Back at the World Cup after a 28 year absence Scotland are winning games on the pitch and friends on the streets. People could get used to this.
Leaving Boston to return to the team’s Charlotte training base yesterday the news cycle rolled with the sights and sounds of boozy, celebrating Scots.
On Sunday night over 5000 members of the Tartan Army marched from Evans Way Park to Fenway, the iconic home of Boston Red Sox as the baseball side put on a ‘Scotland Day.’ In a smart variation on the cringe fest of a half and half scarf, free shirts combining the Saltire and the Red Sox logo were handed out.
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A bar tender told of generating over £700 in tips from one game while clips of supporters singing along to Mr Brightside by the Killers and eulogising Super John McGinn filled the morning news bulletins at Logan Airport. Taking an Uber from the city centre to the airport the radio talk shows had finally woken up to the fact that a FIFA World Cup was on.
While New York nursed a weekend headache created by the Knicks winning their first NBA finals since 1973 Boston woke to a hangover generated by a first Scotland win at the World Cup since Italia 90. Note to Barr’s Irn Bru; you missed a trick fellas.
All of this is timely because an SFA Independent Review into the unruly events of the Scottish Cup quarter-final between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox is imminent. After a season of ultra-fuelled mayhem the good natured revelry of Scotland fans making up for decades in the international wilderness offers a reminder that supporters can back a football team without invading the pitch, chanting overtly offensive songs or firing pyrotechnics into the sky. The most pressing security concern for stewards and police at Fenway was the volume of popcorn being lobbed around the place.
If the Tartan Army can be a little too eager to please with their ‘love us, we’re not English’ routine, spine-tingling renditions of Flower of Scotland and Loch Lomond at the Boston Stadium pre-Haiti were the loudest ever recorded at a World Cup tournament. A decibel count of 125 is roughly equivalent to the sound of a jet aircraft taking off from a distance of 100 metres. When John McGinn’s deflected strike hit the net to secure a first win at the finals since Italia 90 Scotland’s campaign well and truly left the ground.
“The last three or four days in Boston have been brilliant,” said coach Steven Naismith. “Seeing how many Scottish fans are there. On top of that every local you speak to in Boston only has good things to say about us. It’s amazing. Long may it continue.
“You don’t need to be on social media to see it. We have seen how amazing a country we are, I think that has been a big change. We have embraced it. We want to be part of that experience.
“In terms of the players we went into Boston a couple of days early. They were roaming about the city at certain points, seeing fans. The connection for me has been as good as it’s been.
“They are not trying to stay away from it but there is also the respect that the players are here to do a job.”
Boston bore the air of a city mildly surprised by the biggest exodus of Scots to the Americas since the Darian Project. By Sunday night the bars had begun to fill with Norwegians ahead of their clash with Iraq this evening. Any ill feeling between the two countries over that aborted warm-up game in North Carolina seems to have dispersed and Scotland will return to a great sporting city known as ‘The Hub’ for Friday night’s second game against Morocco.
“That is the positive thing about having two games in the same city and stadium,” adds Naismith. “The familiarity of what we are going to.
“Even when we’ve come in the past, looking at the stadium we’ve not been sure what the atmosphere would be like.
“And then you turn up and it really felt much tighter in terms of the connection between the fans and the players. The pitch was good. Even the match day minus one, going to the training facility and how that feels. Those are the big pluses."
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The squad returned to the familiar surroundings of their North Carolina training base on Sunday night, the flight delayed by stormy conditions on the east coast of the United States.
To get more balance between work and down time, Steve Clarke gave players time to be with their families yesterday. While football was off the agenda a World Cup storm going down in Atlanta was almost as seismic as the wind and wild weather conditions which delayed and cancelled flights on the east coast on Sunday.
Cape Verde shocked European champions Spain by claiming their first ever point at the World Cup Finals.
On Saturday short odds favourites Brazil, Turkey and Switzerland all failed to win their opening games at the World Cup. On Sunday, meanwhile, Tunisia sacked coach Sabri Lamouchi after a 5-1 thumping from Sweden in their opening game.
The World Cup is proving a tough place for fancied teams to win games of football and those who expressed unhappiness with the way Scotland played in their 1-0 win over Haiti should probably be catching a grip by now. While no one disputes the room for improvement in key departments, Naismith got to the nub of the matter when he said: “If you strip it all back it’s all about winning, simple as that.
“But when you’ve got elite players and a group that have been so successful you demand more. You demand a performance. You demand scoring goals and defending cleans sheets and getting assists. That extra demand is always going to be there.”
“But if we are sitting here after three games and we’ve got the points to win the group or be second or qualify nobody is going to be complaining If we continue to do it then that’s the main aim. Do we want to play the best, most enjoyable football we can? Obviously, everyone does. That’s the challenge.”
Naismith identifies a lack of control as the key issue against Haiti. While the Caribbean side lacked the penetration to hurt the Scots they had the upper hand for spells of the game. Defensively the Scots were solid; in possession there was a lack of composure at times. A two or three goal win might have made all the difference to chances of being one of eight third place group finishers to secure a place in the last 32.
Assuming that they fail to secure the single point they need against Morocco or Brazil to guarantee a little piece of history and become the first Scotland side to progress beyond the group.
“Some aspects we need to improve, some other aspects we just need to stay where we are because we have been brilliant.
“Morocco have a way of playing. They have intelligent and athletic players who are all over you and they are top quality. You need to guard against that.
“We probably need to improve the initial controlling of the game. That isn’t just the opposition, it’s the heat and the intensity if the game.
“You need to manage the game better when it’s so hot. These are different, small aspects but the game plan will be different. We will work on that over the next few days and definitely be in a good shape come Friday.”
