Ferguson Makes It Three: A Scottish Football Timeline

[jmmcb94]

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.

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.

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...

 

[jmmcb94]

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.

 

[jmmcb94]

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.

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...

Spoiler

UEFA. Corruption.

Make of that what you will.

 

[jmmcb94]

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!

 

[jmmcb94]

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!

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...

 

[jmmcb94]

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...

 

[jmmcb94]

Euro 2004, Part 2​

Following Scotland’s unlucky defeat to Spain in their first game of Euro 2004, the post-mortem inevitably focussed mainly on the two refereeing decisions that had gone against them, both of which had, just, proven incorrect. It had been a hard defeat to take, and Walter Smith’s side would have to get over it quickly if they were to stand a chance of reaching a second knockout stage in a row.

The only real consolation for Scotland fans was that England had lost their opening game too, and probably in an even more unfortunate way than they had, going down to two late France goals. Except they still had two ‘easier’ games to come, whereas Scotland now faced a tough game against hosts Portugal, who would almost certainly be looking to avenge the shock loss to Greece in their first game.

The pressure to get a result in the game increased hugely when the other group game that day, between the Greeks and the Spanish, ended 1-all, putting them both on four points, which meant Scotland would have to win the Portugal game to stand a chance. A draw and a win over Greece wouldn’t be enough, as the loss to Spain meant La Roja would go through on head to head record if they tied.

The game would be at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz. Like the first game, the Tartan Army were very much outnumbered by the huge home contingent the hosts had with them. After the shock and disappointment of the first game, they and the team seemed determined not to have a repeat of that. Scotland really would be up against it for this one.

Smith had named an unchanged Starting XI for the match, which many questioned, but it did have some logic to it, when you consider that Scotland had played well in that first game and had only lost due to two goals being wrongly disallowed. But, on the other hand, given the tough challenge they were about to take on, some fresh legs might’ve been a wiser idea…

Things went Portugal’s way at first; cheered on by the huge home support, the hosts surged forwards from the off, and Rab Douglas was already being called on to keep their attack at bay. After some good saves, he was caught out by a corner in just the seventh minute, as the ball landed straight on the head of Maniche, who caught him out completely and calmly slotted in home. 1-0 Portugal.

Already, it looked like being a long night for the Scots. Buoyed by this early breakthrough, Portugal kept their feet on the pedal and laid barrage to the Scotland goal. Only some wasteful finishing and some excellent saves from Douglas kept them out.

Scotland rarely managed to get the ball forwards threateningly in the first half. One of their few real chances came when Miller received a solid through ball from Lambert, but his shot was at an awkward angle, and so he had little choice but to square it to McFadden, whose shot was easily saved by Ricardo.

Half time came, and Scotland had done well to keep the score at just 1-0. If they could carry on withstanding the waves of Portuguese attack, they still had half a chance.

But, as the second half kicked off, it was more of the same: Portugal surging forward in droves, but wastefulness on their part and Douglas’s firm hands were keeping them out. Yet, you just felt like it wouldn’t be long before they’d get the second goal they needed to kill the game off.

Scotland, though, were being resolute, to be fair to them, and were holding their own and keeping themselves in the game. Yet their attacking opportunities were relatively few. On one occasion, Fletcher skimmed a hopeful ball towards Miller in the box, but Ricardo Carvalho managed to slip in and take it off him. There were shouts for a penalty, but they were more in hope than expectation; it had been a fair challenge.

On another occasion, Lambert caught the ball in midfield, and managed to nick it sideways to Ferguson, who charged forwards and looped it upfield towards Paul Dickov, on as a second half sub. Dickov caught the ball awkwardly, and it looked like it would be simple for Carvalho to take it off him again.

Instead, he missed his tackle completely, and, unable to believe his luck, Dickov launched it goalwards and caught Ricardo out completely! Completely out of nowhere, Scotland were level!

Portugal were shell shocked by the mistake and, all of a sudden, Scotland found a new lease of life and started to get forward more freely again. McFadden managed to launch another goalward strike, but Ricardo managed to force it onto the post and behind for a corner, which ultimately came to nothing.

After that spurt was over, though, Portugal managed to regain control of the game and started dominating possession again. Scotland, though, were defending well and just about managing to keep their faint chances alive.

That was, until the final regular minute of the game, when Cristiano Ronaldo gave Naysmith the slip on the wing, and looped it into the box towards Rui Costa, who slotted it past Douglas to break Scotland hearts and surely win the game for the hosts.

And indeed it did. Scotland could do no more. The final whistle blew, and Scotland, despite a valiant effort, were out of Euro 2004.

The final game against Greece four days later, therefore, would be a dead rubber for them, but they were still keen to end the tournament on a positive. Smith made a few changes to the squad for the final game, giving other players a chance and making Lambert captain for his final game for his country.

Dickov started the game up front alongside Gary O’Connor and, in just the second minute, the two combined nicely as Dickov teed up his fellow striker to open the scoring and give Scotland an early lead. McFadden would make it 2-0 about 15 mins later, before Zisis Vryzas pulled one back for Greece just before half-time, a goal which would prove most important.

As the second half began, both teams were attacking well and searching for another goal, though Greece were the ones who really needed it as they still had a chance of going through. But news then came through that Portugal had taken the lead against Spain, which, as things stood, meant Greece would go through on goals scored.

Both them and Scotland would have chances to score in the second half, but none were taken and the game ended 2-1 to Scotland. Smith’s team had ended another tough tournament on a high, but Greece were celebrating too, as the Portugal-Spain game ended 1-0, which put them through as well.

The final table for Group A​

There was a great deal of outcry from the Spanish fans, some of whom accused the Scots and the Greeks of playing out a staged result a la the Disgrace of Gijon so that they’d both get what they wanted. Both teams denied this, though, from a Scotland point of view, seeing Spain just go out after that fortuitous win in the first game could be seen as some sort of karmic justice.

Still, what was done was done; both teams were out and Greece would be going through alongside Portugal. In fact, Greece would go on to stun everyone and win the whole tournament, beating the France of Henry and Zidane and the Czech Republic of Nedved and Baros before beating Portugal again in the final.

For the Scotland players and fans watching on from back home though, there was a sense of “that could’ve been us”; indeed, had it not been for those two wrongly disallowed goals in the first round, they’d have gone through at the eventual winners’ expense.

Still, at least Urs Meier had redeemed himself somewhat in their eyes by disallowing that Sol Campbell goal!

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Not to be for Scotland then. At least they went down fighting though. And, like England in OTL and TTL, they can blame it all on Urs Meier!

So, yeah, the rest of the tournament plays out exactly the same as in OTL. This must, therefore, be the first time on this site that Greece's win hasn't been butterflied away!

So, 2006 World Cup qualifying next, an infamously bad campaign for Scotland in OTL; will they fare better here and make it to Germany? We shall find out next week...

 

[jmmcb94]

2006 World Cup Qualifying​

Following the conclusion of the most unpredictable Euros in living memory, all attention turned to Germany for the 2006 World Cup. Walter Smith’s Scotland were drawn in a reasonable group alongside Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Moldova, from which they had every chance of finishing in the top two, or maybe even first again.

Scotland would begin the campaign at home to Slovenia, certainly a winnable game, but Smith and his team were going to take nothing for granted. In the event, a single first half strike from Kenny Miller, now very much the first choice to lead the front line alongside either Paul Dickov or Steven Thompson, would give the Scots a victory to start off with.

Next up, would be a double header: Norway at home, followed by Moldova away. The home again would be a tricky game for the Scots, with a goalless first half being followed by Steffen Iversen giving Norway the lead from the penalty spot early in the second half. McFadden would equalise in the 78th minute, but no winner could be found.

Then the away tie against the group minnows didn’t start much better, with Sergiu Dadu giving Moldova a shock lead in the 28th minute. Thompson would equalise just three minute later, however, and second half strikes from Ferguson and Dickov would complete the comeback.

Those results meant Scotland ended 2004 second in the group with seven points, two behind group favourites Italy, heading into the big game against the Azzuri in Milan. Despite a brave effort from Smith and the team, Andrea Pirlo would score a double to ensure the points would be staying with the hosts.

Next up would be another double header: the return leg against Moldova at Hampden, followed by Belarus away. The first game would be a simple enough victory for Scotland eventually, though a goalless first half did leave fans a bit weary. Christian Dailly would give them the lead early in the second half though, before McFadden secured the win with a late second.

Italy, meanwhile, stumbled to a goalless draw with Norway, meaning Scotland would get the chance to pull level on points with victory over Belarus in Minsk. A frustrating night for Smith’s team would follow though, with the home side digging in doggedly, and the opportunity looked to have been missed until a late strike from Thompson broke Belarusian hearts and secured the win.

Smith’s side were now level on 14 points with Italy, though the Azzuri still led the group due to them winning the first game between the two.

Come the Autumn, though, would come the return leg against Italy at Hampden, where Scotland would get the chance to turn the tables. The stadium was rocking, with the Tartan Army hopeful of pulling off another famous result, especially after such an encouraging performance against the Azzuri beforehand, and the roar when Kenny Miller opened the scoring could probably be heard back in Italy!

Scotland would get a few chances to increase their lead in the second half, but couldn’t take them, and Italy were having chances too, with Rab Douglas doing well to keep them out. Until the inevitable happened and Fabio Grosso secured what was, admittedly, a deserved equaliser with 15 mins to go. Both sides pushed for a winner, but none came, meaning it remained as you were, Italy on top on head-to-head record.

It would now be a three game each fight to the end, with both the Scots and the Italians hoping one would slip-up and they could take advantage.

Four days after the big game at Hampden, Scotland played Norway in Oslo, where two goals from Miller gave them the win, with Ole Arst’s goal for the hosts coming too late to mount a comeback. But Italy would beat Belarus 4-1, maintaining their advantage.

A month later, Scotland would welcome the Belarusians to Hampden for the penultimate round of fixtures. Despite a scare when Vitali Kutuzov gave the visitors the lead in the sixth minute (a goal that, as later reported on Only an Excuse, stood despite Scotland protesting it shouldn’t as “we werenae ready!”!), goals from Miller, Fletcher and Dickov would turn the game around and give Smith’s side the win.

Again, though, Italy matched them, winning 1-0 against Slovenia.

So, it was still either team’s group for the winning going into the final round of fixtures. Scotland would be hosting Slovenia at Hampden. A comfortable 3-0 victory courtesy of goals from Fletcher, McFadden and new recruit Paul Hartley, gave Smith’s team the points they needed, and with Italy’s game goalless, they looked like they might just do it…

But it wasn’t to be: a dramatic flurry of three goals in the last 20 minutes saw Italy go above Scotland, then back below, and then back above again! In the end, they beat Moldova 2-1, and they took top spot in the group and automatic qualification to Germany…

The final table for Group 5​

It was an agonising close miss for Scotland, made even more galling by the fact that, had it been decided on goal difference like in the last World Cup’s qualifiers, they’d have scraped it. Now, having also just missed out on one of the two automatic places for highest scoring runners-up, they’d have to do it all again in the play-offs.

Their opponents would, just like four years prior, be the Czech Republic. The first leg at Hampden ended in a 1-all draw, with Vladimir Smicer giving the Czechs the lead just after the half hour mark, before Thompson deservedly pulled one back for the Scots with ten minutes remaining.

Hopes were high going into the return leg in Prague that Scotland could still do it. But it wasn’t to be: Tomas Rosicky gave the Czechs the second goal in the second half, and, despite a valiant attacking performance from Smith’s side, Petr Cech was more than a match for them, and the game ended 1-0, 2-1 on aggregate, and it would be the Czechs going to Germany next summer.

So, for the first time in 12 years, Scotland would be missing the World Cup. The next day, several back pages would display photos of the dejected manager and his equally dejected assistant alongside the headline ‘ALAS SMITH AND BURNS’, which was, admittedly, moderately amusing!

The near miss was hard on Smith and his team, who had played very well throughout the campaign, and had given the eventual World Cup winners a very close run for their money. There were still plenty of positives to take from it too, and Smith was confident that, if they could maintain that form, they’d comfortably reach Euro 2008 with little trouble.

But then they saw their qualifying group for it…

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Yep, sorry guys, not to be for Scotland this time. At least the pathetic campaign they had in OTL has been butterflied away. Plus, that great Czech team deserved to play at at least one World Cup, and there's no shame in losing to them. That said, if I ever decide to redux this TL, I do have an idea I might try here instead...

Also, in case anyone's wondering, yes, that Only an Excuse World Cup special that was made that summer still happens ITTL, only without a couple of sketches, such as the one about Scotland falling below the 'diddy line'!

Spoiler

Remember this, it'll be semi-important later in the TL.

Anyway, we move straight on to Euro 2008 qualifying next, and you probably already have a fair idea about what's going to happen; tune back in next week to see if your suspicions are correct...!

 

[jmmcb94]

Euro 2008 Qualifying​

Euro 2008 was a tournament Scotland had harboured hopes of hosting at one point. Ultimately, their bid failed, largely due to the fact that their bidding partners, the Republic of Ireland, didn’t seem all that keen, but mainly because Sepp Blatter wanted his home nation of Switzerland to host. So, they and Austria would be the hosts, and Scotland would have to qualify like the others.

Nonetheless, and despite their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign having ultimately ended in failure, Walter Smith’s Scotland had actually played very well, and the fans were optimistic that they’d easily qualify for the Euros if they kept playing like they had before.

Following the controversy of the play-off draw for the last Euros, UEFA had decided to do away with play-offs altogether this time, and just have seven big groups from which the top two would go through. It was a rather awkward format, and it’s not surprising really that it wasn’t tried again. At least, not until the Nations League came along, but that’s another story…

When Scotland’s name came out of the third pot in Group B, hearts across the nation sank. They had been drawn alongside Italy (again) and France, both of whom would surely be heavy favourites to progress. Those hearts sank further when those two teams went on to be the winners and runners-up of the World Cup that summer.

This was going to be a most difficult campaign.

Scotland would kick off at home to group minnows the Faroe Islands, and would win easily 6-0, including a double for Kris Boyd, who, following his move to Rangers in the summer, had gone straight into the line-up to replace the now retired Paul Dickov. Lithuania away would follow a few days later, and Smith’s team would notch up a second win thanks to goals from Christian Dailly and Kenny Miller.

The next month, though, came the first big test: France at home, which was expected to be a tough game for the Scots. In the event, though, they more than matched the reigning WC runners-up, shutting them out in the first half before Gary Caldwell, another playing starting to break his way in following the retirement of others, gave them a shock lead early in the second half. It proved the only goal of the game.

All of a sudden, the task didn’t seem so daunting…

Four days later, however, came a reality check, as they travelled to play Slovakia away. Things started well enough, Boyd giving Scotland a lead midway through the first half, but the hosts would deservedly draw level on the hour mark, before Robert Vittek completed the comeback by converting a late penalty.

That defeat would prove to be the end of an era for Scotland, though no-one was to know it at the time…

Come January 2007, Paul Le Guen would be sacked as Rangers manager (when your entire tenure can be summed up so concisely in one Only an Excuse sketch, you know you’ve flamingoed up big time), and, with the SFA’s blessing, Smith would make a sensational return to Ibrox, taking Ally McCoist with him. Assistant manager Burns was widely expected to step straight in, but he too announced he would be stepping down to focus on a coaching role at Celtic he had taken a year earlier.

After much soul searching, the vacant job would go to Alex McLeish, who had been out of work since leaving Rangers in the summer. It wasn’t the most inspiring appointment, but the fans seemed moderately happy with it. Providing he didn’t undo Smith’s and Brown’s hard work…

His first competitive game in charge would be Georgia at home. Scotland would open the scoring early on thanks to Kris Boyd, but they couldn’t push home the advantage and Shota Arveladze would equalise just before half time. Scotland pushed hard throughout the second half though, and would be rewarded when substitute Craig Beattie scored a last minute winner.

A few days later, Scotland would complete the first round of fixtures with Italy away. Despite a valiant effort, a superb performance from Gigi Buffon would keep the Old Firm strike partnership of Miller and Boyd out, and a double from Luca Toni would give the hosts the win.

As it stood, though, Scotland were still very much in it. They were third in the group, one point behind the Italians and two points behind the leaders France, with the second half of the campaign still to come.

A routine 2-0 win over the Faroes to begin the return half of the campaign would be followed by a crucial double header: Lithuania at home, then France away. The first match would go according to script, with goals from Boyd, McFadden and Stephen McManus giving McLeish’s side a 3-1 win over the Lithuanians.

A few days later, Scotland would head to Paris to play the French. What followed would be a game no Scotland fan would ever forget. Again, they would keep Les Bleus at bay in the first half against a barrage of attack, before, just after the hour mark, and completely against the run of play, McFadden would launch an absolute screamer that caught out Mikael Landeau to give Scotland the lead! The stunned French couldn’t fight back, and Scotland had done the double over them!

Scotland now led the group by a point, with Italy second and France two behind in third. And victory over Slovakia at Hampden, with McFadden, Miller and Lee McCulloch scoring in a 3-1 win, would put Scotland within sight of something quite incredible. Even more so than pipping the Germans four years earlier.

Victory in both their last two games would take them through…

First up, Georgia away…

McLeish and his team were well up for this one, but so were the hosts, and it would be they who struck first through Levan Mchedlidze. The hosts would defend firm throughout the first half and take a shock lead into half time. Scotland were in trouble.

As the second half began, Scotland forced forwards, and would deservedly equalise through a McFadden volley. But, just minutes later, David Siradze would give the hosts the lead again, and it looked like it wouldn’t be Scotland’s night.

With ten minutes to go, and Scotland needing two goals to maintain their group advantage, McLeish would make a substitution in midfield: Paul Hartley would come off, and be replaced by a young Celtic teammate of his, who’d been included in the squads for the past three matches, but hadn’t played yet, so this would be his competitive debut; his name was Scott Brown.

Shortly afterwards, Scotland would get a corner; Fletcher would take it, and Miller would get a header on it for the equaliser. Then, with injury time almost up, Scotland would make one last push forwards. Miller beat the defence and launched it goalwards, only for the ball to smack against the far side post.

However, who would the rebound fall to, but young Mr Brown, who, cool as you like, slotted it home to send the travelling Tartan Army and the fans at home into raptures!

The dramatic win kept Scotland top of the group, and victory over third place Italy in their final game would send them through. But a defeat coupled with a French victory in their final game would see Les Bleus pip them.

Hampden was rocking for the make or break game against the World champions. But the noise was subdued somewhat when Luca Toni once again opened the scoring in just the second minute. They led until the break, but midway through the second half, Ferguson would score a leveller that caused an almighty cheer across the country!

Sadly, it wasn’t to be, as a rather dubious last minute free kick to the visitors would lead to Christian Panucci headering in a last minute winner. (Though, to be fair, Ferguson’s goal would turn out, on replay, to have been off side)

The result meant Scotland would still be vulnerable, and all eyes now turned to Slovakia for France’s final game against them four nights later. Les Bleus would lead 2-1 at half time, but Vittek would equalise early in the second half, and his side would hold on for the draw.

The final whistle in Bratislava would be greeted with huge cheers 1,500 miles away; Scotland had done it!

The final table for Group B​

Down at Wembley, meanwhile, another 2-2 draw would be greeted by very different cheers, of relief rather than joy, as Steve McClaren’s England secured the single point they needed against Croatia to join Scotland in the Alps the following summer.

The final table for Group E​

For France, though, the failure to qualify, less than 18 months after being within a penalty shootout of winning the World Cup, would go down as one of the most embarrassing episodes in French football history. Manager Raymond Domenech would pay the price with his job, though he wasn’t out of work for long, as he would take charge of Premier League strugglers Birmingham City less than a week later. He would be succeeded as France manager by a returning Gerard Houllier, who would thus get a chance at redemption after his own failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.

McLeish had reportedly been Birmingham’s first choice, but had turned them down; there was no way he would be abandoning his country when they had a Euros to look forward to…

to be continued…

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Now that's more like it! Not exactly surprising, especially if you remember that thread I started a few months back, but who cares?! Scotland are at Euro 2008! (As they really should've been IOTL) And England too, as I'd like to think Scotland still being in with a chance of qualifying would spur them on to get a result in that Croatia match...

If you're wondering why Slovakia have replaced Ukraine in the group, Scotland's much better showing in the last two qualifying campaigns means they are seeded higher than IOTL, so they go up to Pot 3 and push Slovakia into Pot 4. (So Ukraine go into Group D; they and Slovakia had very similar campaigns, so it's a simple enough switch)

Anyway, how will McLeish's team (and McClaren's) fare in the Alps? Tune back in next week to find out!

 

[jmmcb94]

Euro 2008, Part 1​

A few weeks after Scotland and England secured their qualification for Euro 2008, they would find out their opponents in the group stage as the draw took place. Both found themselves in the lowest pot of the draw, with Scotland actually the lowest ranked team in the tournament; the English FA objected to their lower ranking, and UEFA announced the coefficient system would be reviewed for future rankings…

The draw for Euro 2008​

Alex McLeish and his team were reasonably satisfied with the draw, even though two of their opponents would be the same as four years earlier; they had, after all, actually beaten Greece. With Spain the fairly obvious group favourites, most expected the games that would matter most would be those between them, the Greeks and Sweden.

When McLeish announced his squad for the tournament, there was a general feeling among observers that this was the strongest group of 23 Scotland had taken to a tournament for a long time. The only real weakness in the team was that there were only two wingers being taken, Chris Burke and Barry Robson, though given that Scotland’s most favoured formation was still 4-3-1-2, it wasn’t an enormous problem.

The campaign would also be an emotional one for the Scots as, less than a month before their first game of the tournament, former assistant manager Tommy Burns would sadly lose his battle with skin cancer. His passing triggered a wave of sorrow across the country, including on the other side of the Old Firm divide, with his good friends Walter Smith and Ally McCoist serving as pallbearers at his funeral.

As Scotland’s players and staff departed for Austria at Glasgow Airport, a large group of supporters turned up to see them off. Amidst the crowd, McLeish and the players caught sight of one rather large banner being held up that made them all rather emotional: it read ‘DO IT FOR TOMMY’.

For the second Euros in a row, Scotland would kick off against Spain.

As the two teams walked out onto the pitch in Innsbruck, the atmosphere was electric, with both sets of fans making a terrific noise. Both were semi-confident that this could finally be their tournament, but were also wary due to the many years of underachievement that had come beforehand.

The match, sadly, would be one to forget for the Scots; Spain were simply too strong, with David Villa scoring a hat-trick to fire them into a 3-0 lead before they could even get a shot on target. McFadden did, at least, manage to score a consolation in the 86th minute, before Fabregas made it four for Spain in injury time.

A poor start, but at least they had got the toughest match out of the way. Compared to England, who had faltered badly in their first, and ostensibly easiest, game against Romania, drawing 0-0.

Things would get worse for McClaren and his team in their second game against the Netherlands. Not only would they be hammered 4-1 by Marco van Basten’s side, but also David Beckham, who had always had a tough relationship with McClaren after being dropped earlier in his reign, would react rather badly when he was subbed off at half time, and duly announced after the game that he didn’t want to play for England anymore while he was manager.

The other players sided with Becks and became rather restless in training for the final game against world champions Italy; it looked like, whatever happened in that game, McClaren wouldn’t be staying much longer…

Scotland’s next game, meanwhile, would be against their old friends Greece in Salzburg. They’d also lost their first game, 2-0 to the Swedes, so they’d also likely need a win for keep themselves realistically in the tournament.

In the event, the game ended up being rather similar to the game between the two at the previous tournament, with both teams attacking well, but coming up against strong defensive performances by their opponents. And it would get the same outcome as well, as a single first half goal from Darren Fletcher would give McLeish’s team the victory that kept them in the tournament, and ensured Greece’s defense of their title was almost certainly over before it had even begun…

This, coupled with Spain beating Sweden in the other game that day, as expected, meant the final group game between the Scots and the Swedes would be winner takes all, though a draw would be enough for Zlatan and co to go through on goal difference.

The day before, England’s calamitous campaign ended with a whimper as Italy ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Pirlo and De Rossi. McClaren duly announced his resignation as manager in his post-match interview, which was almost certainly him jumping before he got pushed; ironically, it would be a certain Italian who would be replacing him, with a brief to sort this mess out ahead of the World Cup qualifiers…

The final table for Group C​

Scotland, meanwhile, would be returning to Innsbruck for the make-or-break game against Sweden. They would be the slim favourites, but, if there was one thing Scotland had become rather good at in the past few years, it was winning as underdogs…

The game started somewhat tentatively, with the two teams trying to feel each other out, before the forwards started to get more adventurous. Sweden started to dominate in that sense, with Allan McGregor, now first choice keeper following Rab Douglas’ retirement from international duty two years earlier, saving from both Ibrahimovic and veteran Celtic legend Henrik Larsson.

Following one such save, the Rangers stopper launched the ball up field, and the ball landed with captain Ferguson, who slipped it through to Miller, whose first touch completely outfoxed the Swedish defence, before he calmly slotted it past Andreas Isaksson. With their first real chance of the game, Scotland had the lead! (Some would later compare the goal to Paul Gascoigne's famous goal against the Scots at Euro 96!)

Sweden, in fairness, responded well and continued to push forward, but the goal had given Scotland a fresh bout of impetus, and the defenders and McGregor defended their lead well. And, come half time, they still led 1-0.

As the second half began, it looked like it would be more of the same, with Sweden pushing forwards in search of an equaliser. However, they’d reckoned without Scott Brown, now very much a first choice for the midfield three after his heroics in qualifying; as one attack broke down, he caught a loose ball, and gave it to McFadden, who slipped forwards and fired goalbound, catching Isaksson out completely and making it 2-0 Scotland!

It wasn’t quite as spectacular as his now very famous goal against France, but it was another pretty special goal and moment that would go down in the annals of Scottish football history.

And it would have very much the same effect on the opponents as that game: Sweden were pretty much stunned into submission and the wind quickly fell out of their sales. They continued to push, but McGregor and the defenders were dealing quite comfortably with their efforts. Even the normally mercurial Zlatan seemed to have run out of steam by the time he was subbed off with 10 minutes to go.

As the full time whistle blew, Scotland’s players and fans celebrated as they marched on into the group stage for only the second time!

The final table for Group D​

As McLeish and the players headed towards the section of the stadium where the main body of the Tartan Army were, they caught sight of another banner, not the same one they’d seen before, but its message was exactly the same: ‘DO IT FOR TOMMY’.

to be continued…

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Onwards Scotland go! As I said in Jan's thread a couple of weeks back, this Scotland team was, objectively, the best we've had this century, so, if they had made it to this tournament and got a favourable draw, I honestly think the momentum of qualification could've pushed them on to get some good results. (Mind you, this is Scotland that we're talking about!) And, before anyone asks, yes, the Sweden game is partly based on that Scotland game with the Czechs in this year's Euros.

And, yeah, England bomb completely here, so a certain Italian will now be taking over as per OTL. And, again, yes, their campaign is partly based on a certain other nation's campaign in a certain future tournament IOTL.

Spoiler

You can probably work out what I'm talking about, in which case you can probably gather that that particular campaign won't be happening in ITTL. And that's not all that could be changing re that nation...

So, next up for Scotland, it's the Dutch. How will McLeish's team fare against the Oranje? Tune back in next week to find out...!

 

[jmmcb94]

Euro 2008, Part 2​

2008 had been already been a most memorable year for Scottish football. That season’s Premier League had been a dramatic one, with Celtic pipping Rangers to the title on the final day on what their fans call ‘Helicopter Thursday’ (a reference to when Rangers did likewise to them on ‘Helicopter Sunday’ three years prior). The final round of matches being moved to Thursday had been necessitated by a large fixture backlog due to numerous bad weather cancellations as well as Rangers’ memorable underdog run to the UEFA Cup final, where they were far from disgraced in a 2-0 loss to Zenit St Peterburg.

Spare a thought for poor Gretna though, who, having made it all the way to the Prem with three successive promotions, found themselves completely out of their depth, before their owner Brooks Mileson withdrew his funding due to illness (he died that November), which brought about the club’s collapse at the end of the season.

The English Premier League had also seen a dramatic finale, with Manchester United narrowly pipping Arsenal to the title; many Gunners fans blame an injury to leading striker Eduardo late in the season (which also ruled him out of the Euros for Croatia) for that narrow miss. Arsene Wenger was thus looking to bolster his striking options, and was keeping one eye on the Euros…

Scotland’s quarter-final match against the Netherlands would be the third quarter-final, and would have to follow up two rather dramatic games. The first had been a five goal thriller between Portugal and Germany, while the second, between Croatia and Turkey, would later be described by BBC commentator Steve Wilson as “one of the worst 119 mins of football ever followed by of the best 60 seconds”!

Alex McLeish and his team would be heavy underdogs for the game. The Dutch had come through the group stage with three wins, including a 4-1 thumping of the lacklustre England and victory over world champions Italy. The Tartan Army were going to have to be in exceptionally fine voice for this one to make sure the team knew they fully behind them.

The match would be in Basel, and it really was a tremendous atmosphere with both sets of fans trying desperately to out-sing each other! Both sides were fielding strong line-ups; Scotland would be in their usual 4-3-1-2, with Allan McGregor in goal, a back four of Alan Hutton, David Weir and the Garys Caldwell and Naysmith, a midfield three of Brown, Fletcher and captain Ferguson, and the now standard front three of Miller and Boyd with McFadden just behind them.

As the match kicked off, the Dutch started like a train on fire, with their attackers piling forwards and putting pressure on McGregor and the defenders from the off. They met the challenge well to be fair, surrounding them and forcing some speculative shots that either went wide or which McGregor just about managed to save.

Scotland had their moments too, getting some shots away, but none seriously challenged van der Sar in the Dutch goal, apart from one speculative shot from McFadden that forced him into a good save.

The first half ended goalless, and somehow the game was still goalless despite the multitude of chances both sides had had, though Scotland could probably be seen as the luckier of the two in the sense the Dutch had had more. It seemed inevitable that goals would come in the second half.

As the second half began, the Dutch would attempt to boost their attack by bringing on Robin van Persie. The Arsenal man made his impact felt immediately, forcing McGregor into a strong save.

More chances came and went, before Barry Ferguson received the ball on the wing from Caldwell in defence; he crossed the ball sublimely into the box, straight to Kenny Miller, who calmly slotted it past van der Sar! Scotland were in front!

The Dutch were stunned, and McLeish could clearly tell, as he shouted from the sidelines for his team to go for the kill! With this newfound confidence, Scotland pushed forwards, with van der Sar now being easily the busier of the two keepers. On one occasion, Boyd received the ball from McFadden, and fired it goalboard, only for the Manchester United keeper to make a great point blank save.

The Dutch had weathered the Scottish storm, and began to find their shooting ability again, as they surged forwards in search of an equaliser. But, entering the final moments, Scotland still led 1-0, and it looked like they might just hold on for what would undoubtedly be the finest moment in their history.

But, alas, they couldn’t. With just four regular minutes left, a long distance freekick into the box fell nicely to the head of van Nistelrooy, who knocked it home past McGregor to rescue the Dutch. It was a heartbreaker for the Scots, but they couldn’t say it hadn’t been coming, nor that the Dutch didn’t deserve it.

Full time came with no further goals, and extra time would decide the game…

The first half of it came and went, and still the two sides remained level, though both had chances, with McGregor saving shots from Sneijder and van Persie, and Miller forcing van der Sar into a save from a long looped shot.

Heading into the second half of extra time, it was still either team’s game, and both managers’ minds must’ve been turning to penalties and who’d be taking them. It would be an unusual experience for Scotland, who had never encountered a penalty shootout before.

But then, eight minutes to go, Gary O'Connor, who'd replaced Boyd late in the second regular half, would find himself isolated on the wing, and speculatively lobbed the ball into the box, and it looked like it would be an easy enough catch for van der Sar. Instead, as he backpedalled, he lost his balance and the ball went over his head, straight to the feet of fellow second half sub Paul Hartley, who just about managed to tap it in! Scotland lead again!

Like last time, McLeish urged his team not to sit back and to keep pushing forwards; the Dutch seemed to have had the wind pulled out of their sails completely by the goal, and were now starting to panic, with their play at both ends becoming rather rushed and desperate.

Then, with just four minutes to go, the ball went out of play next to the dugouts; Hutton took the throw-in quickly, straight to McFadden, who snuck forwards completely unmarked and lobbed it over van der Sar and into the net! 3-1! Surely Scotland had done it now!

Indeed they had! The Dutch could not respond to this quickfire setback. The final whistle blew, and Scotland had made yet more history! The entire squad ran onto the pitch celebrating, along with McLeish and the coaching staff, and the noise from the fans was like you’d never heard them before! It was a night none of them would ever forget!

Back home, the celebrations would continue long into the night (not least because it happened to be a Saturday night!), with choruses of Flower of Scotland (with ‘Proud Edward’s Army’ often changed to ‘van Basten’s Army’!) being heard across the country until early morning! Every single Scottish person would remember where they were that day!

The next day, once everyone had recovered, they would find out their opponents for the semi-final…

to be continued…

----------

And, just like that, Scotland are through to the semi-finals! Yeah, basically the same match as that the Dutch with Russia IOTL, with maybe a few minor superficial changes.

A quick update on the leagues as well; no real changes from OTL yet, apart from Arsenal remaining in the title race a bit longer that season thanks to Eduardo being fit a bit longer (as Domenech decided not to recall Martin Taylor like McLeish did IOTL, thus butterflying away that infamous tackle). Keep tuned in though, we will be getting some changes both sides of the border later ITTL, one of which I suspect will please at least one of you very much so!

So, next up for Scotland, a semi-final against Spain; they couldn't, could they? We shall find out next week!

 

[jmmcb94]

Euro 2008, Part 3​

It’s fair to say, success and the Scotland national team aren’t exactly synonymous. For many years, they had been the perennial underachievers of international football. Many times, especially in the 1970s, they had had a team that was, objectively, among the best in the world, but, for whatever reason, they had never lived up to their full potential.

So, when Alex McLeish and his team made history by defeating the Netherlands to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2008, the whole country found itself in a state of football madness that it had never known before; one that made Ally MacLeod’s hype heading into the 1978 World Cup seem calm by comparison!

For the four days between the Netherlands victory and the semi-final, the whole nation was talking of little else. BBC Radio Scotland was pretty much football, football, football 24/7, with veterans of squads from years gone by, especially that from the other famous Netherlands victory in ’78, being trotted out to sing the current squad’s praises, with most calling their performance justice after all those near misses of years gone by.

The one thing everyone didn’t seem to be talking about was the semi-final itself, mainly, it appeared, because of who they were playing: the tournaments favourites Spain, who Scotland had already lost to heavily in the group stage. A cynical person would say the country was enjoying the moment while they could, in anticipation of a repeat result; they would be entirely correct, of course, but, after so many years of underachievement, why on Earth shouldn’t they make the most of it?!

In the days following their victory, McLeish and his players had been having a well-deserved rest, trying hard to avoid snooping journos and keeping their minds focussed on the big game to come. It was pretty much a free shot for them: they hadn’t been expected to get this far, nor were they expected to beat Spain, nor, for once, would there be any result that would disappoint their supporters; the mood was partly comparable to that of a non-league team getting drawn against a Premier League big hitter in the FA Cup.

So, with nothing to lose or left to prove, they were just gonna go out and flat out go for it…

The big day eventually came. The whole country came to a standstill once again that evening in late June for the biggest game in the history of Scottish football. The rest of the country was tuning in too; ITV/STV were covering the match, with huge ratings later reported for both the live match and the highlights on BBC1 after the news. The eyes of the whole country, for the first time in a long time, were going to be on a Scotland team…

As the two teams walked out onto the pitch of the Ernst-Happel Stadion in Vienna, the roar that went up from the crowd could probably be heard back in Scotland itself. In fact, it could, because an identical roar went up across the country at the same time! McLeish had made no changes to the starting XI from the semi-final; nor had Spain, whose game had also gone to extra time (and penalties), so the two teams were very much even on that front.

The match kicked off, and straight from the off, Spain set their stall out with a barrage of attack on Alan McGregor’s goal, with the Rangers man immediately forced into a save from David Villa. More attacks came, but McGregor and the defenders managed to hold their own and keep the Spanish attack at bay.

Scotland’s tactic of just flat out going for it struggled to gain traction at first, but, eventually, the three attackers managed to break forwards and carve out some chances. They weren’t always great chances, with Casillas rarely troubled seriously, but at least it showed that they weren’t going back on what they said they’d do.

Spain had the best chance of the half, with Xavi skipping through the defence virtually single handed and going one-on-one with McGregor, but the Rangers keeper managed to psych him out and forced him to sideways it backwards to Iniesta, whose shot wasn’t great and an easy save.

Half time came, and it was still goalless; Scotland had kept Spain out for the entire first half, and no-one could say they hadn’t played well in it. Spain had clearly been the better team, but Scotland had been able to stand up to them so far, and who knows what could’ve happened in the second half.

But, as the second half began, Spain began to redouble their efforts, surging forwards much faster and harder than Scotland possibly could. And, five minutes into the half, they finally got their reward as Xavi managed to give McGregor the slip and fire it home to give La Roja the lead.

It had been coming, but Scotland didn’t flinch at all; it was to be expected, so it made no difference to their gameplan, they were just going to keep going for it as best they could.

McFadden, Miller and O’Connor, subbed on for Boyd for the second game in a row, started to push forwards, and, at last, Casillas was getting tested properly. McFadden, at one point, received the ball from Brown and managed to carry it into the box and fire it goalbound, but Casillas made a great save to deny him another famous goal.

With twenty minutes to go, it was still 1-0 and every chance something could happen. Miller managed to force Casillas into another save from a fine edge of the box shot; from the resulting clearance, Fabregas collected the ball and forwarded it to Dani Guiza, who fired a similar shot at McGregor, who impressively and quickly parried it out for a corner.

Puyol floated the corner in, and the ball found Guiza again, and this time there was nothing McGregor could do about it: 2-0 Spain.

That goal pretty much killed off any chances Scotland might have had of another famous result. They kept pushing forwards, but Spain were now comfortable in defence and seeing the game out.

And, when David Silva received a sublime cross from Iniesta and fired in a third with eight regular minutes to go, that really was game over. There was nothing more Scotland could do. The final whistle blew and Spain proceeded to the final against Germany.

McLeish gallantly shook hands with Luis Aragones, and the players on the pitch shared warm embraces with their opponents. Scotland had given La Roja a great game, but the Spanish had been too strong for them once again in the end.

But the Tartan Army in the stadium and those watching at home didn’t care. They had kept on singing even after the third goal had gone in and were still going so long after the final whistle as they left the stadium and out into the Vienna night. They’d been magnificent the whole tournament and no-one begrudged it to them at all.

Even the Spanish management and supporters, who had been somewhat disdainful towards the Scots after the ‘fixed result’ of four years earlier, admitted afterwards that Scotland’s players and fans had been terrific all tournament and had been a credit to their nation.

The results of the Euro 2008 knockout stage​

When McLeish and the players arrived back at Glasgow Airport the next day, they were greeted by a crowd about three times as large as that that had arrived to see them off a few weeks prior, with even prime minister Gordon Brown and first minister Alex Salmond showing up to welcome them home! None of them, as they got off the plane said anything, other than encouraging the fans to keep up their end of the good work; they’d been the twelfth man for the entirety of their historic run and they certainly didn’t want that to change.

Now, though, came the small matter of keeping this newfound momentum going, maybe even bettering at, as South Africa loomed into view…

----------

And so Scotland's historic tournament is over. But what a ride it was. And they went down fighting against one of the greatest international sides of all time; no disgrace in that.

So, qualifying for South Africa next, another infamously awful campaign in more ways than one IOTL; will things be any better with McLeish sticking around? And what else might potentially change from OTL thanks to this performance? We shall find out, or, at least, start to find out, next week!

 

[jmmcb94]

2010 World Cup Qualifying​

Following their historic run at Euro 2008, Scotland’s footballers had suddenly found themselves thrust into the limelight. After sitting in the shadow of their southern neighbours for many years, and even more so following the rise of the Premier League, neutral interest in Scottish players and teams began to rise again, with Sky announcing more live Scottish Premier League games for the 2008-09 season, with the non-Old Firm teams getting more live games and, thus, more money.

Therefore, Raith Rovers, who had narrowly pipped Hamilton to top spot in the previous season’s First Division to return to the Prem after 11 years away, couldn’t have timed it any better…

As for the players themselves, they suddenly found themselves being linked with all sorts of big money transfers, though few would actually make a big summer switch. Among those who did, Kenny Miller, who’d just finished bottom of the English Prem table with that Derby team, was expected to make a sensational switch back across the Old Firm divide to Rangers; that was, until Newcastle United gazumped the Ibrox team and brought him to St James Park. (It would later emerge that the move was engineered by Mike Ashley and not manager Kevin Keegan, who duly resigned just a month into the season…)

By far the biggest winner, though, was James McFadden, whose spectacular performances for his country had caught the eye of a Mr A. Wenger, who was needing a new forward to cover for the still injured Eduardo (whose previously minor leg injury had been exacerbated in a pre-season friendly), and so, when he offered Everton 15m for the former Motherwell man, he headed to the Emirates…

As for Alex McLeish, he was quietly confident that Scotland could build on their famous run in the Alps; their qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had been a generous one, in the only five team group, alongside Norway, Iceland, Macedonia and their old friends the Netherlands…

Scotland would open their campaign away at Macedonia in Skopje. It was their first game since the semi-final, and there was a strange sense in the air, as if it was a bit weird going back to the start of qualifying after such a long historic run just months earlier…

The mood carried over into the game, as Macedonia took a shock lead after just six minutes courtesy of Ilco Naumoski. Goals from Miller and Darren Fletcher would turn the game around for a winning start, but it wasn’t exactly a polished performance from McLeish’s team…

It was the same story a few days later, when Scotland played Iceland in Reykjavik: another 2-1 win, with McFadden and Kirk Broadfoot the goalscorers before Eidur Gudjohnsen pulled one back from the penalty spot, but not exactly a sparkling performance compared to the heights of the Euros and the preceding qualifiers.

Next up a month later, Scotland would welcome Norway to Hampden, which was packed out the door for the first home game since the Euros run. Sadly, once again, the game itself would prove most forgettable and sticky, though, in the end, McLeish’s team would prevail 1-0 courtesy of a goal from Kris Boyd late in the first half; low point of the game was in the second half when substitute debutant Chris Iwelumo missed an open goal to make it 2-0.

Nonetheless, at the end of what many called Scottish football’s ‘Annus mirabilis’, McLeish’s team were joint top of the group with the Dutch with three wins; the first game of the new year would be between the two in Amsterdam…

Alas, there would be no repeat performance this time. At half time in that game, Scotland were 2-0 down courtesy of goals from Huntelaar and van Persie, and a bit lucky it wasn’t more. McFadden would pull one back early in the second half, but a late penalty converted by Dirk Kuyt would secure the three points for the Dutch.

The next game would be Iceland at home a few days later, but the day before the game, pictures appeared in several newspapers of captain Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Alan McGregor out drinking following the Dutch defeat. Both quickly apologised for their behaviour, but an unimpressed McLeish nonetheless fined them both a day’s wages and dropped both to the bench for the Iceland game.

Scotland thus lined up at Hampden with Craig Gordon in goal, Darren Fletcher taking the armband and newcomer Ross McCormack taking Ferguson’s place in, what would now be, a 4-2-2-2 formation (it was the first time Scotland hadn’t lined up 4-3-1-2 in a competitive game since before the 2002 World Cup!). In the event, McCormack would be one of the goalscorers as Scotland ran out 4-1 winners, with another newcomer, Steven Fletcher, among the other goalscorers, alongside Miller and McFadden.

The pair’s continued goalscoring for their country was in stark contrast to that for their new clubs. McFadden, in particular, had been totally out of his depth at the Emirates, though being played out of position on the left wing instead of the more attacking role he was used to probably didn’t help. He did eventually score his first goal for the Gunners… on the last day of the season! Leading many Arsenal fans to nickname him ‘John McJensen’!

Miller was also struggling at St James’ Park, where he was struggling to break into the team ahead of Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins. Like McFadden, though, he would get a goal on the final day of the season, an important one as it was a late equaliser against Aston Villa that kept Newcastle up at Hull’s expense.

Despite this, though, he moved on at the end of the season, making the move to Rangers that he admitted he should’ve made a year earlier. His replacement at Newcastle? None other than the also moved on James McFadden!

Before they could begin at their new clubs, though, they returned to international duty for a rare August international fixture, as Scotland travelled to Oslo to face Norway. It would be a good game too, with McFadden opening the scoring before John Arne Rise equalised for the hosts. Mort Gamst Pedersen would then give them the lead on the stroke of half time, before Steven Fletcher pulled Scotland level again early in the second half. Alas, for the Scots, Pedersen would score a third to win the game just before extra time could be ticked into…

Nonetheless, Scotland were still in a solid position; six ahead of Norway with two games left each (with the Dutch now uncatchable at the top). So, victory over Macedonia at Hampden in the next game would secure them second place and a place in the play-offs, which 15 points would almost certainly be enough to qualify for.

And win they did, with Brown and McFadden the goalscorers in a 2-0 victory that secured second place in the group. (Though, as it happened, Norway only managed a draw with Iceland, so they couldn’t have caught them anyway)

Scotland would end the campaign at home to the Dutch, a game where both sides very much took it easy, both having already secured what they wanted; in the end, the Dutch would take the game thanks to a late goal from Eljero Elia.

The final table for Group 9​

The draw for the play-offs came a month later, with Scotland in the top half of the draw, and they would find themselves drawn against Serbia, who had narrowly finished second in their group behind Gerard Houllier’s France.

They would host the first leg in Belgrade, and would take the lead early in the second half through Nikola Zigic. But Scotland would deservedly pull level with ten minutes to go through Steven Fletcher, and would thus take a crucial away goal back to Hampden for the second leg.

Roared on by a capacity crowd at Hampden, Scotland would indeed get the job done, with Fletcher, his namesake Darren and McFadden all scoring as McLeish’s team won 4-2 on aggregate to secure their place at the first ever World Cup on African soil…

The results of the play-offs​

to be continued…

----------

So, not quite as spectacular or memorable as the Euros campaign, but, nonetheless, Scotland are through to South Africa!

This was a very easy chapter to write; I knew exactly what I was going to change, and it was quite simple and easy to work those changes out, which meant I could focus a bit more on changes in the leagues (hope you're happy QTX! Don't worry though Accies, your time will come!) I may decide to expand on league changes in an off-topic post sometime.

A couple of other slight changes in the qualifiers too, with France topping their group ahead of Serbia (the POD there being France winning their second game against the Serbs instead of drawing). And I also felt like I owed Russia after butterflying away their Euros run, so they don't choke in their second play-off leg against Slovenia and its them who go through.

So, two different teams will be heading to South Africa then; how will they fare and will anything else be changing for the other teams there? We shall find out, or start to at least, next week!

 

[jmmcb94]

Before our next update tomorrow, here's our first update on the leagues. I'll probably do one of these every two seasons, as it were...

England

​

Firstly, as I referred to in my previous posts, Newcastle stay up in 08-09 thanks to Kenny Miller scoring a late equaliser against Villa that sends Hull down in their place. Other than that, it's pretty much the same.

Meanwhile, in the Championship, George Burley takes charge of Birmingham City (as you were probably expecting), but is unable to lead them straight back to the Prem, finishing a narrow third with Kevin Blackwell's Sheffield United finishing second to go up alongside Wolves. Birmingham subsequently lose the play-off final to Owen Coyle's Burnley.

The 2009-10 Prem goes roughly the same as OTL, except with Newcastle, still managed by Alan Shearer, finishing ninth and Sheffield United finishing 19th and going straight back down. In the Championship, West Brom finish top and go straight back up, Nottingham Forest finish second to return to the Prem after an 11 year absense, and Blackpool beat Cardiff in the play-off final as per OTL.

Scotland
The 2008-09 season goes pretty much exactly the same as OTL, except with Raith in lieu of Hamilton of course.

The following season, however, sees Chris Hughton, not needed at Newcastle, taking over at Celtic in lieu of Tony Mowbray, who instead replaces Jimmy Calderwood at Aberdeen. The Dons thus fare a lot better than they did this season IOTL, finishing in the top half of the table, fourth behind the Old Firm and Dundee United.

The two Old Firm sides engage in a fiercely fought title race, with with victory for Chris Hughton's Celtic over Walter Smith's Rangers in the penultimate fixture putting the Bhoys just one behind going into the final round of fixtures. Despite Celtic beating Hearts 2-1, the title looks to be heading to Rangers, who lead Motherwell 3-1 going to added time; but a late goal from Steve Jennings and an even later penalty dispatched by Lukas Jutkiewicz earn Motherwell a point and hand the title to Celtic, in a straight reversal of Helicopter Sunday from five years earlier! (Yeah, I've copied and pasted this from an old post I made in the Alternate Results thread)

At the other end of the table, a similarly tense relegation battle is also decided on the final day. In the end, of the four teams who finish within three points of each other, Falkirk are the unlucky ones to go down after a goalless draw with Kilmarnock, while Raith beat St Johnstone 3-2 to secure their survival at the Bairns expense, finishing just one point clear in 11th place, with Killie 10th and St Mirren 9th.

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That's it for now then; I'll go back and add in a list of trophy winners and maybe some more tables at a later date. Tomorrow, we move on to South Africa...

 

[jmmcb94]

2010 World Cup, Part 1​

Having secured their qualification for the first World Cup to be held in Africa, Alex McLeish and Scotland awaited to see what sort of draw they’d get. In the event, they ended up with a moderately favourable group consisting of Germany, Australia and Ghana. It was a group Scotland could’ve had a good chance of getting out of, in theory anyway…

When McLeish named his squad for the tournament, it was a rather similar one to that that had done so well at the Euros two years earlier. Steven Naismith, who’d missed that tournament through injury, was included, as were Steven Fletcher, James Morrison and new first choice left back Lee Wallace, but, them aside, it was the same players as that Euros campaign.

As the team flew out to South Africa, rumours began to circulate that McLeish would be stepping down as manager after the tournament. Neither the manager, players or the SFA would comment on these rumours; they were determined to focus on the job in hand...

Scotland would open the tournament against Ghana in Pretoria. Once again, the Tartan Army would be very much the minority inside the Loftus Versfeld Stadium compared to, not just the hardcore Ghana support, but the local neutrals who would almost certainly be on their side as well. This, of course, wasn’t new for the Scotland fans; they were used to it by now, and, what they lacked in numbers, they could more than make up for in noise!

This time, though, the huge support for the other team was unlike anything they’d experienced before; even in Japan in 2002, they had never encountered an atmosphere against them like this. Not to mention the vuvuzelas as well…

Indeed, the players, lining up, as per usual, in a 4-3-1-2, seemed rather disturbed by this atmosphere, and didn’t seem to settle at all. Ghana were very much the better team in the first half, and it was entirely down to the superb performance of Alan McGregor that Scotland managed to keep themselves in the game.

Half time came, and somehow it was still goalless. Scotland would settle in more in the second half though, and began to create more chances of their own. And, halfway through the half, they would get their reward when Kenny Miller picked up a nice through ball from McFadden, and calmly slotted it beyond Richard Kingson to give Scotland the lead…

It was a lead, but it wasn’t decisive; a second would probably be needed. But Ghana dug in, keeping the Scotland attack at bay and pushing forward themselves in search of an equaliser.

Their pressure would eventually pay off when, with just five regular minutes to go, they were awarded a penalty after Andre Ayew was fouled by Alan Hutton. Asamoah Gyan’s shot was just too strong for McGregor, and the Black Stars had got their deserved equaliser.

They could well have stolen it at the death when Gyan beat Gary Caldwell and fired it goalbound, only for McGregor to, once again, make a great save to deny them the victory. The whistle duly blew, and 1-1 was a fair result on balance.

Next up for Scotland would be the big game of the group: Germany. They’d thumped Australia 4-0 in their first game, and, with probably their best squad in years, were very much the favourites.

Scotland, however, seemed a lot more at ease this time, in an atmosphere that was a lot more neutral compared to their first game (though the vuvuzelas remained, much to many of their players’ displeasure, not that they expressed it out loud!). They would more than match the Germans at first, with both McGregor and Manuel Neuer being kept on their toes.

Then, in the 37th minute, Barry Ferguson would be fouled by Miroslav Klose, for which the Bayern Munich would receive a second yellow and be sent off, putting the Germans down to ten men. From the resulting free kick, Brown would receive the ball on the wing, and crossed it into the box straight to McFadden, who rifled it past Neuer! Scotland led 1-0!

And that’s how it would remain until half time. Scotland were very much expecting a German onslaught in the second half, but, with a man down, they struggled to push forwards and Scotland seemed surprisingly comfortable.

Until, just before the hour mark, the Scotland defence would chase a speculative cross into the box, which no Germans were up for, and Stephen McManus would lose his balance, resulting in the ball hitting his hand. The ref duly awarded the Germans a penalty…

Podolski would take, but McGregor would guess the right way and push the ball away, with McManus just about managing to poke the rebound behind for a corner, which ultimately came to nothing.

Germany would continue to struggle forwards, with Scotland more than a match for them. And, as the final whistle blew, Scotland had pulled off one of their all time great World Cup results!

Scotland were now all but through to the knockout stage; they led the group with four points, with the Germans second on three, Ghana on two and Australia bottom on one. All they needed now was a draw against the Aussies and they’d be through for sure regardless of what happened in the other match, though a win would take them through as group winners…

Playing this time at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, Scotland started the game full of confidence following their now famous win over the Germans, but Australia were also well up for it; if they beat Scotland by a big enough margin, they’d go through in their place, though it would take a sizeable swing to do so.

Like the Germany game, it was a very back-and-forth first half, with both sides creating several chances and both McGregor and Mark Schwarzer being called into action to keep the scores down. With half-time looming, it was still 0-0, though no-one quite knew how…

But then, just as regular time ticked into injury time, Miller would fire a speculative shot at Schwarzer; he saved it, but couldn’t gather the ball, which fell nicely on the rebound to Kris Boyd, who tapped it home to give Scotland the lead!

Half time came, and Scotland were through as group winners, but there was still a half to go; anything could happen, either in this game or in the other game, which was still goalless.

As the second half began, Scotland threw caution to the wind and surged forwards in search of a second goal to kill the game off. But Australia stood firm and frustrated the attacks. News eventually came through that Germany had taken the lead against Ghana, which, as it stood, didn’t matter, as Scotland would still be through as group winners…

Australia, though, who had nothing to lose, began to push forwards and create chances themselves. An equaliser seemed more inevitable, and indeed it came, with Tim Cahill firing past McGregor, who had no chance, to pull level.

Worse was to come for Scotland just four minutes later, when Australian sub Brett Holman gave Hutton the slip and launched a speculative lob; McGregor backpedalled, but mistimed his jump and Australia had turned the game on its head! As it stood, though, Scotland were still through in second place on goal difference, and had a three goal cushion…

Nonetheless, McLeish wanted to make double sure, so he used his final sub to take Darren Fletcher off for Steven Naismith and switch to a 4-2-2-2 to push for an equaliser…

It was a switch that paid off as, with six minutes to go, Naismith managed to give the Australian midfield the slip and float the ball into the box towards fellow sub Steven Fletcher, whose powerful volleyed shot left Schwarzer powerless and gave Scotland the goal they needed.

McLeish still wanted the win though, and shouted at his players to go for the kill. Naismith would do so, and got another fine cross this time to Miller, but his shot was saved by Schwarzer. Australia pushed forwards themselves in the closing moments, but Scotland kept firm, and the final whistle brought huge cheers of delight from the Tartan Army.

The Germans had held on for the win in the other game though, meaning they’d have to settle for second place, but Scotland were quite happy with that; after all, they’d just reached a second knockout stage in a row for the first time!

The final table for Group D​

to be continued…

----------

So, here we are in South Africa at last, and, wouldn't you know it, Scotland have only gone and done it again!

I actually had to go back and re-write quite a bit of that final match after I found out, while compiling the tables, that ties were decided by goal difference and goals scored ahead of head-to-head this time, which actually removed quite a bit of the jeopardy from that final game! It also put pay to my idea to atone for butterflying away Ghana's run by having South Africa go through ahead of France and Mexico; the new rules, alas, mean Gerard Houllier's team go through instead...

​

Thankfully, I had a contingency plan to fall back on to make sure we got at least one African team into the knockouts...

So, how will Scotland fare in the second round, and who, for that matter, will they be playing? And what about the other two different R16ers that we know of? All will be revealed next week!

 

[jmmcb94]

2010 World Cup, Part 2​

So far, then, the 2010 World Cup had been OK, but not spectacular. With the exception of defending champs Italy crashing and burning in, what should’ve been, a straight forward group, there hadn’t been any major surprises in the group stage, apart from Switzerland beating Spain, but La Roja had quickly recovered from that.

For those hoping the African teams would make a meaningful breakthrough in the first World Cup to be held on the continent, it had also been a disappointment, with only one team, Cote D’Ivoire, reaching the knockout stage, and the other five, including hosts South Africa (albeit they were on goal difference), falling in the group stage.

And, of course, there were the vuvuzelas. But they were very much marmite as far as most fans were concerned…

For Alex McLeish and Scotland, it had been an odd tournament thus far. Yes, they’d beaten Germany, which is always a great result in any team’s books, but they’d been a tad lucky to get draws in their other two group stage games; they hadn’t been performing as well as they had at the Euros two years earlier, even though it was, mostly, the same team as that historic run.

Nonetheless, they had cleared the group and gone through in second place. In that scenario, Scotland might’ve been excepting to face their old friends England, who were the seeded team in Group C.

However, while not as bad as their infamously terrible Euros of two years earlier, which had seen the team mutiny against manager Steve McClaren, the Three Lions had once again endured a difficult tournament, drawing with the USA after an infamous howler from Rob Green, followed by a rotten goalless draw with Algeria, before a single goal from Jermaine Defoe gave them the win over Russia to send them through at their opponents’ expense.

However, the USA had beaten Algeria, and would thus top the group on goal difference, so it would be they who McLeish and his team would be facing in the Round of 16…

The match would take place at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg. Scotland would line up in an attacking 4-2-2-2 for the game, with a midfield paring of Ferguson and Darren Fletcher behind an attacking foursome of Naismith and McFadden on the outside and Miller and Steven Fletcher on the inside.

Many saw the switch away from the previously favoured 4-3-1-2, which, having long been the favoured formation, seemed to be falling out of favour among players and management alike, as a sign that Scotland were going to go for the proverbial jugular in this game. Many an England fan, fed up with Capello’s blind loyalty to 4-4-2, would be wishing their team would do the same…

Scotland would kick off the game, and, indeed, their attacking intent was clear from the off. Straight from the off, the attacking quartet would swarm forwards and force the USA defence back. They defended well to their credit, and they were restricted to a few speculative pot shots at first.

That was until McFadden fired one of his classic long shots goalbound towards the top corner, but Tim Howard would make a superb save to put the ball behind for a corner. Darren Fletcher would take that kick, and the ball flew straight to the head of an inrushing Ferguson, whose headed shot was no match for Howard; 1-0 Scotland!

The early goal really put Scotland’s tails up, as the attackers continued to pile forwards in search of more goals; it was a credit to the USA defenders and Howard that they were able to keep the four man attack at bay for the rest of the half. The closest Scotland came to increasing their lead was a fine shot from Miller; Howard would parry the ball straight into the path of McFadden, who looked certain to make it 2-0, only for Howard to make a frankly terrific backwards leaping dive to deny him.

Half time came, and Scotland’s lead remained 1-0. They had been in control for the most part, but the fact they had only scored one goal meant they weren’t totally relaxed. And their opponents seemed pretty confident that, having weathered the storm of the first half, they could still snatch something in the second…

Indeed, as the USA kicked the second half off, it looked like the teams’ forms had switched, as it was they who were surging forwards and forcing the Scottish defenders into action stations. If any team was going to score in this second half, it very much looked like it would be the Americans. Thankfully, Alan McGregor seemed a match for what they could throw at him so far…

Then, just after the hour mark, though, Clint Dempsey would receive the ball and slip through his markers through on goal. Gary Caldwell make a desperate attempt to tackle him off the ball in time, but misjudged it and took him down in the box. Yellow card to him, penalty to the USA…

It would be Landon Donovan to take the kick…

…but, to his horrow, McGregor guessed right and smothered the ball!

Within seconds, the Rangers stopper was being mobbed by his teammates! And the Tartan Army watching the game in the stadium and at home erupted as if they’d just scored a second goal!

That miss seemed to knock the Americans out of their stride, as Scotland began to control the game again and push forwards again. Miller would get their first shot of the second half, but Howard was able to comfortably hold the ball from it.

It now seemed inevitable that a second goal would come, but no-one could’ve envisioned how it would…

It came from a corner; Scott Brown, on a second half sub for Darren Fletcher, would take it and the ball would find Miller, but Howard would comfortably save it and it looked like it would be a simple clearance upfield in search of an equaliser.

Instead, he mistimed the kick horribly, and the ball hit Carlos Bocanegra on the back and went flying into the air back goalwards. Both he and Howard would backpedal to try and get to the ball, but both missed it completely and the ball deflected backwards into the net!

It was 2-0 Scotland in the most bizarre circumstances!

That howler, aside from being seen by England fans as karmic justice for what happened in their first match, would kill the US’s hopes of getting back into the game. Scotland would see the game out comfortably in the end, with both sides restricting each other to only half chances…

As the full time whistle blew, the Scotland players celebrated their victory; however, they were also very magnanimous towards their opponents, who’d given them a great game and, had two decisive moments in the second half worked out differently, could well have been the ones going through. As McLeish shooks hands with and embraced opposite number Bob Bradley, he could be lip-read saying to him “We’ve had many of those.”

Nonetheless, Scotland were through to the World Cup quarter-finals for the very first time! Standing in their way was a certain South American team in light blue shirts…

to be continued…

----------

Ooh, bit of a lucky one for Scotland there!

If you're wondering what on Earth that second goal was about, it happened to me when I was playing FIFA earlier! Honestly, it did; I took a clearance from a save too quickly and the ball hit a defender and went in! (Still won the match though, so no harm done)

As for the rest of the Round of 16, all the unaltered fixtures go the same as OTL, including Germany vs England. Ivory Coast give Spain a great fight, taking them to extra time before succumbing 3-1 (a bit like Germany vs Algeria in 2014).

As for Argentina vs France, though, I don't know, so I'm throwing this one to the floor: who do the rest of you think would win between Maradona's Argentina and the France team with Gerard Houllier as manager and minus the rebellion of OTL?

So, Scotland vs Uruguay next; will Scotland reach a second semi-final in a row, or will Suarez and co prove too much? We shall find out next week!

 

[jmmcb94]

27th June 2010
The day after Scotland beat the USA to reach the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup, the second day of the knockout stage saw two highly anticipated heavyweight second round ties. The first, Germany vs England, ended up a very one sided game, as Die Mannschaft soundly trounced the Three Lions 4-1, and it could've easily been more, though England could feel rightly aggrieved that Frank Lampard's goal that would've made it 2-2 was wrongly disallowed.

The second match of the day however, between Diego Maradona's Argentina and Gerard Houllier's France, would prove one of the best matches of the whole tournament...

La Albiceleste took the lead just before the half hour mark, though Carlos Tevez's goal was a controversial one, as replays would show he was quite clearly offside when he received the ball from Lionel Messi. The Manchester City striker would score a second to make it 2-0 seven minutes into the second half, and Maradona's team looked to be heading into the quarter-finals again.

However, Les Bleus would pull one back just eight minutes later, Lassana Diarra picking up the ball unmarked from a corner and firing it home. The revitalised French pushed for an equaliser, but, as the 80 minute mark neared, they still trailed 2-1.

But then, they were awarded a free kick just shy of the half way line; Florent Malouda took the kick, and the ball looked to have missed everyone in the box and heading out for a goal kick, only for Thierry Henry to intervene and quite clearly handle the ball twice to keep it in play, allowing William Gallas to fire in an equaliser! The furious Argentines surrounded the referee telling him what had happened, but it was no use; the goal stood.

The irony of a team managed by Maradona getting cheated by a handball did not go unremarked upon!

Normal time fizzled out into a 2-all draw, and the game would go to extra time. Despite both teams' best effort, no further goals came in the 30 extra minutes, and the game went to penalties. And, from a neutral point of view, justice was done, as Anelka and Nasri would both miss their spot kicks (though Henry would score his), while Argentina converted all four of theirs to take the win and the place in the quarter-finals against Germany...

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Just a quick little extra ahead of tomorrow's update. Apologies for un-butterflying the Henry incident, but it's frankly too 'iconic' to lose completely IMO; plus the fact it happens on the same day as the Lampard incident and in the same game as the Tevez offside goal makes sense in the context of the calls for GLT, VAR and the like that followed those incidents IOTL.

Anyway, now that's out of the way; tomorrow, the big one, as Scotland play Uruguay for a place in the semi-finals!

 

[jmmcb94]

2010 World Cup, Part 3​

After a rather meh group stage, the 2010 World Cup had improved considerably in the knockout stages, with the match between Argentina and France a memorable high-quality clash (though not necessarily for the right reasons) and the last remaining African representatives Cote D’Ivoire taking European champions Spain all the way to extra time before succumbing 3-1. At the end of it, we had a quarter-final line-up of four European teams and four South American teams, and a draw that ended up pitting one of each against each other.

For Alex McLeish and Scotland, their performances so far had been maybe a notch lower quality than their iconic Euro 2008 run, with their only unarguably good performance being in their famous win over the Germans, which England’s capitulation against Der Mannschaft in the Round of 16 made all the more satisfying! Nonetheless, they were into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time, and now had the chance to reach a second successive semi-final!

Their opponents were to be Uruguay, who had got off to a false start with a narrow defeat to France, but had recovered well by winning both their other two group matches and then comfortably seen off South Korea. They would be starting the game very much as favourites, but Scotland had developed a habit of winning when not expected to over the past few years…

The match would take place in Johannesburg, in the stadum that, in just over a week’s time, would be hosting the final of the tournament! Whoever won would face a semi-final against the Netherlands, who had beaten Brazil earlier that same day…

Scotland would line-up against La Celeste with a near identical line-up to the win over the USA, save for Steven Caldwell replacing McManus in defence, lining up alongside his brother Gary, and Boyd starting up front with Steven Fletcher on the bench.

The match started slowly at first, with the teams trying to feel each other out, before Uruguay had the first major chance of the game, as Edinson Cavani gave Alan Hutton the slip and fired at Alan McGregor, who made a good palming save. The resulting corner would see Diego Forlan’s header go harmlessly wide.

Scotland’s first real chance came from Naismith, who forced Uruguay keeper Fernando Muslera into a good save with a shot from the edge of the box. But, in all honesty, it was a poor quality first half, with both teams sort of cancelling each other out and restricting each other to half chances. Scotland might’ve taken the lead right on the stroke of half time, but Ferguson’s long range shot was just about tipped away by Muslera.

Half time came, and still no goals had come, and both teams looked rather disappointed and frustrated as they trudged off into the dressing room. The fans watching in the stadium and watching at home, who’d been hoping for both teams to be going flat out for a place in the semi-finals, would’ve felt similar; some in the stadium even booed the half time whistle.

None of them expected what was to come next.

McLeish made a half time gamble of bringing on two substitutes, with one Fletcher, Darren, going off, to be replaced by Scott Brown, and the other, Steven, coming on to replaced Boyd. Uruguay had already been forced to make one substitution in the first half, and would make a second just after the match had restarted, so it wasn’t that risky a gamble in that sense…

At first, the second half went very much the same as the first, with both sides attempting to push forward and get a breakthrough, but be restricted by the opposition defence to half chances and pot shots which were easily saved.

Then, ten minutes into the half, that breakthrough came, and not the way McLeish and Scotland would’ve hoped, as Diego Forlan gave both Caldwell brothers the slip and launched a powerful shot that McGregor had no chance at all of saving. It was a sucker punch that Scotland still had time to recover from, but things would now be very much against them…

McLeish would make his final sub, with James Morrison replacing Naismith in the hope of adding some fresh legs to the attack, but Uruguay were now content to sit tight and defend the lead, and try to catch Scotland on the break if they could…

One such opportunity presented itself just before the 70 minute mark, as Scotland lost the ball on the edge of the Uruguay box, and Nicolas Lodeiro received the ball on the wing, and the break was on. He attempted to thread the ball forwards to Luis Suarez, but just as he was about the receive the ball, Scott Brown slid in and wiped him out.

The Ajax man furiously got to his feet and angrily confronted Brown, pushing him backwards and so nearly sending onto his backside. The Celtic man responded in kind, and before anyone knew it, the two were at loggerheads!

Their teammates, including both keepers, desperately tried to break them up, but both had to be physically restrained to stop them doing something they might regret. The referee ended up showing both players yellow cards, which infuriated Suarez even further, as he felt Brown should’ve been sent off and himself not carded at all.

So pumped up was he that, when play eventually resumed, he grabbed the ball and insisted he take the free kick himself…

The resulting kick could only be described as ‘just magnificent’, as it was an absolute rocket of a shot that McGregor didn’t even get a chance to react to; first thing he knew of the ball was it hitting the back of the net. 2-0 Uruguay.

Suarez responded by charging away and screaming in Brown’s face, probably hoping to get him sent off, but this time the Celtic man managed to restrain himself and not take the bait, which seemed to fire up his nemesis even more!

Straight from the kick, he launched himself forwards to try and catch Scotland out cold, and so very nearly did so, robbing Morrison and charging forwards, only for Gary Caldwell to slide in and take the ball off him. Suarez went down screaming for another foul, but the referee, rightly, judged that Caldwell had got the ball.

After all that excitement, Scotland now found themselves staring at elimination, unless they could do something remarkable, and do it very quickly. The four forwards, now practically six with Brown and Ferguson up assisting too, kept pushing forwards, but the Uruguay defence remained firmly locked in place, refusing to let them have any shots at all if they could.

As the clock was about to tick into the 90th minute, Scotland finally got a shot on, with McFadden finally losing his marker and forcing a fine save from Muslera. The corner kick was taken quickly by Ferguson, catching Uruguay out completely, and the ball found the head of Miller, who headed it past a not-ready Muslera! 2-1!

Miller had no time to celebrate, he quickly grabbed the ball and charged back to the halfway line; looking to the fourth official, he and his teammates saw the board proclaiming there would be a minimum of five added minutes, almost certainly the result of the earlier schism. There was still time for them to do this!

With this new found momentum, and very little to do anything with it, Scotland surged forwards in their numbers with even the defenders up helping now, and the previously sturdy Uruguay defence started to look a tad nervy, with their clearances becoming very hasty and panicky.

Then, with only thirty seconds of the five added minutes left, Morrison quickly put a cross into the box, only for the defence to block it behind for a corner. A huge roar went up among the Tartan Army inside the stadium as pretty much every player on the pitch crowded into the box; even McGregor came up for the kick.

Ferguson would take it slowly and carefully this time. His floated shot into the box found Miller’s head again, but Muslera was managed to get his hands on it this time; however, he could only push it away, and flew flat on his front doing so, leaving an open goal. The ball fell at Brown, who fired at the empty net…

…only for Suarez to launch himself at the ball and push it away!

The referee instantly blew for a penalty, but before he could show Suarez the red card, Brown launched himself at the Ajax player again and pushed him over a lot more forcefully than he had before. The other players quickly tried to stop another fight breaking out by surrounding both the players, both of whom would now receive their marching orders…

Once the dust had settled, Scotland had a penalty to take; score it, and we’d go to extra time, miss, and they were going home.

McFadden would take the kick to Muslera’s left…

…and the ball slammed into the post and behind!

McFadden duly sank to his knees in despair as the final whistle blew, with his teammates and a gallant Muslera consoling him.

Meanwhile, Suarez, who had delayed his departure to watch the kick, ran off down the tunnel celebrating as if they’d just won the whole tournament!

Unfortunately, he didn’t realise Brown had done likewise, and next thing he knew, the Celtic man was chasing him off down the tunnel! Thankfully, nothing came of it in the end, but it certainly cast a shadow over what had been an epic game. Even Gary Lineker and the BBC commentators were lost for words! Both players would subsequently receive a large fine and a five game international ban.

Amidst all this, Scotland’s greatest World Cup run was finally at an end. A dramatic end, but an end nonetheless.

It would also be the end of an era for two legends of these two historic runs. One was captain Barry Ferguson, who had already announced he would retire from international duty after the tournament.

The other was Alex McLeish, who confirmed the pre-tournament rumours shortly after the team arrived home from South Africa. It later emerged he had only agreed initially to manage Scotland for Euro 2008, but had agreed to stay on for the World Cup after making history at said tournament. Nonetheless, the fans couldn’t be cross with him for long, if at all, and he departed the national set up a legend of the Scottish game, though he himself would be quick to give Walter Smith and the late Tommy Burns their share of the credit for getting it all started…

And, thankfully for the SFA, they knew just who they wanted to replace him, and lead Scotland into qualification for Euro 2012…

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Phew, I'm exhausted just from writing that! I dread to think how I'd feel after actually watching that game! Especially as I'd just got back from a big trip to the continent the day before!

So, yeah, Suarez does Scotland over like he did Ghana IOTL; I dread to think how my Liverpool supporting friends and family would react if he still joins them ITTL. I'd planned for this to happen originally, but after reading your comments about how others might react to his behaviour, I decided to add in all this stuff with Brown, because that's honestly the sort of thing he'd do in those circumstances!

Anyway, another tournament is over. Euro 2012 next up, and, without wanting to give too much away, you can except some curveballs with regards to what you may be expecting next. So, whatever's going to happen? We shall find out next week...!

 

[jmmcb94]

Euro 2012 Qualifying​

Scotland’s run at the 2010 World Cup had certainly been a dramatic one, but it had arguably been topped by the breathtaking finale to the preceding Scottish Premier League season, in which Celtic pipped Rangers to the title and Raith Rovers narrowly secured survival, both on the final days of their respective halves of the table. The two battles seemed to have proven to casual onlookers that the Scottish top flight could be just as dramatic as the English, and, with demand continuing to rise, even more live games for non-Old Firm teams being planned for the next season…

There were concerns, though, that this extra money for just the top flight could result in it becoming something of a closed shop, especially as Caley Thistle, who’d been relegated in the 2008-09 season, had gone straight back up very easily. As a result, a review was commissioned, with former Scotland boss Craig Brown as chairman, into reform of the Scottish football leagues to make this less likely, with an expanded top flight expected to be among their main aims…

Following Alex McLeish’s resignation as Scotland manager following the World Cup, much speculation began as to who the SFA had in mind to replace him. Craig Levein, who’d just won the Scottish Cup with Dundee United, was one name mentioned, as was Billy Davies, who’d just been promoted to the English Prem with Nottingham Forest.

In the end, though, the job would go to former Aberdeen and Kilmarnock manager Jimmy Calderwood, who’d just left Killie on a high after securing their top flight status in that dramatic finale. Like McLeish, he wasn’t that inspiring an appointment, but, after how well his predecessor had done in the end, many were prepared to wait and see the results he got before judging him…

His first task would be to qualify the Tartan Army for Euro 2012, to be held in Poland and Ukraine, and they’d got a moderately favourable group comprising Luxembourg, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina and, for the second Euros qualifying campaign in a row, France.

Calderwood’s first competitive game in charge would be against Albania at Hampden, with a capacity crowd showing up to show the new manager their support. And they’d be going home happy, with goals from the Stevens Naismith and Fletcher giving Scotland a 2-1 win over the Red and Blacks, for whom Gjergji Muzaka’s late goal proved too late.

They would follow this, four days later, with a 2-0 win over Belarus in Minsk, with Kenny Miller and Stephen McManus the goalscorers, as Scotland topped the group with six points from their first two games, giving Calderwood a fine start to his tenure…

The first big test would come a month later though, as they travelled to the Stade de France to play the group favourites. Last time they’d been there, they’d pulled off a very famous, and ultimately crucial, win thanks to a long range screamer from McFadden, who, having failed to revitalise his club form with his move to Newcastle, had been loaned to newly promoted Lecce in Serie A.

This time, however, it would be Gerard Houllier’s team who emerged victorious, with Loic Remy scoring in the 83rd minute and a second coming on the break as Scotland pushed for an equaliser.

That would be Scotland’s final competitive game of, what had been, a most dramatic year for Scottish football. They would resume the following march with a double header of Bosnia away followed by Luxembourg at home.

At first, things went well in Zenica, with McFadden opening the scoring just before the half hour mark. But second half goals from Ibisevic and Dzeko would turn the game around in the second half, and Scotland had lost two qualifiers in a row for the first time in a long time.

They would bounce back at Hampden a few days later though, despite a scare when Lars Gerson gave Luxembourg a shock lead midway through the first half; a Steven Fletcher double and a third from James Morrison would turn the game around, and the win put Scotland back up to second in the group.

They would solidify this position in their next game, the reverse fixture against the Bosnians, and would get their revenge for the away defeat with a 3-0 win at Hampden, with Steven Fletcher scoring again and Scott Brown marking his return to competitive internationals following his post-Suarez ban with a double. The win, coupled with France drawing with Belarus the same day, cut the gap at the top to just one point.

By the time Scotland returned to action that September, two of their main attackers had changed clubs again: Miller had left Rangers following the departure of Walter Smith (whose subsequent retirement would be marked with a knighthood in the Birthday Honours) and moved to Championship side Cardiff City, while McFadden, who had settled well in Italy after two tough years, made his move there permanent and joined Udinese.

As it happened, both would score in Scotland’s next game, a routine 2-0 win away at Lithuania. The big game of the break would come at Hampden four days later, as they played host to France. And Calderwood and his team would redeem themselves after the defeat in Paris with a valiant 0-0 draw and a well deserved point.

This meant Scotland remained just one point behind Les Bleus in second, but Bosnia had now caught them up and trailed them only on head-to-head results (Scotland’s win over them having been by a bigger margin). The stage was set for a dramatic conclusion to the group a month later, and Scotland looked to have the easiest run-in of the three…

First up, Belarus at home. Naismith would give Scotland the lead with just eight minutes on the clock, but Sergei Kornilenko would stun Hampden with an equaliser in the final minute of the half. A penalty dispatched by Miller early in the second half looked to have made amends, but Stanislaw Drahun would stun them again with eight minutes to go, and Belarus would hang on for what was, to be fair, a deserved draw.

Both rivals won though, which dropped Scotland to third and took their fate out of their own hands. They would have to beat Albania and hope Bosnia didn’t beat France…

At half time in that final round of fixtures, things weren’t going Scotland’s way: not only did they trail in Tirana thanks to a goal from Hamdi Salihi, but Bosnia led in Paris courtesy of Edin Dzeko. As it stood, Scotland were out…

The Red and Blacks continued to frustrate the Scots throughout the second half, but finally they would get their reward as Alan Hutton rifled in from a corner to make it 1-1. And just afterwards, news came through that France had equalised thanks to a dubious penalty converted by Nasri. If that game stayed the same and Scotland could get a winner, they’d be in the play-offs…

Scotland pushed and pushed, but Albania stood firm, and it looked like the Euros were over for Calderwood and his team before they had even begun.

Until, with the clock just about to tick into extra time, Brown collected the ball from a one-on-one, and threaded it up to McFadden, who gave the Albanian defence the slip and fired it home to win the game!

The final whistles blew in both games: Scotland had won and Paris had ended 1-1. Scotland had scraped into the play-offs on head-to-head record! (Though, when they later saw the other game, and how Bosnia had been on the wrong end of some very harsh refereeing, and not just for the penalty, they’d admit they’d been lucky)

The final table for Group D​

Nonetheless, Scotland would enter the play-offs as one of the seeded teams, and would be drawn against Montenegro, who had exceeded expectations to finish second in England’s Group G, and who Calderwood and his team certainly weren’t going to underestimate.

Nonetheless, the first leg at Hampden would be comfortable enough, with McFadden and Gary Caldwell scoring the goals in a 2-0, which put them in a good position ahead of the return leg in Podgorica.

Spurred on by the home crowd, Montenegro would give them a great fight, and a couple of close scares for McGregor in goal, but ultimately the Scots would hold firm and get the away goal to secure the tie thanks to a late goal from a debutant off the bench, Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes.

The results of the play-offs​

So, Scotland had qualified for a third Euros in a row, but it had been a tough qualifying campaign that they’d been a tad lucky to get through in more ways than one, and most expected it would be a rather quiet tournament for the Tartan Army in comparison to the drama and euphoria of the previous two.

But then, the draw for the tournament happened…

to be continued…

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Yep, a very different campaign for Scotland here, and not just because they actually qualified! I did tell you to expect some curveballs, but I doubt many of you will have expected a different manager and a different group!

So, thanks to their two previous tournament successes, Scotland get seeded much higher for the qualifying draw and end up in Pot 2, pushing Romania into Pot 3, meaning they switch groups. (Romania end up faring roughly the same in Group I as Scotland did IOTL) Their higher ranking also gets them a seeding for the play-offs, pushing the Czechs into the bottom half of the draw and up against Portugal, where an excellent two legged tie follows with Ronaldo and co overturning a first leg deficit.

You'll have also noticed Belgium reach the play-offs here too. Like I did with Russia in 2010, I decided to redress the balance after butterflying them out of 2002, so I decided to take a leaf out of What If Football's book and have them finish second after beating Azerbaijan instead of drawing and then beat Croatia on away goals, Vincent Kompany scoring the crucial goal in Zagreb.

Anyway, we'll be getting our next league update some time in the next week, and then next Wednesday we move on to the tournament itself; I think you can probably guess which game we'll be focussing on most! Tune back in to see how Scotland fare in Eastern Europe...

 

[jmmcb94]

2010-11 and 11-12 in Scottish league football
(NOTE: a small part of this chapter has been retconned; for details, see here)

Walter Smith, in his final season before retiring, returned the Scottish Premier League title to Ibrox after a gripping title race with Chris Hughton's Celtic, who would console themselves with victory in that season's Scottish Cup, with Rangers making it a double by also winning the League Cup. On his retirement, Smith was hailed as a legend of the Scottish game, his achievements in which would be recognised with a knighthood in the Birthday Honours. Ally McCoist very seamlessly made the step up from assistant to manager.

The following season, however, would see two of the biggest incidents in the history of Scottish football...

The first, in November 2011, was the publication of the Brown Report on the restructuring of the Scottish leagues. The main proposal was a top-to-bottom reform of the league system, with the SPL merging back into the SFL to form a new body to be known as the SPFL. This would consist of three divisions, a top division of 16 teams and two lower divisions of 12 teams. Beneath that, a new 'Lowland League' would be formed to operate as a fourth tier alongside the already established Highland League, and promotion and relegation to and from those leagues and the SPFL would be brought in eventually as well. Other smaller proposals included making official the unofficial rule, put forward by Brown himself, that all league teams must include a quota of homegrown players.

Response to the report was largely positive, although there were naysayers, mainly from the Old Firm clubs and clubs in the lower reaches of the SFL who would be running the risk of losing their status. However, after a vote of all clubs in the SPL and SFL, the plans were approved, and would come into affect from the 2013-14 season onwards.

The other big story of the season, in February 2012, came when Rangers went into administration, which incurred them a large points deduction that pretty much ensured Celtic would reclaim the league title. It also looked at one stage like the club might go into liquidation and collapse completely; this, thankfully, didn't come to pass, largely thanks to money accrued from the improved TV deal over the past four seasons, but, nonetheless, Rangers would have to enter a period of austerity over the coming seasons until their situation stabilised, and even the most loyal fans begrudgingly admitted they would now be going through what their green and white neighbours had done 20 years earlier...

Chris Hughton's Celtic would indeed reclaim the league title at the end of the season, but would be disappointed in both cups, losing the League Cup final to Kilmarnock and the Scottish Cup semi to Hearts, who would go on to win the final. Hughton would leave Parkhead when his contract expired at the end of the season and return to the English Prem with Norwich City, taking Gary Hooper with him; replacing him would be a certain rookie manager and former club legend...

2010-11
Scottish Prem: Rangers
Relegated: Raith Rovers (sorry QTX)
Promoted: Dunfermline
Scottish Cup: Celtic
Scottish League Cup: Rangers

2011-12
Scottish Prem: Celtic
Relegated: Dunfermline
Promoted: Ross County
Scottish Cup: Hearts
Scottish League Cup: Kilmarnock

English League Honours
2010-11
Premier League: Manchester United
Relegated: Wolves, Blackpool, West Ham
Promoted: QPR, Norwich, Swansea
FA Cup: Manchester City
League Cup: Arsenal

2011-12
Premier League: Manchester City
Relegated: Bolton, Blackburn, Nottm Forest
Promoted: Reading, Southampton, West Ham
FA Cup: Chelsea
League Cup: Liverpool

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So, no massive changes there yet, but some pretty big ones on the horizon; we shall check in again in 'two years'. Tomorrow, we head to Poland and Ukraine...