Strike out

After yet another failure to get out of their group, Scotland must rebuild under new management

By ALAN PATTULLO

Although Scotland left for the World Cup on the last day of May aiming to create history, they only ended up emulating their first-ever trip to the tournament. As in 1954, when Andy Beattie resigned after a 7-0 defeat to Uruguay in the opening match, Scotland returned home minus a manager. Steve Clarke’s resignation was a bolt from the blue. No sooner had Ghana failed to record the three-goal win over Croatia required to keep Scotland’s faint World Cup pulse beating than a Scottish Football Association statement announcing Clarke was leaving his post landed.

The players were only informed a few minutes beforehand, after they had been asked to attend a team meeting at the end of a surreal three-day spell back at their base city of Charlotte. They had been training for a game that everyone knew in their heart of hearts wouldn’t happen. Players were left to work on their own fitness. It was hard to shake the impression that this was the equivalent of the end of the school term when pupils are allowed to bring board games in.

Meanwhile, journalists were sitting in another hotel a mile or so away having not seen the players or any member of the Scotland party since after the 3-0 defeat to Brazil. Although his forecast ultimately proved spot on, Clarke’s post-match reaction – where he immediately wrote off Scotland’s chances of progressing – was a surprise. Scotland’s fate was a long way from being officially confirmed.

This was no hard luck story of the type patented by Scotland at World Cups over the years

However, it was quite clear the manager was planning to empty his wardrobe and fold his clothes as soon as the squad returned to North Carolina the following day. Asked what he felt the redoubtable Tartan Army ought to be doing – should they stick around given the extra costs involved? – he replied: “That’s not the remit of the head coach.”

Despite signing a new four-year deal just days before the squad set off for the States, Clarke later explained that he always intended to leave if Scotland did not qualify for the knockout phase for the first ever time. Hopes were high following the exhilarating World Cup place-clinching win over Denmark. While the supporters excelled, even turning the Boston Red Sox’s historic Fenway Park into a mini-Hampden for one very special night, the players ultimately did not.

Perhaps not enough was made of the wretched draw. It felt like every time you looked at the FIFA rankings Morocco had edged up another place: they were sixth by the time they took on Scotland in Boston. It had become received wisdom that Scotland would only need to beat Haiti while avoiding comprehensive defeats by both Brazil and the African champions to qualify.

This turned out to be fake news, perhaps appropriately (despite being half Scottish, Donald Trump did not attend a Scotland game). Even three points with a minus one or minus two goal difference would have left Clarke’s side, who finished on minus three, well short. This was no hard luck story of the type patented by Scotland at World Cups over the years.

So what went wrong? Clarke’s critics will point to leaving this player or that player behind, but there was no one lying on a beach in Torremolinos who could have been counted on to convert precious few scoring chances into goals. Until Argentina readjusted the benchmark for ambitionless football in the final, Scotland were up there with the worst of them.

The opening 1-0 win over Haiti, distinguished by 44 fouls and just four shots on target, was ranked at 104 in a list of World Cup games by the New York Times (there were 104). When the influential Sports Illustrated magazine published its ten disappointments of the tournament, who were fourth on the list? You guessed it. Scotland even managed to fall out with Norway after calling off a proposed behind-closed-doors match at the 11th hour, although Erling Haaland and co had the last laugh. It turned out the Scots needed the practice a lot more.

At least it seems almost impossible for Scotland, one of the joint hosts, to fail to qualify for Euro 2028. Still, the thought of kicking off a Nations League campaign against Slovenia in Ljubljana this autumn might be hard to stomach so soon after such an emotional and ultimately draining return to the World Cup stage. There won’t be any baseball games nearby to provide a distraction either.