SCOTLAND HOLDING OUT FOR A NEW HERO TO EMERGE:
TIME FOR A NEW LEGEND TO EMERGE
HISTORY isn’t made by men who sit back and wait for defining moments to be thrust upon them. It is created, hewn out of life, by heroes who see fate as biddable, bendable… even breakable, under sufficient force.
They are not normal, these champions capable of capitalising on life’s big turning points.
Yet they walk among us, still. Waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
Well, Thursday night at Hampden represents a chance for
somebody in a blue shirt to emerge from the crowd — and fill a void left open for far too long.
There is a long-standing gap in the archives of Scotland’s national game. Room to provide an entire generation, young adults raised only on mediocrity and misery, with one of those formative football experiences taken for granted by so many of us.
Kevin Gallacher’s double against Austria on a cool night at Celtic Park back in April of 1997.
That seems like only yesterday, to anyone who was there; the electro-magnetic energy generated by the Tartan Army on a spine-tingling occasion is probably still resonating in the stratosphere somewhere above the east end of Glasgow to this very day.
MO Johnston beating the French keeper twice in the pouring rain at Hampden eight years and one month earlier, making Italia 90 — and that magical Five In a Row — seem suddenly feasible for fans who, by then, could have been forgiven for booking their World Cup holidays in advance every four years.
King Kenny Dalglish sending a left-footer curling past helpless Spanish No1 Luis Arconada in November of ’84, easing Jock Stein’s men — with help from a Mo Jo double — past redoubtable opposition in a victory that would define their run to Mexico in the summer of ’86.
Go back further still and you’ll find some familiar names cropping up time and again. Dalglish repeatedly. Joe Jordan across three different World Cup qualifying campaigns — always a bigger deal than the Euros, always will be.
When it matters, when it really matters, that guy steps up to do the needful.
Because he knows that, without him breaking the mould, even the most well-structured and hard-working team is doomed to fall short.
So, who is it to be, then? Who among the squad selected by Gordon Strachan has the nerve, the gallus streak, the bravery needed to make himself an instant icon in our penultimate group game against Slovakia?
A few days ago, Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong would have been identified by many as the two most likely to play what Mrs Beckham famously called the ‘Goldenballs’ role for their nation.
Brown has been playing better than at any stage since the very beginning of his trophy-laden career, while Armstrong’s energy and drive have been a revelation in just four appearances for the national side.
Without the injured Celtic pair, do all hopes now rest on Leigh Griffiths? He is in ferocious scoring form, certainly.
Given the way fate works, you would half expect Darren Fletcher to emerge from the shadows and bag a glorious winner in his 79th appearance for Scotland.
Of course, that would require Strachan to actually pick the Stoke City stalwart, not seen in national colours in almost a year. Are we still not talking about that?
Selection issues will, naturally, dominate a lot of the chatter between now and kick-off.
In truth, if Strachan can somehow find a win to keep the campaign alive heading to Slovenia this weekend, few will care that Callum McGregor — who actually should be odds on to score a spectacular winner from the bench, having spent 82 minutes warming up on the sidelines while his name is chanted by 50,000 crazed supporters — was only called up in extremis.
Will we get the victory? It’s a question that cuts to the contradictory heart of our national character. We Scots are never to be mistaken for a ray of sunshine, according to a stereotype that has endured for a good reason.
Yet there are moments when we become the most optimistic souls on Planet Football.
Scottish cringe, you say? There won’t be much of that mealy-mouthed affliction in evidence between now and Thursday.
If there is one thing guaranteed to generate a wha’s like us attitude it’s a World Cup qualification campaign showing even the tiniest flicker of life.
As the slick Slovaks arrive in Glasgow looking exactly like the kind of opponents who have punctured so many hopes over the decades, then, it’s only natural that we should get carried away.
This is what we do. Hope against hope, despite almost two full decades of horrible history threatening to crush our spirit.
Scotland is holding out for a hero. Who among Strachan’s steely-eyed warriors is willing to fulfil that role?