Ismael Saibari put the ball in the net after 90 seconds and Morocco spent the next 94 minutes defending it. They managed, just, but Scotland leave Boston with three points from their opening Group C match, the only side in the group to win on the night, while Morocco must now rely on results elsewhere going their way after a performance that promised far more than the standings reward.
The goal arrived before most of the crowd at Gillette Stadium had settled. Brahim Díaz played Saibari in and the PSV forward finished, making it 0-1 inside two minutes. It was the kind of start that should have set up a comfortable Moroccan evening. It did not.
Scotland, for all their possession deficit, were not a side playing for damage limitation. Steve Clarke's 4-4-1-1 kept shape and pushed volume through the middle, accumulating 454 passes at 85 per cent accuracy. The problem was converting that possession into anything Bono had to worry about. Scotland managed six shots across 96 minutes and none of them hit the target. The ball went near the Morocco goal often enough, five shots from inside the box among them, but Bono did not make a single save. When shots were blocked or dragged wide, it owed something to Scotland's imprecision and something to Morocco's defensive organisation.
Jack Hendry was the pick of Clarke's back four, composed and commanding throughout. Lewis Ferguson worked hard in the engine room and covered more ground than anyone else in dark blue. But Scotland's attack never found a way to convert industry into genuine threat. McTominay dropped deep looking for the ball rather than stretching Morocco's defence, and Che Adams spent long stretches isolated.
Morocco, paradoxically, were the side who looked the more threatening going forward after that opening goal, yet they could not add to it. Twelve shots in total, nine from inside the box, and still only two on target across the 96 minutes. Their expected goals figure of 0.95 suggests the chances were there; the failure to convert explains why a fine early platform yielded only the narrowest of margins and, in group terms, only a single point.
Noussair Mazraoui and Chadi Riad were solid at the back and Neil El Aynaoui was tidy in central midfield. Brahim Díaz, in the time he played, created the only goal and gave Morocco their best moments in transition. But when Mohamed Ouahbi's side needed a second goal to give themselves breathing room, the precision was absent.
Robertson picked up a yellow card for Scotland, one of ten fouls the visitors conceded, but discipline held otherwise. Morocco, with eight fouls and a booking of their own for Issa Diop, were no more reckless.
In the Group C picture after round one, Scotland sit top with three points, Morocco and Brazil share a point each following their draw in the group's other fixture, and Haiti are bottom without a point. Morocco are not out of the reckoning but they needed a win here, and the failure to find a second goal means qualification now involves other people's results as well as their own.
Scotland, meanwhile, have what they came for. The result at Gillette Stadium is modest in its aesthetics but significant in its arithmetic. Three points, top of the group, and a first World Cup group stage victory to build on. For Clarke's side, that is enough for now.