SCOTS HANDED A SCIENCE LESSON
McLeish listens to the experts’ warnings as his team prepare for the altitude of Mexico FOLLOWING IN THE STEPS OF AZTECA LEGENDS
ON the advice of sports scientists, Scotland delayed their arrival in Mexico for the second and last of their end-of-season friendlies until 24 hours before kick-off.
There were good reasons for that, of course. The intense heat, the risk of altitude sickness, lethargy — and the harsh lessons learned by manager Alex McLeish as a member of Scotland’s World Cup squad here in 1986.
‘I played in the first game against Denmark and then I took ill after drinking some ice in my CocaCola,’ recalled the Scotland boss. ‘Alex Ferguson did a fitness test (on me) for the next game, against Germany.
‘I had some breathlessness. It was on the morning of the game. I was absolutely gasping and I said: “Boss, there’s no way I can play tonight”.
‘My legs were heavy, I’d been sick the night before and I just couldn’t get from cone to cone in the fitness test in a time that would render me fit to play the game.
‘I really was floored. I couldn’t move. It was as if I had the flu. My muscles were sore. I sat and watched the game in bed that night — and jumped out it when wee Gordon (Strachan) scored the opener. Then saw the Germans slowly dismantle us.’
In a team meeting before leaving Peru, McLeish urged his players to learn from his experience. To stick to bottled water and deny Montezuma the chance of revenge.
‘I think ice was the culprit,’ he insisted. ‘Maybe it was from their tap water to make the ice.
‘Their bellies are used to it, ours aren’t. We have told the players here to avoid ice and things like that. It will be straight from the cooler or whatever.’
Events in Mexico 32 years ago led to a brief cooling in the former Aberdeen defender’s relationship with his club manager Ferguson, appointed to lead the national team to the World Cup on an interim basis following the sudden death of Jock Stein.
McLeish recovered in time for the final group game with Uruguay. For Ferguson, that cut no ice. ‘He didn’t select me. He said he didn’t think David Narey had done anything wrong in the Germany game, which I wasn’t too chuffed with,’ explained McLeish.
‘I fell out with the boss. On the way back, I kind of gave him the cold shoulder.
‘Five months later, he left for Manchester United anyway...’
Conditions will be hard enough for Scotland’s makeshift squad in Mexico City irrespective of what they eat and drink.
The weather is significantly hotter than the cool, overcast conditions of Lima, where they lost 2-0 to Peru in the early hours of Wednesday.
Temperatures here routinely hover around 32 degrees, even at 6pm.
With a 7pm kick-off local time on Saturday night (1am GMT), the thin air caused by Mexico’s high altitude will also contribute towards breathlessness.
After the Peru defeat, McLeish admitted he was keen, in the end, to ‘avoid a doing’.
At the venue where Diego Maradona manhandled England from the 1986 World Cup, the iconic Azteca Stadium is now part of Tartan Army folklore.
The fear tonight is that they end up watching events through the cracks of their fingers.
‘Mexico are probably going to play their strongest team and give a run out to six substitutes or something like that,’ added the manager.
‘And we’re playing with a team that is not the strongest that Scotland have ever put out. Having said that, the players surprised us the other night.
‘Some people said: “You would have taken 2-0 as a good result”, but when you see the goals that we lost, those are the decisionmaking moments we have to improve on.
‘I’ve been watching Scotland for the last five years. Gordon (Strachan) came close with some good defensive performances but then having a lapse now and again in crucial moments.
‘In Lithuania, there was a lapse in the last moment, our decisionmaking in Georgia.
‘I’ve suffered a couple of these in two of my three games, as well. We’ve got to eradicate these. Our decision-making has to be better. It’s a jump up. If your decisions are wrong, then you are very often punished at this level.’
The FIFA rankings suggest Peru are a slightly better team than Mexico. Yet the fear is Scotland, with Celtic January signings Jack Hendry and Lewis Morgan featuring from the start, will wilt in the ferocious heat.
‘I’ll need the factor duffel coat for me,’ joked McLeish. ‘Hopefully, we’ll be able to breathe for 90 minutes.
‘We’ve done the kind of sportsscience stuff and there will have to be a lot of intake of water. The fact we are going there just a day before, that’s supposed to work in your favour.
‘We are hoping that will mean there will be no fatigue. Apparently, you can get a little bit lethargic if you are in three or four days before the game.
‘We have trained well in Peru, the Peruvians were very welcoming and we had a half-decent game against them. They were great hosts and we had a great time. Our players are learning. They have excelled in terms of the spirit they have shown.
‘You are punished for virtually every wrong decision, so it is vital that we learn extremely quickly. We need quick learners.’
Millwall’s Jordan Archer will step aside tonight to let Celtic’s Scott Bain and Hearts keeper Jon McLaughlin play a half each here.
With a crowd of almost 90,000, the task ahead is a daunting, yet exhilarating, end to the Scottish season.
‘I said to the players the other night, these are the best days of your lives, in your young football days,’ added McLeish.
‘Embrace it and go and show the world what you can do. But it’s easy for me just to give them big words — it’s up to them to show they have what it takes.’