With no domestic action in the top leagues across Europe this week, my focus turns instead to the European qualifiers this weekend and with Scotland in action, it's time to take a little trip down memory lane. Scotland have begun the current campaign in excellent fashion and now there a genuine possibility of Scotland qualifying for a major tournament for the first time in 18 years. A generation of Scotland fans have never seen their team on the biggest stage and my last memories of Scotland at a major event, were of course in France in 1998 as we opened the World Cup against champions Brazil only to lose 2.1 thanks to some fantastic Scottish luck at the hands of Tom Boyd. Ultimately we would depart the tournament with a solitary point having been spanked 3.0 by Morocco in our final group game and who would have imagined THAT would be our high point from the last 20 years. As a 15 year old boy, I never imagined all these years later we would still be waiting for a return to a major finals but here we are in 2015 having missed out on the last 4 World Cups and 4 European Championships. Being a Scotland supporter though has never been the easiest of gigs, although qualification was regularly achieved from the 70's through to the 90's and in that period we had so many top drawer players to count on that were playing for the best teams in England and at home. Scotland produced players who could play with the best and beat them on their day as well. Unfortunately the 21st century has, for the most part, resuled in endless torture with so many failures, glorious or not, near misses, injustices and a predictable sense of drama culminating always with the same numbing pain, the same inevitable Scottish elimination. And Kevin Kyle. He really won 10 caps! I've endured virtually every single Scotland International match for the past twenty years and that included the less than joyous era's of Berti Vogts, George Burley and Craig Levein where failure was all but assumed. 4.1 defeats in Korea, 4.0 in Wales, 6.0 in Holland, 5.0 in France; In the 00's Scotland became synonymous with failure at a time when caps were handed out like confetti to the likes of Scott Dobie, David McNamee, Peter Canero, Graeme Murty and Warren Cummings! Sorry who? Truly we had reached our nadir, but times always change and Berti was dismissed and a new era of defensive organisation was ushered in, first under Walter Smith and then continued albeit briefly by Alex Mcleish. During this time there were some terrific results, none more so than the remarkable home and away wins over France in 2007. Two truly extraordinary victories were achieved against the beaten World Cup finalists, but as per usual, we missed out by the narrowest of margins in a qualifying group containing the aforementioned French, world champions Italy and quarter finalists Ukraine. The subsequent failures of George Burley and Craig Levein to continue that progress truly angered me because I was sure we had a deep enough collection of players that had enough talent and abiiity to really give ourselves a chance and yet here we were losing to Macedonia and Norway in our very next campaign. It was all too familiar and all too frustrating as the hurt continued under Craig Levein in the next campaign when he famously delivered the 4.6.0 formation in our away defeat to Czech Republic and following a disastrous start to the last campaign, Harry Potter was shown the door and in came the legend that is Gordon Strachan. And how times have changed. Under Gordon Strachan we are finally producing an attractive brand of football that is delivering some great results as well. The future is bright, hope has returned and Scotland are regaining their pride on the international stage. The selection pool is widening and we have many very taleneted kids coming through withyoung Ryan Gauld moving to Sporting Lisbon to continue his development. This kind of transfer shows that we can produce players with genuine technical ability. I have many memories of supporting this fine nation, most of which admittedly are soaked in sadness and regret and perhaps it really is the hope that kills you in the end. If we do miss out again, I really don't know how I will accept it. But of course, we all know, that is NOT going to happen! not this time... Scotland are coming, and here are 6 of my strongest if not necessarily sweetest Scotland memories from down the years. Barry Ferguson v Italy, November 20007, Euro 2008 Qualifier Perhaps the most painful defeat in all my years came in 2007 as Scotland and Italy faced off at Hampden knowing the winners would qualify for the European Championships in the summer of 2008. This was the campaign that had it all and it all came down to the final game, at home to the World Champions Italy. We had blown our big chance by losing in Georgia in the previous fixture but we still had 1 more go at qualification, all we had to do was beat the World Champions at home. No bother. It was wet, it was Scotland and we were behind inside a minute thanks to Luca Toni. The dream was dying. I was in a bar in the west end of Glasgow with hundreds of drunken Scots and there was 25 minutes to go when the Scots won a free-kick. James Mcfadden stepped forward, our gladiator, our salvation and what happened next resulted in perhaps the single biggest moment of celebration at any goal in my lifetime so far. The dream was alive! Nice commentary by the way. Alan Hutton and James McFadden v Italy November 20007, Euro 2008 Qualifier 1.1 with 25 minutes to go and we still had a chance. 1 more goal was all we needed and when the ball came across the 6 yard box, a national collectively held it's breath and waited for the ball to hit the net. Sadly, It did not. It felt then that the reality would bite Scotland. There is always that nagging thought that this is Scotland, and oh how good we are at brave failure and so it proved in the 90th minute as we were victim to one of the worst decisions I have genuinely ever seen. How in the name of all that is true, did the referee give a free-kick against Hutton? As the ball hit the net, everything I had dreamed about for our country had been assassinated. I remember screaming out "THAT'S A F%%%%% DISGRACE" at the exact same moment the rest of the bar fell silent. I literally stormed out at that moment and sparked a cigaratte to try to calm myself. Never had I been so angry and so dis-heartened as a football fan. The dream had been replaced by a crushing low that only a Scotland supporter can understand or indeed, endure. I proceeded to get thoroughly wasted with my friends in an effort to forget the pain and I have to say, we did a pretty good job of it that night which considering how angry I was in that moment, was quite an achievement. The video below sums up the mood in the campaign nicely especially between minutes 3-7. The last minute I could do without though... James McFadden v France , September 2007, Euro 2008 Qualifier Of course all of this would never have happened had we not experienced one of the best nights in the history of our country as James McFadden scored a goal that will go down in Scottish mythology. What a night, what a goal and what a win. My one abiding memory, and it may sound wise after the fact, was seeing the Tartan Army take over the Parc des Princes in the manner that they did with Saltires adorning every portion of the stadium. This gave me a tremendous feeling of hope pre kick-off that something special was going to happen. I truly did believe in that team and told whoever was listening that we were going to do something and boy did McFadden deliver on that night in what goes down as one of, if not the finest win in Scotland's history. And David Trezeguet's face is a picture! Scotland v Czech Republic, October 2011, Euro 2012 Qualifier Perhaps the biggest robbery in recent history for Scotland as in the space of 2 minutes the Czechs were awarded a penalty for a blatant if rather excellently executed dive to level the scores in the 90th minute of a crucial qualifier at Hampden. It got worse though for Scotland as moments later we were denied a penalty and our man Berra was booked for diving when the replays showed clear contact and intent from the Czech defender to take his man. Gordon McQueen's reactions and emotions in the video below really do encapsulate the pain of being a Scotland fan and how sicked I was like the rest of the nation on this day. We knew it was over for another 2 years and all because of a truly shocking couple of decisions in the last minute. It really could not get more upsetting and frustrating than it did on that day but hey, that's the life of a Scotland fan. Shaun Maloney v Ireland, 2014, Euro 2016 Qualifier Now based in Barcelona and in typical Scottish fashion I headed to an Irish bar last year to see Scotland clinch a vital win in our quest for qualification for the finals in 2016. The bar was sadly less vibrant than I had hoped for but following a tense and hard fought match we delivered a truly outstanding piece of skill from a corner, with a goal from wee Shaun Maloney that literally had me running from one end of the bar to the other and what a sound the ball makes at it cracks the net in this high def video below. This goal though embodied so much of what this Scottish team has been doing well in the past 18 months. The quality in the movement and finish was such that you could hardly believe it was a Scotland goal and not for the first time in this campaign either... Ikechi Anya v Germany, 2014, Euro 2016 Qualifier Our first game in this year's campaign took us to Dortmund and World Champions Germany and what a display we put on that night. Harshly beaten 2.1, Scotland played the second half with outstanding quality and were rewarded with a goal right out of the top drawer from Ikechi Anya who is quickly developing into a vital player for this new look Scottish team. With pace to burn, Anya showed composure in equal measure to put the ball through Neuer's legs. What a sensational goal it was to get the campaign off and running and a moment of true joy as I once again found my legs and then my knees to celebrate a goal of genuine beauty against the champions of the whole wide world. It doesn't get much better than that! or does it??? Come on Scotland!!! Comments are closed.
|
Categories |