Ferguson Makes It Three: A Scottish Football Timeline

2002 World Cup Qualifying

Ferguson Makes It Three: A Scottish Football Timeline


2002 World Cup UEFA Qualfiers Group 6 – 24th March 2001
Scotland 3 Belgium 2


Having begun their World Cup qualifying campaign with routine, albeit low scoring, wins over Latvia and San Marino and a 1-all draw with Croatia in Zagreb, Craig Brown’s Scotland welcomed their group’s top seeds, Belgium, to Hampden Park for a crucial contest.

Scotland got off to the perfect start, Billy Dodds opening the scoring after just 70 seconds. And things got worse for Belgium halfway through the half when Eric Deflendre quite clearly blocked a shot from Colin Hendry with his hands; the result, a red card and a penalty. Dodds duly scored his second goal of the game to put Scotland 2-0 up. And that’s how it remained until halftime.

Early in the second half, Dominic Matteo played a great ball into the box, straight into the path of the incoming Barry Ferguson, who slotted in home to make it 3-0 Scotland and pretty much put the game to bed. The 10 men of Belgium did pull one back shortly afterwards courtesy of Marc Wilmots, and Daniel Van Buyten scored a second deep into stoppage time, but it was too late to push for an equaliser. Scotland took the victory and the crucial three points.

Scotland vs Belgium, 2001.PNG

The win kept Scotland top of the group with ten points, Belgium second on 7 and Croatia, who beat Latvia the same day, third with 5. A 4-0 win over San Marino four days later increased Scotland’s advantage, albeit the opponents had two games each to play before Scotland’s next.

Both duly won those games in hand to more or less tie the group up completely. Scotland’s next game, Croatia at Hampden, ended goalless, thus they lost a chance to pull away again. And a 2-0 defeat in Brussels in the return leg coupled with a routine win for Croatia over San Marino saw them concede leadership of the group and slip to third.

Going into the final round of fixtures, Croatia led on 16, Belgium second on 15, Scotland third on 14. Any of them could finish anywhere, depending how results went. However, Croatia and Belgium were playing each other in Zagreb, while Scotland had Latvia at home; therefore, a win coupled with a draw in the other game would see them through.

Despite conceding first, goals from Dougie Freedman and David Weir gave Craig Brown’s side the win they needed. But it wasn’t to be: Croatia beat Belgium 1-0, meaning it was they who took top spot and automatic qualification; Scotland would have to make do with the playoffs and poor Belgium, despite having outscored both, would be the unlucky ones to finish third.

2002 WC Qualifying.PNG

The final table for Group 6

The play-off draw came, and Scotland were drawn against the Czech Republic, who had beaten them home and away in qualifying for Euro 2000 two years previously. And, with a squad composed of either legends of the Euro 96 squad (Nedved, Poborsky, Smicer, Berger et al) or rising stars who would become legends in future (Rosicky, Baros), they were very much the favourites.

However, Scotland would stun them in the first leg at Hampden, Don Hutchison the sole goalscorer in the 28th minute as they ran out 1-0 winners. The Czechs were tipped to atone in the return leg in Prague, but Scotland, for once, defended superbly, and when Billy Dodds converted another penalty in the 88th minute, the game was won.

Scotland would therefore be joining England and the Republic of Ireland in Japan and South Korea the following summer. They were drawn in a favourable group alongside co-hosts Japan, Russia and Tunisia. Would they finally make it to the knockout stage at the 11th time of asking…?

to be continued…

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Greetings friends, and welcome to my first timeline! What I'm doing here is expanding on QTXAdy's thread about Scotland qualifying for the 2002 World Cup and following on from it afterwards. For reference, the POD is the first game against Belgium, where Ferguson scores instead of kicking it straight at the Belgium keeper with the score at 2-0 and Scotland go on to win the match (honestly, watching the video of it on the BBC website during my prep research made me so frustrated!).

I hope to update this timeline every Wednesday, or most Wednesdays at least, but don't hold me on that. I also hope to add some images at a later date, once I'm more used to writing longer content on here.

That's all for now, join us again next time, hopefully next Wednesday, to see how Mr Brown's boys fare in the Far East...
 
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Good to see this! Nice to see a TL talking about the Scotland team post 1998. :) Wonder what differences we're going to see here?
 
2002 World Cup, Part 1

2002 World Cup, Part 1


When Craig Brown announced his 2002 World Cup squad, there were very few surprises, it was largely the same players that had got Scotland to the tournament. One choice that raised a few eyebrows was that of young Motherwell forward James McFadden, who hadn’t had a bad season, 9 goals in 32 appearances, but many weren’t convinced this was the sort of form that deserved a World Cup call up, even if he was probably going to be used as a squad player who’d be playing minimal minutes.

Scotland’s first game of the tournament would be against co-hosts Japan. Brown was wary of the home advantage that the hosts would have, they’d be well up for it, and, if they weren’t careful, they could easily get caught out…

Indeed, walking out onto the pitch in Saitama, the Scotland players felt the full force of the home support’s noise; they were indeed well up for it. And they nearly caught them cold with Shinji Ono almost beating Rab Douglas with virtually the first shot of the game. But Scotland recovered well and started getting chances of their own, though converting them was more problematic, and the first half ended goalless.

The deadlock would finally be broken in the 57th minute as Billy Dodds, once again, fired Scotland into the lead from close range. However, this only seemed to spur Japan on, and just two minutes later, they had equalised through Takayuki Suzuki. And it would get worse for Scotland eight minutes later when Junichi Inamoto gave the hosts the lead and left Scotland starting down the barrel of another opening day defeat.

At this point, Brown decided to take Don Hutchison off, and on in his place came young Mr McFadden. Immediately, the Motherwell man slotted in seamlessly to the side, and, in the 75th minute, he fired in an equaliser. Both teams started pushing for a winner, but the defenses stood firm, and a 2-2 draw was a fair result on balance.

Scotland’s next game would be against Tunisia six days later. They’d lost their first game 2-0 to Russia, so this should have been a winnable game for Scotland. But then, so should Morocco four years earlier, and Brown had long memories of that game and was well aware of how badly a repeat performance would go down.

Despite McFadden having impressed in the first game, Brown left him on the bench again and started Dodds up front with Steven Thompson replacing Hutchison. And, at first, it went well, the two strikers combining perfectly as Thompson slipped it through to Dodds for him to put Scotland in front in the 13th minute.

However, a faint sense of déjà vu would then set in, in more ways than one, as, just four minutes later, Raouf Bouzaiene would put the African side level. And, from then on, Scotland seemed to find themselves on the backfoot, unable to break forwards as Tunisia defended well and forced them back, and could easily have scored again had Rab Douglas not made a great save to deny Ziad Jaziri.

As the second half kicked off, many groups of fans watching at home would likely have been screaming at the screens “Get McFadden on!”. But Brown waited until the 70th minute to do so, with Thompson making way. Again, his arrival gave Scotland a definite lift, but still they couldn’t find a way through.

Until, in the final minute of regular time, the Scots would get a corner. Colin Cameron would take it, and McFadden would header the ball goalwards; the goalkeeper Boumnijel made a good save, but couldn’t hold it, and the ball fell kindly to the inrushing Neil McCann, who slotted it in to send the traveling Tartan Army and the fans at home into raptures!

There was little time for Tunisia to respond; Scotland had the win, and, with Japan beating Russia, it meant a draw would be sufficient for a first ever group stage appearance…

to be continued…

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Second chapter, and here we go with the 2002 World Cup! So the first match is pretty much the same as Japan vs Belgium IOTL, but we have split from OTL with Scotland getting a winner in the Tunisia match. I was planning to do the whole group stage this week, but I ended up writing a lot more for the first two matches than I intended to, so we'll be continuing with the Russia match next week. Will it be eleventh time lucky for Scotland? We shall find out next week! I hope.
 
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I do wonder if a Scotland that qualifies more often might spur on England to do a little better? Funnily enough, 2002 was perhaps the best chance England had to win something had that avoided or defeated Brazil. OK that likely won't happen here but it would be interesting to see how the Home Nations are affected going into 2004 with maybe Wales qualifying? Long way ahead I know but it is very fascinating to see what happens next.

Anyway, young nine year old me would have ITTL would have been watching these games live in school as I think would happen here due to the time difference, might be an idea to have a reaction of how the country would feel about this World Cup. :)
 
Anyway, young nine year old me would have ITTL would have been watching these games live in school as I think would happen here due to the time difference, might be an idea to have a reaction of how the country would feel about this World Cup. :)
Yeah, I suspect eight year old me would've been so too!

I will probably include some domestic reaction in the coming chapters. This is the first tournament I have actual memories of, though I don't think I actually saw very many games, probably because I would've been in school at the time. The one game I remember seeing for sure was Sweden vs Senegal, which I watched during a weekend away in our caravan on the Moray coast, watched it on the little yellow mini telly!
 
Yeah, I suspect eight year old me would've been so too!

I will probably include some domestic reaction in the coming chapters. This is the first tournament I have actual memories of, though I don't think I actually saw very many games, probably because I would've been in school at the time. The one game I remember seeing for sure was Sweden vs Senegal, which I watched during a weekend away in our caravan on the Moray coast, watched it on the little yellow mini telly!
The game I remember very well from 2002 is England vs Brazil just as I was about to head to school that morning and was about to leave the moment Owen scored and stupid young me felt that England were going to surely win now, only to find out later what happened next! :p I don't have much memories of the 2006 WC though I do have memories of 2010 in which I was on holiday in Italy (Lake Garda) when the Italians got knocked out and I'll never forget the sight of so many young men all around a large screen all bursting into tears and crying out loud the moment Italy were knocked out by Slovakia. All fun times, and off topic but that England vs Scotland game in 2017 has some funny memories too but that's another story.
 
2002 World Cup, Part 2

2002 World Cup, Part 2


It had been an odd World Cup thus far, in more ways than one. Reigning champs France had completely crashed and burned and been knocked out without scoring a single goal, while co-hosts South Korea had swept away all before them (and that was without the alleged ‘favouritism’ they would infamously receive in the knockout stages). For viewers in western Europe, it had been even odder, in that the matches would be taking place in the morning in their time zones.

Both of Scotland’s matches thus far had started at 10am UK time, meaning pubs would be open unusually early for viewings of the match, and schools across the country had suspended normal lessons for a bit to allow viewings of the games in schools.

But, for the Tartan Army’s winner takes all match against Russia, the match would kick off even earlier at 7:30am UK time, which would result in even more disruption to the normal way of doing things. Pubs across the country opened at 6am, thus meaning they were only closed for a few hours overnight, while lessons in schools wouldn’t start until after when the morning break would normally be.

And, if Scotland were to make history and finally make it to the knockout stages at the eleventh time of asking, you’d suspect they may not even open at all that day…

As the Scotland team news came in, there was much delight for the Scotland fans both in the stadium and watching at home over breakfast, as James McFadden would be starting the game, with Billy Dodds and Steven Thompson in front of him; Rab Douglas in goal, a back four of McNamara, Weir, Pressley and Naysmith, and a midfield three of Ferguson, Cameron and McCann with the three attackers in front.

If Scotland were to make history, it would be a Starting XI that would be recited off by heart for years afterwards…

As the match kicked off in the Ecopa Stadium in Shizuoka, a huge roar went up from the travelling Scotland supporters; vastly outnumbered compared to the numerous Russia supporters who’d made the relatively short journey to Japan for the game (not to mention the numerous Japanese neutrals in the crowd), they knew they were going to have to make a huge extra effort to make themselves heard. All they needed, lest they forget, was a draw to make history…

However well the players could hear them, it seemed to be working, as Scotland went on the attack from the off, with McFadden and Thompson both forcing saves from Russia keeper Ruslan Nigmatullin. The latter’s shot went behind from a corner; Ferguson took it quickly, and the ball connected perfectly with the head of the inrushing Thompson… 1-0 Scotland!

The morning peace across Scotland erupted all at once! After the horrors of Morocco four years earlier, the early goal had at least banished those demons and meant there’d be no repeat of that result. However, there was also a feeling of “it’s too early, we need to score again or they’ll catch us unawares”.

But Brown wasn’t having any of that, he screamed at the players to keep going for it, and they continued to barrage the Russia goal for the rest of the half. But for Nigmatullin’s heroics, Russia would’ve been out of sight at half time. As it was, it was only 1-0, and Scotland went into the break happy, but also wary; they should’ve been out of sight, but weren’t, and that could, and knowing Scotland’s history, would, come back to bite them.

The second half began, and this time, it was a lot more open than before, as Russia began to find chances they hadn’t been able to in the first half. And, ironically, just seven minutes into the half, Vladimir Beschastnykh would fire in an equaliser.

It was the sucker punch Scotland had been dreading, but it wasn’t terminal. It was still in their favour; all they had to do was not concede again and it’d all be fine.

Both sides continued to push for the goal that would give them the lead and take them through. It would be a simple question of who blinked first. As a draw would suit them, Scotland could be forgiven for sitting back and defending, but no, they were going for the win, with Dodds, McFadden and Don Hutchison, who replaced Thompson midway through the half, forcing some great shots that Nigmatullin did well to save.

But still, as the final three minutes of normal time entered, the scores were still level. Not for want of trying, as it was suspected a winning goal would come from somewhere.

Then, just as three minutes of added time was declared, Beschastnykh got a nutmeg on Steven Pressley and left the Hearts man for dead, giving him a clean run at goal. In desperation, Pressley swept down and the striker tumbled to the ground. A red card and a penalty to Russia!

The entire nation let out an angry sigh at once. This was only going to go one way. But they’d come this far, they were going to stay and watch, just to see the game through to the end. But, as Beschastnykh placed the ball on the spot, everyone had the same feeling: “It’s gonnae go in, isn’t it?”

Beschastnykh took a deep breath, took a few steps, and fired to Rab Douglas’s right…

…and, to his horror, Douglas guessed right and not only saved the shot but landed on the ball and held it too!

The huge roar that went up across Scotland could be heard at Land’s End!

Douglas fired the ball upfield, straight to the awaiting McFadden, who so nearly capped the moment by slotting it sideways to Dodds, who fired it goalwards, only for Nigmatullin to make a great diving save to deny it.

And with that, the full time whistle! Scotland had done it!

The entire squad, Pressley included, and the coaching staff spilled onto the pitch in celebration! All except one man, who strode calmly towards the Scotland fan zone and quietly thrust his fists into the air, triggering a huge round of applause across the group and the country: Craig Brown.

2002 WC Group Stage.PNG

The final table for Group H

to be continued…

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Wow, what a finish! And, with that, Scotland are through to face Brazil. We'll be back next week to see how they get on against the three Rs...

But before we go, a quick two word teaser for the forthcoming Euro 2004 qualifiers...


UEFA. Corruption.

Make of that what you will.
 
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And so the Tartan Army ITTL will demand Craig Brown be knighted for pulling off the impossible task of making Scotland progress to the next round! :p

Might be painful against Brazil here though I'm curious what happens in 2004 and having a successful Scotland team might butterfly the large amount of foreign players we had coming into the Scottish league at that time, Raith Rovers have some bad memories of that...

Funnily enough, Brown actually requested for the Scottish league to follow the French system of having at least four or five homegrown players that was shot down by the OF fearing it would affect their Europen runs, with the benefit of hindsight and the exception of 2003 and 2008, it didn't go well for them. With Brown now having major kudos at this point I wonder if he'll have the power to get his way with the SFA?

Now we need a small update regarding the Scottish pop culture aspect of Scotland at this WC, E.G mentioned in Still Game etc. :p
 
2002 World Cup, Part 3

2002 World Cup, Part 3


It’s easy to sum up the general feeling in Scotland for the rest of the Friday after the draw with Russia that secured a first ever knockout stage appearance: pure undiluted joy across the country! Schools and workplaces did open afterwards, but very little, if anything, got done that day, all anyone wanted to do was either celebrate of rest easy after all that late drama! Pubs remained open well into the night, meaning they didn’t close at all and just stayed open for the first knockout games started the next day.

Scotland’s first ever knockout match would be on the Monday, and the general feeling over the weekend, once things had died down, was very much one of quiet reflection; a feeling of “wow, er, OK, so, we’ve got this far, what on Earth happens now?!” Their opponents would be Brazil…

Before the tournament, teams of Scotland’s stature might’ve fancied their chances against Brazil. The Selecao had had a rough ride to the tournament, finishing third in the CONMEBOL qualifiers behind Argentina and Ecuador, a campaign that had seen them get through three managers and numerous strikers trying, and failing, to cover for the injured Ronaldo, who was, just about, passed fit to play at the tournament.

Then, during a warm up session just before their first game against Turkey, their captain, Emerson, broke his shoulder while acting as a makeshift goalie and was ruled out for the tournament. At this point, the odds of a record fifth World Cup title were very long indeed.

Yes, they did, ultimately, win all three group stage matches, but their win over the Turks was fortuitous, coming from a very soft penalty, and while they had comfortably thumped China and Costa Rica, that was the least they were expected to do. This Brazil team were there for the taking.

Or so everyone thought…

Craig Brown, though, wasn’t going to get carried away. He was determined to keep his players’ minds focussed on the job in hand. They’d done what they came to do: make it to the knockouts for the first time, anything else from here on in was a bonus. But that didn’t mean they weren’t going to give it a good go…

Rumours also started to surface that he would be cutting his losses and stepping down as Scotland boss after the tournament, on the high of having done what no Scotland manager had done before. When pulled up about this by chasing journalists while leaving for a training session on the Sunday, he said nothing…

The big day came, and Scotland walked out onto the pitch in Kobe alongside Brazil for their first ever knockout game. Back in Scotland, it was 12:30 in the afternoon; the pubs were packed, and the schools had been given a half day. Almost everyone in the country, even those who didn’t exactly care for the sport, were going to be watching this one.

It was more or less the same Scotland starting XI from the Russia game, save for Christian Dailly replacing the suspended Pressley and Don Hutchison returning up front in lieu of Thompson, who would be, it was thought, an impact sub.

As Scotland kicked the game off, fans watching in the stadium and at home finally believed it was actually happening for real: they were in the knockout stages of the World Cup, and playing a beatable Brazil team. Many had been very careful in the days before just in case it was just a dream all along!

Scotland started brightly, swarming the Brazil net and forcing goalkeeper Marcos into some good saves to deny them. At the other end, Ronaldo, backed up by Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, were creating chances, but few of them were troubling Rab Douglas yet.

As the first half went on, both sides began to get more adventurous and taking more risks to try and break the deadlock. One such shot, a long range one from Ronaldinho, saw Douglas back pedal a bit before palming the ball down in a slam dunk-esque move and just about catch it before Ronaldo could zip in on the rebound.

Then, in the 36th minute, as Scotland pushed forwards, Ferguson got a nice curler into the box. Dodds and Roque Junior were both waiting and would try to see who got the ball first. Dodds outjumped the Brazilian defender and planted the ball nicely past Marcos into the goal! Scotland were ahead!

No, they weren’t. Before the players and the fans could even think about celebrating, referee Peter Prendergast blew his whistle and the goal wouldn’t stand.

It was a mystifying decision to say the least. Turns out, Prendergast had thought Dodds had got up too easily and therefore must have pushed the defender to beat him to the ball. Replays showed very little evidence for this.

Scotland felt hard done by, but, after the initial bout of complaints, they settled down and got back to the job in hand. But when the first half ended roughly ten minutes later with the score still goalless, there was a slight sense of injustice.

As the game restarted, both sides continued to push for the opening goal, with the goalkeepers and the defenders working their socks off the keep the opponents at bay, but, the longer it went on, the more Brazil started to settle and dominate proceedings, and it looked like it would be a case of when, not if, they’d get a goal.

And, indeed, they did, in the 67th minute, as Rivaldo fired past Douglas to give the Selecao the lead. Even Scotland fans, who had every right to feel aggrieved, would admit it was a goal that had been coming and that was well deserved.

Brown responded by replacing Hutchison with Thompson in the hope of extra energy up front. But Brazil, with a lead to defend, started to settle into defense and reduce Scotland’s three man attack to speculative shots that Marcos easily saved.

And when, with just three minutes of regular time to go, Ronaldo caught Scotland on the counter and slotted it past Douglas to make it 2-0, that was game over. There was no more Scotland could do. As the final whistle blew, the players collapsed to the ground exhausted; they’d given a great fight, and had been unlucky in more ways than one, but this would be it.

Brown gallantly walked over and shook hands with Scolari, and the players did likewise with the Brazil team, before both players and management team walked over to the main area of Scotland supporters in the ground and gave them a big round of applause. The fans, those watching at home too, did so back in return.

Scotland had had their best ever tournament, there was no question of that. Whatever highs, or lows, they’d experience in the coming years, it would be a tournament that would be highly fondly remembered by all Scotland players and fans alike.

It would also be the end of an era, as, shortly after the team returned home to a hero’s welcome (with tens of thousands turning up at Glasgow Airport to see them in), Craig Brown announced that he would indeed be stepping down as Scotland manager. He was widely hailed as a national hero, who would be held in the highest of high esteem by all, and would hold considerable sway within the SFA for the rest of time.

Taking over wasn’t going to be an easy task for anyone. But when, his replacement was appointed a few weeks later, the general consensus, even amongst fans on the green and white side of Glasgow was, if Brown couldn’t be their manager, he was the only man who could be instead…

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Yep, so Scotland get hard done by the same way as Belgium were IOTL, but, still, at least they went down fighting. For the record, the rest of the tournament plays out as in OTL; England spend a few days mocking Scotland for choking against a Brazil team that was there for the taking, and then that Ronaldinho goal happens... Yeah, people sometimes forget how disorganised that Brazil team was going into the tournament, and then, all of a sudden, it all just clicked.

Anyway, as you've probably gathered, Berti Vogts won't be joining us ITTL, and, even if you haven't already read my previous posts on QTX's threads, you can probably tell who's taking over instead...

So, tune back in next week to see how Scotland fare in Euro 2004 qualifying!
 
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Ah grand, I remember a lot were expecting from that Argentina team then before they crashed out so soon. Wonder what would be the pop culture reaction for Scotland at this WC E.G mentioned in Still Game or something like that. Looking forward for 2004 soon!
 
Euro 2004 Qualifying

Euro 2004 Qualifying


Walter Smith was a popular choice to succeed Craig Brown as Scotland manager, and, after four unhappy years at Everton, it was a post he was all too happy to accept. His decision to hire his former rival manager Tommy Burns as his assistant was well received too, and his former charge Ally McCoist also came on board in a coaching role. It was a setup that seemed to be please both sides of that particular Glasgow based divide.

Following Scotland’s now famous run in the Far East, where they finally got a particular monkey off their backs, there was a renewed sense of optimism among the Tartan Army that there wasn’t really anything holding them back now. This sense continued when they were drawn in a reasonably favourable group for Euro 2004 qualifying alongside Iceland, Lithuania, the Faroe Islands and, the group favourites and reigning WC runners-up, Germany.

Smith’s first competitive match would be against the Faroes, in what many thought would be an easy opener for the Scots. Smith, however, knew all too well how burdensome being the favourite could be, and wasn’t taking any chances. And he had good reason to, as, twice inside the first thirteen mins, striker John Petersen forced Rab Douglas, now something of a cult hero among non-Celtic fans following his heroics against Russia, into good saves.

In the end, two second half goals from Paul Lambert, back in the team after agonisingly missing the World Cup through injury, and Barry Ferguson gave the Scots, and Smith, a win to open the campaign; it was followed by another 2-0 away win, this time over Iceland.

A 2-1 win over the same opponents at Hampden would be followed a few days later by a trip to Lithuania, who had held the Germans to a 1-all draw in Nuremberg. The positivity gained from that result seemed to carry over into the Scotland game and, Smith’s team were frustrated for long periods. Then, with just 20 minutes left, Tomas Razanauskas would convert a penalty to make it 1-0 Lithuania, and Scotland looked in trouble.

Smith would respond by subbing on Wolves striker Kenny Miller, who, having previously found his path to the first team blocked by Hutchison and Dodds, was now starting to break his way in. With the clock about to tick into added time, he received a nice through ball from McFadden, and would bang in an equaliser! With time running out, Scotland pushed for a winner, and Miller would take a punt shot; it hit the post, but Ferguson pounced on the rebound to make it 2-1 and complete a dramatic comeback!

That result meant the Scots now led Germany by five points, albeit from a game more, going into the first meeting between the two, at Hampden. Fredi Bobic would give Der Mannschaft the lead roughly midway through the first half, but Scotland would deservedly draw level through Miller at roughly the same time in the second. The game would end 1-all, thus maintaining Scotland’s advantage.

By the time Scotland next played that September, Germany and Iceland had both cut the gap down, ahead of two crunch fixtures. Firstly, the Faroes at Hampden, where, despite a scare when Julian Johnsson equalised for the minnows, Smith’s team would win 3-1 thanks to goals from McCann, Dickov and McFadden.

Then, the return leg against the Germans in Dortmund, where Bobic would once again give them the lead in the middle of the first half, before a penalty for Michael Ballack made it 2-0 early in the second half. McCann would pull one back, but no equaliser could be found, and the Germans had cut Scotland’s lead down to just a point.

Nonetheless, going into the final round of fixtures, Scotland were in a good position; all they needed to beat the Germans to top spot was equal or better their result.

Hampden was rocking for the make or break game against Lithuania, with a sense of nerves as well, especially after how close a shave the previous game had been. And, with the Germans winning 2-0 in Hamburg and the game still goalless, fans were starting to fear the worst.

Until a new addition to the team, 19-year old Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher, finally broke through to make it 1-0 and send Hampden into raptures! After some frantic defending for the remaining 20 or some minutes, the ref blew his full time whistle; Scotland had done it! Smith and Burns were mobbed by coaching staff, players and pitch invading fans! The party across the country would go on long into the night!

Euro 2004 Qualifying with side scores.PNG

The final table for Group 5

The Germans, meanwhile, would have to settle for the playoffs again, despite not actually losing a game all group! The playoffs were originally intended to be an open draw, meaning anyone could face anyone. However, just before the draw was made, UEFA seemed to go back on this decision, and announced the five higher ranked teams would indeed be seeded and kept apart.

There was much eye rolling and fury, especially from the FAs of Wales and Latvia, both of whom had defied expectations to reach the playoffs and who’d now face much harder draws than they might’ve hoped. Many claimed UEFA had changed their mind due to Spain, Germany and the Netherlands all being in the play-offs, and there was no way they’d risk two of them ending up drawing each other and one missing out.

Anyway, what was done was done, and, while Latvia would get a favourable draw against Turkey, and beat them to reach their first ever tournament, Wales would draw one of the short straws and get the Dutch. At first, things went well for Mark Hughes’ team, with a single Craig Bellamy goal giving them a famous win at the Millennium Stadium. However, the Dutch were thus all fired up for the return leg, where they would destroy poor Wales 6-0 to secure their place in Portugal the following summer.

Germany, meanwhile, would beat Russia 4-1 on aggregate to join them.

When the draw was finally made shortly afterwards, Scotland would find themselves, once again, drawn against the hosts, plus Spain and Greece. It was a tough-ish draw, but not as bad as it could’ve been, and hopes were high among the Tartan Army that they upset the odds again and make it two knockout stages in a row…

to be continued...

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If only the current Scotland team could pull off results like that, eh?

Anyway, Berti Vogts is gone, as is going 2-0 down against the Faroes, and with it, the run of similar results that has followed in the years since. I was genuinely surprised when I realised the two changed results put Scotland above Germany in the group! And in that scenario, I can easily see UEFA going back on the playoffs being an open draw to ensure the now-three 'big' teams in the draw stayed apart; lets face it, it's exactly the sort of thing they'd probably do. So, sadly, poor Wales get done over.

Anyway, will Scotland make it out of the group, and, if so, at whose expense? Find out next Wednesday...
 
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Thank goodness for this update as not just for that crappy result tonight but a pretty long and shitty day at work. Great work as always and look forward to see how things get on with Scotland here.

I do remember in my TL that BBC Scotland makes a Still Game special of the gang going to Portugal and all the shenanigans that follow then.
 
Thank goodness for this update as not just for that crappy result tonight but a pretty long and shitty day at work. Great work as always and look forward to see how things get on with Scotland here.

I do remember in my TL that BBC Scotland makes a Still Game special of the gang going to Portugal and all the shenanigans that follow then.
Yeah, I think we can say that special will be happening ITTL as well! With your permission, of course...

Added the threadmark I forgot about yesterday, and also added a Wikibox for the first time! Will go back and do that for the earlier posts another time.
 
Yeah, I think we can say that special will be happening ITTL as well! With your permission, of course...

Added the threadmark I forgot about yesterday, and also added a Wikibox for the first time! Will go back and do that for the earlier posts another time.
Ofc, you have my permission! Then again given that time it is almost certain we would have see a special of Jack and Victor causing chaos on the Algarve! :p
 
Euro 2004, Part 1

Euro 2004, Part 1


Heading into Euro 2004, the mood in the Scotland camp was one of cautious optimism. Their winning of the qualifying group ahead of Germany had, to many, been a bigger achievement than their finally clearing the group stages in the World Cup two years ago, and that was a big achievement.

When Walter Smith named his Euro 2004 squad, it was reasonably similar to that of two years earlier, except for new players coming in to replace those who’d left. Paul Lambert, who’d agonisingly missed the World Cup through injury, was brought back into the squad, having already announced he’d be retiring from international duty after the tournament, and was one of the relatively few ‘veterans’ in what was a much younger squad that that of two years earlier.

After the long trek to the Far East of two years earlier had meant the Tartan Army contingents in the stadiums had been rather small, the relatively short, in comparison, journey to Portugal meant there would be a much larger Scotland fan section this time. And, in the run up to their opening game against Spain, they were very much making their presence in the Algarve felt!

They had good reason to feel positive about the game too. Earlier that same day, outsiders Greece had stunned hosts Portugal to win 2-1, and thus blown the entire group wide open already. The Scotland fans thus arrived at the Estadio Algarve for the match against La Roja in good spirits; if Greece could pull off a shock result, why couldn’t they?

Arriving at the stadium, some eagle-eyed Scotland fans spotted a BBC camera crew filming outside the stadium. At first, they assumed it was for the BBC’s coverage of the match, but then they spotted two very familiar ‘elderly gentlemen’ hanging around alongside them; they were none other than Ford ‘Jack’ Kiernan and Greg ‘Victor’ Hemphill of Still Game fame!

Turns out the cast and crew of the show were there filming for a special episode of the show to be aired that Christmas/Hogmanay, in which everyone’s favourite pensioners and their friends Ida, Winston, Tam and Boabby won a competition for free tickets to every Scotland game at the Euros and headed out to the Algarve for the festivities! The script would very much be written as the tournament progressed, and would feature very little actual football and focus more on the gang’s exploits in Portugal itself.

That said, the writers would probably have still been hoping for the games to give them some good stuff to work with!

As Scotland and their opponents strode out onto the pitch, there was a huge roar all around the stadium. Both teams had huge supports with them; the Spain contingent who’d literally just popped over the border outnumbered the Tartan Army, but the noise generated by both groups ensured this was very much a balanced crowd. Plus, Scotland could count on the support of any Portuguese neutrals in the crowd, who, after the shock result earlier in the day, would definitely be rooting for Scotland even harder now.

Scotland lined up in the 4-3-1-2 formation, very much the favoured formation now following its usage in the Russia game two years earlier: Rab Douglas in goal, an unchanged back four of McNamara, Weir, Pressley and Naysmith, a midfield three of Ferguson, Lambert and Fletcher, and Miller and Thompson up front with McFadden behind them.

As the game kicked off, Spain really pushed hard from the off, with both Douglas being kept very busy. The Celtic man made a likely Save of the Tournament contender when he palmed away a point blank range shot from Fernando Morientes, and Spain could easily have scored at least twice in the first ten minutes.

After weathering that initial storm though, Scotland settled into the game, and started creating chances of their own and forcing Iker Cassilas into some good saves. It was a very good contest that was developing.

Then, just after the 35 minute mark, Fletcher gave Ruben Baraja the slip and pinged the ball through to McFadden, who slipped through the Spanish defence completely and fired the ball goalwards; Cassilas got a touch on it, but not a good enough one, and the ball trickled over the line. Scotland were ahead!

No they weren’t. The celebrations were quickly cut short by an offside flag.

Replays showed it to be a very very close call, almost certainly impossible for the linesman to have been able to tell with the naked eye, but just marginally on. Scotland could feel rightly aggrieved that it had been chalked off.

Both teams had chances before the break, but going into half time, it was still goalless.

The second half started with a bang, as, straight from the kick off, Spain burst forwards and so nearly caught Scotland cold right away, had Douglas not been on his toes. It was an early warning shot, and Scotland were starting to fear that disallowed goal could bite them hard.

The bite came just before the hour mark when Carlos Puyol’s cross into the box fell to the feet of Juan Carlos Valeron, who’d literally just come on as a sub, whose two touches completely outfoxed the Scotland defence, before he slotted in through past Douglas to give La Roja the lead.

Scotland responded well, with Miller and Gary O’Connor, who’d replaced Thompson just after the goal, both forcing Cassilas into good saves, but, with time ebbing away, the chances were starting to dry up and an opening day defeat looked on the cards.

Until, with just two minutes of regular time left, Scotland won a corner. Ferguson took it quickly, and the ball landed with Fletcher, who cheekily chipped it up to the head of Miller, who headed it goalbound. Cassilas, to his credit, reacted brilliantly and thrust his arm out to claw the ball away, but did it cross the line first?

Miller and his teammates thought so, as did quite a few Spain players, but referee Urs Meier wasn’t sure enough, and awarded no goal, despite Scotland’s subsequent protests. Replays after the ball eventually went out for a Scotland throw showed the ball had indeed crossed the line.

Scotland made a desperate late push, but Spain dug in firm, and the game ended 1-0 in their favour.

It was a tough defeat for Smith and his side to take; two disallowed goals, both of which they would see afterwards to have been wrong decisions (albeit very close ones). It wasn’t a terminal defeat, there were still two games to go, but their job of reaching a second knockout stage in a row had just got quite a bit harder…

to be continued…

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Oh dear. So that's two tournaments in a row Scotland have been done over by poor refereeing decisions. At least the Still Game writers did indeed get some good stuff to work with! Thanks to QTX, BTW, for letting me borrow that idea from his TL. And, yes, that save from Douglas from the first half is based on Craig Gordon's from last night.

Can Scotland bounce back? Tune back in next week to find out...
 
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Good to see Still Game here! Not so about the result.

Wee fact, in my original TL, I based the Still Game Euros special largely of the Rab C Nesbitt special when they go to the World Cup in Italia 1990, suppose you could say it would be a remake of that.

I know it's got nothing to do with the TL unless we get a wee paragraph on it towards the end of Euro 2004 here, but it would be nice to hear the wee plot of the antics the characters get up to with your version. :) IIRC, mines had a various number of mishaps which had Jack and Victor getting lost and mugged in the streets of Lisbon, Isa being a typically gossiping cow and annoying the locals, Winston getting sunburnt, Tam getting arrested for trying to use forged Euros and Boabby trying and failing miserably trying to pull a Portuguese girl. Would be fun to hear what you had for it, mines likely very different over how Scotland did in my TL, as well as how will Scotland do next in the next game here.

Still, that Still Game special might have been the best special from the show we never got if only Scotland qualified, hmm...

Edit: Just worked out something, if Scotland wins the group and all other groups are about the same as OTL, unless you can correct me here, then Scotland might be on a collision course with a certain YKW team...
 
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Urs Meier still an absolute knobhead even ITTL I see.
I'd planned this out before I found out he was the ref for this fixture too. Admittedly, it does tie-in nicely with what happened in that other game IOTL.
No comment on whether that game will be happening ITTL as well. We shall find out next week.

Good to see Still Game here! Not so about the result.

Wee fact, in my original TL, I based the Still Game Euros special largely of the Rab C Nesbitt special when they go to the World Cup in Italia 1990, suppose you could say it would be a remake of that.

I know it's got nothing to do with the TL unless we get a wee paragraph on it towards the end of Euro 2004 here, but it would be nice to hear the wee plot of the antics the characters get up to with your version. :) IIRC, mines had a various number of mishaps which had Jack and Victor getting lost and mugged in the streets of Lisbon, Isa being a typically gossiping cow and annoying the locals, Winston getting sunburnt, Tam getting arrested for trying to use forged Euros and Boabby trying and failing miserably trying to pull a Portuguese girl. Would be fun to hear what you had for it, mines likely very different over how Scotland did in my TL, as well as how will Scotland do next in the next game here.

Still, that Still Game special might have been the best special from the show we never got if only Scotland qualified, hmm...

Edit: Just worked out something, if Scotland wins the group and all other groups are about the same as OTL, unless you can correct me here, then Scotland might be on a collision course with a certain YKW team...
Yeah, well, I didn't want to copy too much from your TL, but I think we can say it would go pretty much the same apart from the different match references.

Added some more Wikiboxes to the earlier entries.
 
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