The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Memories show Scots never do it easy way
There is a sports quiz question that is trickier to answer than it should be. It is: “Who was the last player to score for Scotland’s men’s national team at a major finals?”
The reason you maybe can’t just pluck the name out the air is that it happened so long ago.
T he answer is Craig Burley, who was then at Celtic, and the goal was the equaliser for the Scots in their 1-1 draw with Norway at the Parc Lescure in Bordeaux on June 16, 1998.
The tournament was the glorious France ‘ 98, a wonderful World Cup that was won by the Zinedine Zidane-inspired host nation.
The French beat Brazil 3-0 in the final to bring the curtain down on a feast of football – but it was Scotland who first faced Ronaldo and Co.
In one of the most auspicious occasions the team has ever been involved in, the Scots played the then reigning world champions in the opening game of the tournament in front of an 80,000 crowd at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Ever y Ta r t a n Army member who was there that day had won the football lotter y, a rare golden ticket to cherish.
The game did not disappoint either, with Cesar Sampaio heading Brazil into the lead after just five minutes.
Then, with 38 minutes on the clock, the Scotland fans were in dreamland when ice-cool midfielder John Collins scored from the penalty spot after Kevin
Gallacher had been fouled inside the box.
Anything seemed possible after that, or at least until the ball ricocheted off Tom Boyd for an own goal on 73 minutes to gift Brazil a 2-1 victory.
T he Nor wegians had drawn 2-2 with Morocco in the other group game that day so Scotland knew a victory in Bordeaux on June 16 would get them right back in the mix.
The fans believed, with the Ta r t a n Army far outnumbering the opposition supporters inside Parc Lescure.
However, Havard Flo opened the scoring for the Scandinavians a minute into the second half.
T hen came the quiz question answer, with Burley chipping Norway goalkeeper Frode Grodas on 66 minutes and that’s how it stayed.
They weren’t out yet and the talk in the bars was of victory over Morocco and a Brazilian win over Norway.
T he Scots being the Scots, though, it didn’t turn out like that.
While they were losing 3- 0 to the Moroccans in Saint- Etienne, Norway were notching up a shock 2 -1 success over the defending champions in Marseille. It was the usual tale of woe.
I was so taken by France 98, though, that I was still in Paris for the final.
This Ta r t a n Army straggler would become a World Cup-winning fan by proxy, joining a million French men, women and children on the ChampsElysees to party following their final win over Brazil.
It was a special night and definitely the closest this Scotland fan will ever get to experiencing such euphoria.
My motto was: “If you can’t beat them (or Brazil, Norway and Morocco) then join them.”
Never did I think, though, that the wait to see the Scots back at a major finals would last 23 years.
Scotland don’ t make things easy but never on the long road to the Euro 2020 Finals did it look tougher than their hellish night in Haifa.
The date was Thursday, October 11, 2018 and the location was just a few miles south of Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon.
At this early stage of the Nations League, if you were being honest you never fully understood its implications for possible qualification but you did know the game mattered.
I travelled on my own to Israel to cover the game, basing myself in Haifa near the venue, the Sammy Ofer Stadium, for a couple of days. The rest of the Scottish media pack stayed south with the vast majority of the Tartan Army in Tel Aviv.
The Israelis were ranked 94 th in the world at the time and had only beaten Andorra and Liechtenstein at home since 2014.
Sadly, Scotland were to become their third victims.
I wrote in my match report that the Scots should count their blessings in the Holy Land because it could and should have been a lot, lot worse than a 2-1 defeat.
Alex McLeish’s men took the lead on 25 minutes when Charlie Mulgrew scored from the penalty spot after Steven Naismith had been fouled. However,
Dor Peretz equalised for Israel before Scotland defender Kieran Tierney shanked a clearance into his own net with 16 minutes left. By that time John Souttar had been sent off. It was a nightmare.
As I made my way to the post-match media conference, I was joined in the lift by two elderly Israeli journalists.
The exchange has annoyed me ever since.
They clocked I wa s Scottish and proceeded to rip “my team” to shreds.
“That was not Scotland,” one said. “That was not the team that has had Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness play for them. That was terrible.”
S a d l y, my wit and repartee deserted me at the time but it was hard to argue that Scotland were not, in fact, terrible.
Just as I was about to mumble some reply, the other reporter picked on defender Stephen O’Donnell, claiming he would have been better off serving food in one of the stadium kiosks instead of playing.
It was nice, then, to see the same O’Donnell in the side that reached the finals. He had the last word in that particular debate.
In the mixed zone interview area afterwards, a crestfallen Tierney apologised to everyone for his own goal. You stood there looking at a well-paid Celtic star and realised he was even more distraught than the rest of us.
As was the case with O’Donnell, it was wonderful to see the now- Arsenal defender Tierney leaping about celebrating on the pitch at full-time in Serbia.
From a Haifa horror show to a Belgrade blockbuster, with some thrllls and spills in between. It wouldn’t be Scotland if it were easy, would it?