Moment of pure joy will get me through this lockdown
I don’t know about you, but I now firmly class myself in the growing bracket of people who never knew just how much they needed football in their lives.
With domestic football still under lock and key, much like St Mirren defender Conor McCarthy’s biscuit tin thanks to devoted mum Esther (see Wednesday’s paper), I’ve decided to focus this week on all things international.
Remember when we could leave the country to follow Scotland as they got beaten from pillar to post from Belgium to Kazahkstan?
Even so, I’m determined to make a positive out of the current football shutdown and UEFA might have finally handed the Tartan Army one this week.
Inevitably Scotland’s huge play-off match with Israel, quite sensationally pencilled in for June despite domestic action still a million miles away from returning, has now been pushed back until the next “available” date in the international calendar.
On the face of it, should the football world return to some sort of normality by the end of the summer, that could be when the Nations League is due to reboot on the weekend of September 4.
Should the Nations League go ahead as scheduled, the next international break is in March 2021 when World Cup 2022 qualifying is currently scheduled to kick off.
Whichever way they shoehorn the Euro 2020 play-offs into the calendar ( answers on a postcard to UEFA’s headquarters in Zurich) what is now certain is that Steve Clarke finally has the one commodity he hasn’t been able to get his hands on yet since taking the reins - time.
Clarke has consistently pointed to a lack of time with the players as problematic as he attempts to steer the national side to their first major tournament since 1998.
Well now he has at least another few months to get his head around his best starting XI, and potentially a few friendlies if they can be squeezed in as players get back up to speed.
It would be pretty harsh to come back from a six-month (at least) total hiatus and ask national teams to play one their biggest games in decades with the dust still settled on their boots.
The other bonus is that several key players - including ex- Buddie John McGinn, Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney and Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay - will also have plenty of extra time to fully recover from their serious injuries.
Having McGinn and McTominay in particular back and on song in the middle of the park could be the difference in the two games left to finally reach the now Euro 2021 and end what would be 23 years of hurt.
Incidentally, the France ‘98 World Cup is one of my earliest memories in football. Despite growing up in Cheltenham my father - who was born and lived in Edinburgh until he was 30 - drummed into me at an early age there was only one national team for me. And they played in dark blue.
So has followed year after year of nearmiss, oh-so- close disappointments while every other country - including Iceland, Trinidad and Tobago and Albania - has since gone on to feature at one of the big parties while we’ve been stood outside looking in.
But I’ll never forget the moment millions of eyes around the world - including my seven-year-old peepers - were trained on our tiny television set as we watched Scotland’s heroes take on a legendary Brazil side boasting the likes of Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo and Ronaldo (not that one, the original) in the opener to that terrific tournament.
Naturally we went behind after four minutes, I imagine to lull the Seleção into a false sense of security, but when John Collins stepped up take that penalty to equalise you could have heard a pin drop in our front room.
When it nestled into the bottom corner me, my dad and my brother went absolutely tonto.
The fact we went on to lose to an own goal (also a typical national team trait) didn’t matter because I’ll always look back on that celebration and smile as long as I live. I can vividly remember the joy on my dad and brother’s faces.
That is the power of football and I truly hope it isn’t too long until we can relive those moments again.
How extra sweet it would be if that could include watching Scotland at a major tournament once more in the wake of this torrid shutdown.