Greater home comforts needed to banish despair
POTENTIALLY four play-off games stand between Scotland and next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Canada. The first of these highly testing examinations will begin in Edinburgh at tea-time today when the Netherlands provide the opposition.
Tynecastle was also the venue for the first play-off match Scotland took part in, for Euro 2009. It resulted in a 3-2 win for Russia and that proved to be significant, even though Anna Signeul’s side – which included Shelley Kerr, Julie Fleeting and Pauline Hamill – went on to win the second leg in Nalchik 2-1.
Four years later, Hampden was the venue for the Euro 2013 play-off match against Spain and again Scotland could not make the most of home advantage, drawing 1-1 after Kim Little scored a penalty. What happened in the second leg near Madrid, with Scotland on the cusp of qualifying on away goals at 2-2 and extra time having run over, remains etched into the minds of the players.
Veronica Boquete’s winner for the home side with the last kick of the ball is all the motivation the Scotland players need, not just for this evening but the return in Rotterdam’s Sparta Stadium. Should Signeul’s side prevail they will face either Italy or Ukraine, who also meet today, in the two-legged play-off final next month.
Interestingly, six of the players who first tasted despair five years ago in Nalchik are expected to form the backbone of Signeul’s team today. They are goalkeeper Gemma Fay, central defenders Ifeoma Dieke and Jenny Beattie – she scored the second goal in Russia – as well as midfielders Little, Jo Love and Megan Sneddon. A seventh, the Glasgow City captain Leanne Ross, is out through injury.
Despite the understandable desperation among the Scots to make it third time lucky and finally qualify for a major championship finals, Signeul believes that the pressure is on the Netherlands over the two legs. As the higher ranked side – eighth in Europe to Scotland’s 12th – they are seeded to meet Italy for the last UEFA place in Canada.
“If they don’t beat us, it will be seen as a great failure,” said the Scotland coach, turning the spotlight on her opposite number, Roger Reijners, a former Fortuna Sittard player and manager. Reijners replaced Signeul’s predecessor in Scotland, Vera Pauw, as Dutch coach in 2010 but, though he guided them to the Euro 2013 finals, he could not emulate third place under Pauw in 2009.
Scotland, despite their lower ranking, have won the last three games between the sides. All were on neutral territory in the Cyprus Cup, and the latest was a 4-3 win in Nicosia seven months ago.
Lisa Evans, the Turbine Potsdam attacker, scored a brilliant hat trick in 33 first-half minutes and then set up two further chances which could have extended the lead still further. The euphoria disappeared when the Dutch scored two goals just before half-time and, though Beattie made it 4-2, her side won narrowly.
One player who did not play that afternoon was the 18-year-old Netherlands starlet Vivianne Miedema. She was in La Manga with the Dutch under-19 squad, preparing for the European Championship finals in which she scored six goals and led her side to victory. “Of all the players I saw at the finals, she was the best,” Signeul said. “She’s probably the best player I have seen in her age group. She plays with the carefree confidence of the young, but she is classy.”
Containing Miedema, who has scored 15 goals in just 14 games since joining the senior Dutch side, as well as the established Lieke Martens and Marion Melis, will be a priority over the two legs. Scotland, though, have their own potent threat in Evans, Little and Jane Ross, who alongside Miedema was the top European scorer in the qualifiers.
Evans returns to the squad having missed the final Group 4 games against Faroes and Sweden because of shin splints. The worry is she has not played a full competitive game since the qualifier against Northern Ireland in June, though she did make limited appearances in Potsdam’s last two Bundesliga games.