The ball was still travelling towards Ayyoub Bouaddi when he started clapping.The 18-year-old midfielder was applauding the pass played by team-mate Youssef Belammari in the 87th minute of Morocco’s entertaining 1-1 draw with Brazil in both nations’ World Cup group-stage opener on Saturday.Supportive gestures have their place in soccer. Warm applause, hearty back-slaps and approving thumbs-up are generally saved for breaks in play, though, or at least offered from a safe distance.These niceties take a back seat when there are more pressing on-field matters at hand, such as controlling a pass that is still rolling towards you in your own third, late on in a finely balanced game in the biggest tournament on the planet. Bouaddi, though, knew he had the time and space to raise both arms and clap Belammari before taking a touch.It was a moment that neatly captured his supremely confident performance at MetLife Stadium yesterday; a display worthy of its own standing ovation.Precocious talents often light up World Cups, but rarely do so from central midfield.The conventional wisdom is that players operating there need time to develop physically, as well as to master the understanding required to dictate play from the middle. On the physical front, there are no issues. Bouaddi is a lean 6ft 1in (185cm) athlete with a relentless engine, and he was one of the few players not wilting late on under the baking late-afternoon sun in New Jersey.That his game intelligence belies his tender years is perhaps unsurprising given his academic background. He is studying for a degree in mathematics, and it is clear that geometry is a strong suit, given his instinctive understanding of space and where to position himself.Trusting this spatial awareness, head coach Mohamed Ouahbi afforded Bouaddi licence to roam, confident he would know when to plug gaps and when to offer himself. He was constantly available to his team-mates, with no Morocco player recording more than his 87 touches.