As expected, Scotland managed to be (deservedly) beaten by Morocco, and then beaten by Brazil. Going into that last match we knew that a draw would guarantee qualification, a 1-0 defeat would almost certainly guarantee it, 2-0 would leave us in trouble but probably okay, while a 3-0 defeat would leave us hanging by a thread.
We therefore promptly registered a 3-0 defeat, because of course we did. We now have two teams confirmed in a better third-place than us, with nine groups to play. By my count, there are three groups that are very likely to end with the third place team below us, with several others in the "maybe" bracket. We now really need Australia to beat Paraguay by at least two goals, which doesn't seem likely.
And the sad truth is that if it does end here, it's no more than we deserve. Yes, we were rather unlucky in our draw (having three host nations all in pot one somewhat skewed things), and yes we were rather unlucky not to get a penalty against Morocco, but fundamentally we kinda knew we needed more against Haiti and just didn't get it done, and against both Morocco and Brazil our defense was suspect (to put it mildly).
I still maintain that this group of players have the ability to do better, and I'm not blaming Steve Clarke for this either (though many will). Fundamentally, I think it's still an issue of confidence: in qualifying they proved that they are worthy of being in the competition, but when it comes to the actual big stage they just don't seem to be doing it.
Oh well.
As I said in my previous post on the topic, even an elimination at this point represents progress: we've avoided being the worst team (which shouldn't be a goal, but after the Euros...), we managed to score a goal, and we managed to win a match. So we go again.
#19: "The Mystery of Dunvegan Castle", by T.L. Huchu
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