{"id":320058,"date":"2023-07-30T10:51:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T10:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=320058"},"modified":"2023-07-30T11:58:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T11:58:48","slug":"moroccos-trailblazer-helps-side-make-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=320058","title":{"rendered":"Morocco's trailblazer helps side make history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stepping onto the field against South Korea in Morocco\u2019s second Women\u2019s World Cup<\/a> match, defender Nouhaila Benzina<\/a> made history as the first player to wear a hijab while competing at a senior-level global tournament.<\/p>\n

A FIFA ban on playing in religious head coverings in its sanctioned games for \u201chealth and safety reasons\u201d was overturned in 2014 after advocacy from activists, athletes and government and soccer officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt that more and more women and Muslim girls will look at Benzina and just really be inspired \u2013 not just the players, but I think decision makers, coaches, other sports as well,\u201d Assmaah Helal, a co-founder of the Muslim Women in Sports Network, said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> NRL comes down hard on De Belin hip drop<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Benzina plays professional club soccer for the Association\u2019s Sports of Forces Armed Royal \u2013 the eight-time defending champion in Morocco\u2019s top women\u2019s league.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She did not play in Morocco\u2019s opening 6-0 loss to Germany in Melbourne, and had to wait six days to finally get her start in the Group H game in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

It was worth it. The Atlas Lionesses played with more freedom in an afternoon game against South Korea, scoring in the 6th minute and hanging on for a 1-0 win<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Benzina played an important role in the defensive line, and picked up a yellow card late in the game as South Korea counter-attacked.<\/p>\n

\"Morocco<\/p>\n

Morocco is the first Arab or North African nation to qualify for the Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honored to be the first Arab country to take part in the Women\u2019s World Cup,\u201d Morocco captain Ghizlane Chebbak told reporters before the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we feel that we have to shoulder a big responsibility to give a good image, to show the achievements the Moroccan team has made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Morocco made history in multiple ways during its victory with Ibtissam Jra\u00efdi scoring the side's first World Cup goal. <\/p>\n

After the loss against Germany, the victory keeps No. 72-ranked Morocco in contention to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by <\/strong><\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stepping onto the field against South Korea in Morocco\u2019s second Women\u2019s World Cup match, defender Nouhaila Benzina made history as the first player to wear […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":320060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320064,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320058\/revisions\/320064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/320060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}