By William Schomberg
BOSTON, June 18 (Reuters) - For Morocco fans gathering in Boston on Thursday ahead of their team's next World Cup match, the days of the Atlas Lions being African strugglers are never coming back.
Surprise semi-finalists in 2022, Morocco are ranked seventh in the world and were leading against Brazil in their opening game of this year's tournament before having to settle for a 1-1 draw.
A win against Scotland on Friday would put the North Africans in a strong position to qualify
for the knockout rounds, with minnows Haiti their final opponents in the group phase.
Supporters let off red and green smoke canisters and danced to the beat of drums at an eve-of-game meet-up on Boston Common, a park in the city centre.
Many said the high standards now expected of Moroccan football had become the norm, with several players on the books of some of Europe's top clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi and Real Madrid's creative midfielder Brahim Díaz.
"To get to the World Cup used to be an achievement," said Oussama Khatem, a 35-year-old financial crime investigator from Montreal, pushing his two young children in a pushchair draped in the red Moroccan flag.
"Now there is no big difference with Germany, France, Spain. Now it's going to be every time that you see Morocco in the World Cup."
Khatem, like many Moroccan fans, attributes their rise to the prowess of foreign-born players as well as to the creation of the Mohammed VI Football Academy in 2010 when the kingdom's football standing was at rock bottom having failed to reach the World Cup since 1998.
Morocco finally returned to the tournament in 2018 before their stunning run four years later in Qatar, beating Belgium, Spain and Portugal before losing to France in the semi-finals.
Last year, Morocco won the under-20 World Cup, offering the prospect of another generation of talent coming through.
That talent will get the chance to shine on home soil when Morocco co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Spain.
Khatem said other African countries and beyond in the developing world now look at Morocco as an example.
"Morocco is showing to all African countries, to all countries, that they can make it into the top four," he said.
Moussin Muslih, 52, who travelled from Morocco to the United States for the group games, said he was confident of a win against Scotland and another string of victories similar to their exploits of 2022.
"We hope that this World Cup will be another amazing run, Inshallah (God willing)," he said.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
