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Harambee Starlets' Eglay Mukhwana contests for the ball with Morocco's captain Ait El Haj in their Women's Africa Cup of Nations Group A opener at Stade Prince Moulay Hassan in Rabat on July 26, 2026.[Harambee Starlets, Facebook]
The clock on my television read 59 minutes, and the match had been over for half an hour. Morocco 4-0 Kenya, in white letters on a pink bar in the corner of the screen. One of Harambee Starlets defender walked back towards the halfway line with her head down.
On the touchline, a member of the Kenyan delegation had folded himself into a couch, elbows on knees, in the posture of a man working through arithmetic whose answer he already knew.
I watched the whole unforgettable match on Sunday night from Nairobi, and what struck me was not that Morocco scored four times. It was how ordinary the goals looked. Sakina Ouzraoui Diki in the 19th minute, Maryame Atiq in the 28th, Ibtissam Jraidi in the 32nd and again in the 46th. No deflections, no controversy, no goalkeeping error worth arguing about. The Atlas Lionesses did what a properly assembled team does to an improperly assembled one.
