Canada isn’t a friendly .. don’t treat it like one
There are two risks for Scotland taking on a game like Canada in midweek when they know the world is on the line four days later. One is individual, the other collective.
The first is you live in fear of injuries, niggles, fatigue – anything that reduces your chances of playing when it matters most. And the second is what a defeat can do to confidence, especially if it’s already fragile.
But I’ve always been a glass half- full girl and no Scotland game is – or ever should be – a friendly. They put “international challenge match” at the top of the ticket for a reason – it ’ s about attitude.
It’s a cap – a chance to wear a Scotland jersey that features on your record the same as a World Cup Final would.
It should mean the same to you in terms of the passion you put in, whether it is against Canada, Slovenia, England, whoever.
And that’s the only way you ever take anything out of these games. Any less and what’s the point?
Obviously there’s more to play for when points are at stake. But in every game you’re playing for your country you’re representing the people, you’re playing for seeding, for self- belief, for any number of reasons that attach value to the game.
I was lucky enough to do it 121 times and don’t rank them in order – I treasure them all.
What Gordon Strachan has to do on Wednesday though is extract value as well. There’s an argument that when you haven’t had the squad together for more than four months you’d get more from spending the extra time on the training ground. But I always felt you got far more from a game environment.
Training is one thing but you need to know a player’s style in a game, where they like the ball delivered, where and when they like to run.
They may be at the peak of their form but their 10 clubmates are the reason they look that good – because they work with each other every day. If you’re playing central midfield the guy next to you for 38 games a season wi l l know your instincts like they’re his own – what side you want the bal l delivered to, when he has to cover.
The guy who plays two games a season next to you has to learn that in a few hours on the training ground.
Even then you only learn it properly in the heat of battle. Don’t think Wednesday’s game at Easter Road is meaningless then – there’s no such thing.
Whether it’s the catalyst for what we do at Hampden is the big question.
Regardless of who we’re playing or results we’ve had, you’ll never stop the optimist in me believing we could produce the performance to get the wheels turning on our World Cup campaign or that we’ll have something to play for beyond next Sunday.
The England defeat is a long way in the rear-view mirror and hopefully everyone comes in with some fresh optimism. We need it more than ever.
in charge. We have many coaches from the academic side – like Carlos Carvalhal at Sheff ield Wednesday, Vitor Pereira (1860 Munich), Rui Vitoria (Benfica) and Jose Peseiro ( Emirati club AlSharjah) who I worked with.
“It’s about how you apply it and how to deal with situations.
“Maybe Scottish football needs its own Mourinho. Maybe Ian Cathro can be the guy, eh?
“Jose is a fantastic man who is always available to talk to you. He will always discuss things about football. He is friendly.”
Caixinha feels his background allows him to look at the game from a different angle. He said: “I did my ‘ B’ assessment here at Rangers’ training centre. Guys like David Moyes came and gave us sessions.
“But what I saw from some of the guys was like copy and paste.
“I know the formation and the content you have to arrive at but I can go there differently.”