A SHAMEFUL PERFORMANCE
Scotland deliver a mortifying display to eclipse even past horror shows
SET against a night like this, Scotland’s humiliations in the World Cup finals against Peru, Iran and Costa Rica can now be seen for what they were. The halcyon days.
Four months since Alex McLeish secured a nervy passage towards a Nations League play-off by beating Israel, the nature of defeat to also-rans Kazakhstan was so woeful, so mortifying, that questions will now be asked over his very future as Scotland manager.
As the United Kingdom undergoes a nervous breakdown over Brexit, Scotland’s football team picked a bad night to display a similar lack of leadership and gumption in the face of belligerent foreigners. There are performances and results a manager never really recovers from. Last night, the prospects of a hard and bumpy Ecksit grew significantly.
McLeish recovered from low approval ratings after a dire away loss in Israel last October. Yet 20 minutes before the end of a mortifying performance here, Paddy Power were already firing out emails to journalists with a list of potential replacements.
The truth is that no one saw this coming. A bold, attacking 4-3-3 formation lurched from ambitious and progressive to blundering and disastrous in a little over ten minutes. And Scotland’s manager is long enough in the tooth to know how people react to 3-0 defeats to teams like Kazakhstan.
Asked how the defeat ranked in his managerial career, he claimed: ‘I don’t really rank defeats. I just feel in terms of losing I have to bounce back. I always feel low after a game but, as I’ve said, I’m pretty good at bouncing back.’ The suspicion is he’ll need to be. Rated 117th in the FIFA world rankings, the home nation’s recent stats serve much the same purpose as a hangman’s noose.
In their last three qualifying campaigns, Michal Bilek’s team had managed just one home win and that was a 4-0 defeat of mighty Andorra. Their only competitive victory in 16 games, they didn’t win a match in the last World Cup qualifying campaign and failed to progress from the Nations League.
Expectations of a Scotland win, then, were well founded but hopelessly misplaced.
Forget the artificial pitch. Spare supporters any excuses over the loss of Andrew Robertson or Kieran Tierney. Or talk of an average age of 24.6 or the safety net provided by a Nations League play-off place.
Little or nothing can explain how badly Scotland played here.
When the roof closes in the space-age Nursultan Arena, the cardboard clappers of fans are always the giveaway. When things go well the locals begin banging loudly on the backs of seats, making a ferocious din. After ten minutes here they could barely believe what they were seeing. In truth, no one could. The noise almost prised open the roof and removed it from its metal hinges.
With their first attack, Kazakhstan scored a stunning goal.
Rated in the £7million bracket by Aberdeen, this wasn’t the best of nights for Scott McKenna. A simple, long ball soared over his head, picking out Yuriy Pertsukh as the midfielder crept in behind the blue-shirted Scots backline.
The visitors looked for an offside flag which — rightly — never came. Credit the No 8, he took one touch then cracked a left-foot half volley into the roof of the net from 18 yards. It was a stunning goal; a stunning start to the game.
Scottish apprehension was never far from the surface. Call it harsh, bitter experience but those of us who bear the scars of a gruesome past have learned to take nothing for granted.
McLeish was discouraged from playing either Ryan Fraser or Callum Paterson on the plastic surface by Bournemouth and Cardiff City respectively. From naming two quality left-backs in his squad, Big Eck was forced to pitch Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie in for his first competitive start after Robertson and Tierney — arguably his two best players — were ruled out in the last 72 hours.
A left-back in his Inverness Caley Thistle days, Shinnie operates as a midfielder at Pittodrie.
And, when Kazakhstan scored their second after ten minutes, it showed.
A slide-rule pass between McKenna and Shinnie from Islamabek Kuat picked out the run in behind of Yan Vorogovskiy. The wing-back simply poked his foot out and prodded the ball beyond Scott Bain.
Ten minutes into his competitive debut as Scotland No1, Celtic’s goalkeeper had already picked the ball out of the net twice.
This was now the stuff of nightmares. Denied the services of their captain Robertson by a dental operation, Celtic’s Callum McGregor captained the team, yet the lack of hard-nosed experience and solid leadership was glaring.
The only mercy is that the Kazakhs only scored three. Before the half hour, a long-range shot from Kuat dipped viciously, forcing Bain to tip the ball over the bar at the last minute.
As an attacking force Scotland offered virtually nothing. Oliver Burke and Forrest played either side of Oli McBurnie in an attacking formation.
The Swansea striker had ten goals in his last ten games before this but limped from the pitch a beaten and disconsolate figure after an hour. Replaced by Johnny Russell, McBurnie has now gone seven caps without threatening an international goal.
By then Kazakhstan were three goals ahead, Baktiyor Zainutdinov outjumping McKenna with ridiculous ease to aim a downward header in off the base of the far post after 51 minutes. For
Scotland, this was now an exercise in damage limitation. They could no more prevent a humiliation than they could a No Deal Brexit, yet the lack of menace and attacking guile throughout the 90 minutes was an alarming business.
Southampton’s Stuart Armstrong finally got a break of the ball inside the area after 55 minutes, a weak, right-foot strike creeping towards the net until Dmytro Nepogodov dived low to produce a fine save. With almost an hour played, it was the Kazakhstan goalkeeper’s first of the match. And pretty much his last.
Understandably, Scotland’s 600 fans were in no mood for the applause of the players at time-up. Neither for that matter was substitute Scott McTominay, the Manchester United man racing straight down the tunnel suffering the effects of a pre-match stomach upset to the visible dismay of his own captain McGregor.
Rancour and confusion seemed an apt way for things to end. For Scotland, it was that kind of night.