Moroccan fans flock to Nashville By Blake Farmer, Sports Correspondent May 24, 2006   Ahmed Ouazran from Baltimore was on hand at the Coliseum to support Morocco. Photo by Mike Strasinger. More than 20,000 fans attended the U.S. men’s national team’s warmup to the World Cup Tuesday night at the Coliseum, but a handful of them wore red, white and green and chanted “bula-bula.” The Moroccan national team narrowly missed a chance to play in the World Cup earlier this year, but some die-hard Moroccan fans couldn’t pass up the rare opportunity to see their home team in person – even if the outcome won’t make the record books. “Soccer in Morocco is just so, so huge,” said Mohammed Maatouq, a Moroccan expatriate who traveled from Washington D.C. for the game. “It’s like in their blood, you know. The Moroccans, they can’t breathe without watching the soccer. It’s something they dream about on a daily basis.” Maatouq said the experience has been bittersweet. He will see his team play but knows the World Cup will have to wait another four years. Maatouq is a member of the Moroccan American Community Development Organization based in Washington. The group put together a van trip for 30 Moroccans who live in the D.C. area by advertising the outing at an area Moroccan restaurant. Abdellah Bougrine calls the pre-World Cup match an opportunity to build a stronger bridge between Moroccans and Americans. He and his friends support both teams. They literally waved Moroccan and American flags side-by-side at the game. “Most of us are Moroccans and Americans because we have our citizenship, so we’re trying to encourage our Moroccan team since they didn’t qualify,” Bougrine said. “We want to support the U.S. team because they are going to Germany for the World Cup,” he said. “Our team missed it, but we have another team here.” Bourgrine’s group was only a small part of the Moroccan support that converged on Nashville. Abdel Bari and a handful of friends came from the University of California in Los Angeles, leaving directly after their final exams. “It was like 4 hours in the plane, but I’ll do anything to see my country play,” Bari said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We never get to see Morocco play in the United States.”