So Scotland have qualified for the World Cup, and are due to play our first match there for 28 years this Sunday morning. The hype is intense, the excitement is palpable... and I'm not joining in.
Unfortunately, at both the last two Euros we've gone into the competition on the crest of a wave, only to freeze in our first game and get soundly beaten. This was then followed with a plucky draw, a new wave of excitement because "if we can just beat... we could go through", and then another disappointment. There is very little reason to think that things will be any different here, except that Haiti aren't Germany... but that doesn't really matter if our team don't perform.
Of course, one thing that does work tremendously in our favour is that this time three teams will qualify from each of the groups - we're going from 48 teams down to 32 in the next round. So in theory only the truly terrible teams will be eliminated, with one win almost certainly enough to see us through.
And Scotland genuinely, honestly, aren't one of those "truly terrible" teams. On paper, given the group we're in and the form the team has been showing, we should go through and with something to spare. Indeed, with Brazil being a shadow of their former greatness, it's not entirely insane to suggest we could even top the group...
But, no. Because in this context "truly terrible" doesn't refer to the quality of the team on paper, or the form going into the matches, or anything else. All that matters is the next three games, and indeed most importantly the next game (since Haiti are by far the most beatable of the three teams - meaning no offense to them; they'll be saying exactly the same thing about Scotland).
In qualifying, both this time and last time, Scotland proved that they're good enough to be at the tournament. Against Germany they played as though they didn't believe that, and in so doing proved that they weren't.
The big question for Sunday, then: do our players believe that they deserve to be at the party?
No comments:
Post a Comment