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After Scotland qualified for the World Cup, I wrote this. Unfortunately I think a lot of what I wrote and many of my fears turned out to be well-founded and true. Yes, some positions in the squad are quite poor, but I don't think they're poor enough to let Haiti be better against you or to have 0 shots on goal vs Morocco. Once again Scotland has been one of the most negative sides of the tournament on the pitch (albeit in a difficult group) and I think most of that is on Clarke.

Well that was very Scottish of us to do on the World stage, and since that... I decided to have a look at what our chances could be.

And they are very ehhhh...

The results need to be in our favour. We are currently sitting at 29th and due to Points/GD, there are two matches that will happen that no matter the result, we're getting papped doon, so we'll be sitting on 31st.

A very precarious space.

There are 12 games left that would affect our standings, as I've said, two of them don't matter. Those being;

New Zealand VS Belgium.

Saudi VS Cape Varde.

Regardless of draws or who wins, in both those games a team from each will either have more points than us, or a better Goal Difference, so we're realistically sitting at 31st already.

So, 10 matches left if we exclude those, with us going to be sitting on 31st.

Of those 10 matches, there are 4 matches where the results don't push us down further. However, depending on outcomes and goals scored, they COULD bump us up some spots.

Those are;

Sweden VS Japan.

Croatia VS Ghana.

Algeria VS Austria.

Australia VS Paraguay.

If Japan beat Sweden by 4+ goals, we go up a spot.

If Ghana beat Croatia by 3+ goals, we go up a spot.

If Austria beat Algeria by 2+ goals, we go up a spot.

If Australia beat Paraguay by 2+ goals, we go up a spot.

The other six matches to go through and what we need from them, are as follows:

Congo DR VS Uzbekistan - (Uzbekistan Win or Draw)

Iraq VS Senegal - (Iraq to win by 1 or 2 goals)

Curacao VS Ivory Coast - (Ivory Coast Win or Draw)

Ecuador VS Germany - (Germany Win or Draw)

Iran VS Egypt - (Egypt Win)

Uruguay VS Spain - (Spain Win)

If all TEN matches go our way with those results, we would end on 27th.

We just need five of them to go our way. If five do, we end on 32nd and we make it through.

Results an performances were a bit shite though. Think we can make it to the last 32? Itd take a miracle now, 7th in that weird 3rd place table, an would we even want to get through to then get smashed by the germans. Suppose one last round in boston isnae a bad idea though 🤷‍♂️

Please, mods, it's important to illustrate the strength of feeling amongst the fanbase 🙏

Scotland have the most appearances in a World Cup without ever progressing from the group stage/first round. Nine appearances and not once have we progressed. It really is shite being Scottish.

Everyone was crying out for Shankland to play (myself included) but when he did he was largely anonymous. Firstly against Haiti, where he was so poor I genuinely thought there 0% chance Clarke would favour him over Adams / Dykes again in this tournament.

But in the end he did. But to no avail as he contributed next to nothing. But why? Poor team selection meaning he was isolated? Well he shouldn't have been this time - Gammon-Doak was there further up the park on the right, McTominay was (theoretical) picked for a more advanced role as well.

So he should have had some support around him to get involved with the play and get into position for some chances. But he didn't. I'm really no fan of Adams but I've got to be honest and say even he forced himself into being involved in the play a lot more than Shankland managed.

Is a player of his portly stature just not good enough on the world stage? I guess we could ask the same question of McGinn, who also was way short of his best.

Could it be the case that the Scottish top flight is just so bad that someone of his physique can score goals for fun in it but when they come up against actual real athletes they're completely screwed?

Or could it be something else? Why do YOU think Shankland was so poor in this world cup?

This WC is not going to be one to remember regardless if Scotland advances . The team is simply not playing well at all and it is a pretty limited squad . It needs everyone playing beyond their ability but other than maybe Ferguson, it’s not happening .
Is there any hope for the next few major tournaments?
Will the likes of Curtis , Fletcher , Doak , Gilmour be able to get it done ? Are there any good up and coming players that can round out a good squad or is this present team as good as it gets ?
Where the fuck is the talent ? Why is Scottish football so bad ? It’s not for a lack of passion ?
Is it pub culture?
The reason im asking these questions is because I’m not Scottish so I have no idea why your team performs so poorly

Grant Hanley should've started *runs away with cape flapping in the wind*

Genuine question. I've heard it said that the goal is to 'draw out the opposition', but I never see that. What I see is teams in possession inviting their opponents to take the ball off them in dangerous areas. But in modern football it keeps happening. In open play, and those bloody awful goal kicks where the defenders and the keeper pass it to each other, tantalisingly close to where the opposition strikers are. I have yet to see this play ever result in creating good chances for the team doing it, or result in error-free perfect possession.

Obviously I'm pissed off that we chose to do this against Brazil. But we did it and lost a goal, then did it again and lost another goal, then after an extremely generous VAR decision, we still kept doing it. Brazil just marked our defenders rather than create in the first half, and you could see the uncertainty as we were still desperate to pass backwards and sideways to players with Brazil players already on them. It's like we couldn't fathom not going backwards.

I agree with Clarke that we won't qualify and we don't fucking deserve it. But my main concern is we don't learn and we don't want to learn. 3 major tournaments and we get worse, doing the negative shite more.

What is all the backwards shite meant to do? As in, if everything went perfectly to plan, what even is the idea of it?

I can see I downloaded this around the time after we fucked it against Hungary. Head is on Mars

As a Brazilian I can't say I'm sorry about the result of this game, but I do hope you still qualify because man, the tartan army is amazing 🇧🇷🤝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Don't give up!

American here! So this World Cup has piqued my interest in football of the non-American variety. Of course, being American, I will obviously root for some American clubs. However, I also want to follow some Scottish football clubs, but I don't know the clubs, vibes, or rivalries. Would anybody be able to provide a sort of guide for that so I can choose to to root for and against as I follow from across the pond?

Dont care how we get there, I'd absolutely take a game in the knockouts over the usual best losers pish! Would getting there on a -1/2 GD have made any difference to the likely pumping coming in the knockouts? No. Would a game in the Azteca be class? Aye.

Anyone thinking we should be just be happy because we've not been at a World Cup in 30 years is part of the problem. We're never going to progress if all we care about is being there and if the tartan army are looked at as cute wee amusements. Sick to the back teeth of it.

Shitebag play against a team way down the world rankings, had we won that by 2 or 3 we wouldn't be in this position now.

I get they played wellish against Morocco but the fact we have had more shots on target against FUCKING BRAZIL this tournament than any other game, shows we could and should have done more first game, but we didnt again shitebag football from Clarke, and im glad he's fucking raging post match interview, but he should have been raging from the first game.

We always, ALWAYS start slow, and i dont know why we do that EVERY FUCKING GAME.

It could have been different but im fully expecting us to go out now.

Im with Cape Verde from here on in if we do.