OTHER THAN those now rare ocassions when we blow winning positions against THEM, I don't get carried away when Scotland lose. Long years of disappointment have cured me of falling into the usual Scottish trap of failing to treat those twin imposters (triumph and disaster) both the same – any way, that's a very old-fashioned, English attitude.
OK, maybe we should have had one, possibly two, penalties against Morocco, but, this is Scotland; ok, we get the penalties – is there any guarantee we score them? Those Tartan Army foot soldiers who support any side other than either one of The Bigot Brothers, fine they ken, in Fitba, The Diddy Teams don't get the breaks.
In Boston on Friday night, Scotland – FIFA ranking 43 – was The Diddy Team, against seventh-ranked Morocco. If you think The Scottish Football Association “arranges” things to suit a certain two Glasgow sides – they're amateurs compared to the footballing Gnomes of Zurich. Morocco were always going to get the breaks from officialdom.
It's not as if Morocco could be taken lightly. That nation has a proud football reputation, from the days of the great, the original Black Pearl – Libra Benbarek, who was a World-Class Talent 75 years ago. They gubbed us at France'98 and are the current African Champions.
Steve Clarke knew it would be a tough game, some, if not all, the members of the Tartan Army knew this as well. Putting our natural disappointment at another defeat aside, losing 0-1 wasn't a bad result.
We now move on to Miami, to face Brazil. Now, I reckon this 2026 Brazilian side is perhaps their worst since 1974 – when, lest we forget, we still couldn't beat them. If we have a go at them, I reckon we could beat them – provided we find a defender to do an efficient man-marking job on Vinicius Junior.
I wasn't surprised at Brazil beating Haiti 3-0. I said before this whole circus kicked off, the Haitians probably had one half-decent game in them and it was just our luck that we would get them on that day. This may be a poor Brazilian team, but, it is still a Brazilian team.
However, this is just the sort of uphill battle which brings the best out of Scotland, let's hope we can do and maybe we can. Mind you, the traditional Scottish approach to the World Cup is to go out on goal difference or something; which suggests we could well end up as one of the third-placed sides who fails to make it to the knock-out rounds.
Now – forward tho' I cannot see, I guess and fear. All those previous World Cup failures has got me to the state of preparing for the worst, but still being shocked at what happens to us. I can see us not progressing, in which case, 2026 would become our worst-ever World Cup Finals showing. That might yet happen.
In all honesty, I am, for all the valiant efforts of the Tartan Army, struggling to become enthused with this tournament. FIFA's determination to dumb down the game, to “Never mid the quality – feel the width” has turned what ought to be a true showpiece into a marathon slog.
UEFA did the same with the European Cup, when it became the Champions League. When the competition was restricted to merely the champions of each individual league in Europe, winning it meant something. Then, some of the so-called bigger clubs felt they ought to be in it every year, pushed through expansion and it became the bloated marathon it is today.
I could live with a European version of the North American professional sports leagues, the current mish-mash turns me off. Professional fitba – internationally and at club level – is a total mess and I don't see the desire within the game to sort it out.
To repeat, I fear we could maintain our dismal record of finding disappointing ways to exit the World Cup, but, the main thing I have learned from this year's competition is – bigger isn't better and enlarging the tournament has not led to better quality.
There might be something to be said for copying the likes of the ICE HOCKEY World Championship and have various divisions. Qualification for each division would be via results in the various confederation tournaments, such as the European Championships, the African Championship and so on, with, as happens in Europe's Nations League, promotion and relegation leading up to World Cup games every four years, as now.
Forty-eight nations is too many, it dilutes the product. But, I doubt if those Gnomes of Zurich will agree with me.
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