentina or Croatia who are playing Tuesday 13th at 4pm Brazilian time.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Shed (n) = usually shed means hut, cabin, shelter, shack, shanty, outbuilding, outhouse, garden shed, but as a verb (v) to shed is to get rid of or let go. Past regular form of verb: shedded, or gerund form is shedding. Shed a tear idiom to cry or weep. “I never saw my father shed a single tear, even when my mother died.”
All in all (phrase) = everything considered; on the whole. "All in all, it's been a good year." In other words, it means considering all the different parts of the situation together: “All in all, I think you've done very well.” Or “The cruise wasn't perfect, but all in all it was pretty good.”
Actually (adv) = is a good one as it means really, truly, essentially, in fact, in reality, and not in the days that are in movement or at this moment or the present like today.