Scotland V Croatia Match Thread

[Third Lanark]

1 hour ago, gkm_vancouver said:

An interesting yet surprisingly accurate analogy. If I could offer an addition to that - it helps if you are taught how to direct said pish when you are learning otherwise it tends to splash all over the place 

Think there may be a few joining you on that extended period away.🥴

And what on earth is a 'beatliee'?

[ceudmilefailte]

20 minutes ago, Mox said:

There's five games you mentioned where we have 'shown bottle', how many of those games have we won?

I know we didn't win any of them, I was just pointing out the unfairness of saying we show no bottle.

If we had no bottle we would have lost all five.

Trust me I know things are no were near good enough, but lack of effort is not the fault.

[gkm_vancouver]

9 hours ago, Third Lanark said:

And what on earth is a 'beatliee'?

It's either predictive text gone wrong or it's actually a brand new word to describe our performance...😏

[gkm_vancouver]

On 6/23/2021 at 12:04 AM, ceudmilefailte said:

Fraser barely get's a game for Newcastle, Mctominay is the worst player at Man Utd, Gilmour is a currently a Chelsea squad player, apart from Robertson the rest are average lower table performers ............really are kidding ourselves on about the quality of our players

Fraser has been injured for long spells; McTom worst player - never heard that before and I know a lot of ManU supporters; Gilmour has had plaudits almost every game he plays for Chelsea; McGinn is second only to Grealish at Villa for popularity; Tierney pretty much best player (with Saka) at Arsenal; Cooper captain of a highly regarded Leeds team; Adams a decent performance at Southampton this season. A lot of these players were involved in our long unbeaten run so the fact that we did not perform to utmost of our capability was down to the coach, not the players.

 

On 6/22/2021 at 11:59 PM, ParisInAKilt said:

Fraser barely plays for Newcastle and didn’t start a game for us 

He was injured after WC qualies and for us he should have started, that's the point - not his fault, all down to the coach that didn't give him enough game time.

[KirkieRobRoy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24439813

 

I must have been at this game, our previous one v Croatia, in 2013, but I have no memories of it. The only survivor on Tuesday was Hanley, though Marshall was on the bench.

Intrguing to see that amongst the other unsuccessful teams in the group were Wales and Macedonia.

[ThistleWhistle]

1 hour ago, KirkieRobRoy said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24439813

 

I must have been at this game, our previous one v Croatia, in 2013, but I have no memories of it. The only survivor on Tuesday was Hanley, though Marshall was on the bench.

Intrguing to see that amongst the other unsuccessful teams in the group were Wales and Macedonia.

Looked on Wiki and apart from Bale blitzing past Adam I've erased that entire campaign from my memory! 

[TDYER63]

4 hours ago, ThistleWhistle said:

Looked on Wiki and apart from Bale blitzing past Adam I've erased that entire campaign from my memory! 

We beat Croatia away from home that campaign, I was there. But apart from that it was dismal, the 2 Wales games in particular.  Cardiff was awful, and the only positive about the home game was that I was in Barbados on my 25 th wedding anniversary when it took place. Remember traipsing about St Lawrence Gap in the searing heat with 3rd degree sunburn from the previous day, trying  to find somewhere that was showing the game.  Only match that was on was England beating some diddy team about 8-0.  

[Toepoke]

6 hours ago, KirkieRobRoy said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24439813

 

I must have been at this game, our previous one v Croatia, in 2013, but I have no memories of it. The only survivor on Tuesday was Hanley, though Marshall was on the bench.

Intrguing to see that amongst the other unsuccessful teams in the group were Wales and Macedonia.

It was a good night IIRC. At the end of a dreadful campaign, that we had bought season tickets for 😖

We thought we'd unearthed a genuine superstar in Ikechi Anya 

 

We must've set a unique record in that group by beating the top seeds home and away (Croatia), and losing to the bottom seeds home and away (Wales)!

 

 

[Auchinyell Sox Change]

5 hours ago, ThistleWhistle said:

Looked on Wiki and apart from Bale blitzing past Adam I've erased that entire campaign from my memory! 

I recall charlie adam just gave up the chase ?

[Orraloon]

9 minutes ago, Auchinyell Sox Change said:

I recall charlie adam just gave up the chase ?

I don't think it ever got as far as a "chase". I think he just looked at who it was and thought "Fuk that, there is no way I'm catching him, no point trying really"

[Auchinyell Sox Change]

22 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

I don't think it ever got as far as a "chase". I think he just looked at who it was and thought "Fuk that, there is no way I'm catching him, no point trying really"

I remember being massively disappointed tho

think that was game also where he crossed a ball for fletcher goal? That was judged to have gone out ; bit of controversy of some sort

[scotlad]

37 minutes ago, Auchinyell Sox Change said:

I remember being massively disappointed tho

think that was game also where he crossed a ball for fletcher goal? That was judged to have gone out ; bit of controversy of some sort

That's the game. Took the lead through James Morrison in the first half; Steven Fletcher looked like he'd got a second but it was ruled out (the ball had gone out of play when Charlie Adam crossed it but I think it was actually disallowed for Fletcher being offside - which he wasn't).  Wales were huffing and puffing until Bale fell over in the box, got a penalty, scored it, then scored a wondergoal in the final minute to win 2-1.

A horrible ending to the worst game in one the worst qualification campaigns I can remember Scotland taking part in!

(And I fell asleep on the train on the way back from the pub and missed my stop).

[losinkiltpins]

It's sad to say but our midfielder is overhyped. If the Celtic boys were anything special top teams would be after them. Super John McGinn!  Didn't do much to earn the song. McTominay- there must be a player there but he keeps it well hidden. BG looked a class above but you can't expect one player to carry the hopes of  a nation. 

We fell into the same trap as every football supporter has since the game was first played. We hyped our players up to be something they are not.

[Toepoke]

A lot of us thought we'd got a great draw for 2014, getting Belgium as a weak third seed. Little did we realise how the football tectonic plates were shifting!

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Toepoke

[Jim Beem]

1 hour ago, Auchinyell Sox Change said:

I recall charlie adam just gave up the chase ?

That was one of the most pathetic incidents ever from a Scotland player. 

[Auchinyell Sox Change]

1 hour ago, Jim Beem said:

That was one of the most pathetic incidents ever from a Scotland player. 

How about Roughs half arsed attempts over many years including 2 world cups

Kennedy ( goalie ) at wembley

donachie back pass v wales

Davie Robb at wembley ( as much as than pains me )

david speedie generally

[thplinth]

On 6/23/2021 at 2:26 AM, Mitre said:

Think I'm leaving here for an extended period. There's a heavy amount of nutters on here. Don't blame folk venting especially the night but FFS.

My final 2 cents:

1. We are not good enough and were by far the worst team in our group. Rode our luck getting there but TBH qualifying is our high water mark.

2. There's too much blind loyalty in the fanbase and the thought that we can do better than expected - see the pre-tournament predictions thread as a case study.

3. The manager is a half decent club manager. However: 1 decent result (draw) with some tactical wins against our biggest rival is fine. But also 2 games where he's totally blew it. Tonight - sit off and let Modric dictate the pace of the game, persist with underperforming Armstrong (awful tonight), Not replacing beatliee SOD + Dykes. An off form Christie starting in our first match...

We have some decent young players coming through which gives us future hope but we also continually persist with some haddies that are clearly not good enough. I wish Steve Clarke all the best and it's a tough gig - you can only pish with the tadger given to you. But i feel he is somewhat out his depth and too ponderous to make changes when things are not working.

Onwards and upwards hopefully. Keep the faith 💙

Wholeheartedly agree with all of that.

The reactions to the 0-0 draw was an eye-opener as well for me. I have no interest in pishing on these folks parade, good luck to them and everyone, but I think it will have surprised a few (more than just me). Expectations have really fallen.

[ThistleWhistle]

15 hours ago, Orraloon said:

I don't think it ever got as far as a "chase". I think he just looked at who it was and thought "Fuk that, there is no way I'm catching him, no point trying really"

I had visions of him finally reacting and sticking his foot out about two hours later only to find he'd booted his dog up the arse.

In fairness though it is a bit of a microcosm of Scottish football/ tactics over the years because instead of blaming Adam for being blitzed for pace by Bale the question should be how he was ever in that position in the first place.  Rest of the team just seemed to stand and watch it unfold.  

[Third Lanark]

12 hours ago, Auchinyell Sox Change said:

How about Roughs half arsed attempts over many years including 2 world cups

Kennedy ( goalie ) at wembley

donachie back pass v wales

Davie Robb at wembley ( as much as than pains me )

david speedie generally

To be fair we see far fewer howlers of that nature nowadays.

[Auchinyell Sox Change]

7 hours ago, thplinth said:

Wholeheartedly agree with all of that.

The reactions to the 0-0 draw was an eye-opener as well for me. I have no interest in pishing on these folks parade, good luck to them and everyone, but I think it will have surprised a few (more than just me). Expectations have really fallen.

The lure of a tournament/ swallae / no Scotland no party / yessir i can boogie papers over the cracks ; but this has been an issue for some time

[mccaughey85]

On 6/25/2021 at 9:00 AM, thplinth said:

Wholeheartedly agree with all of that.

The reactions to the 0-0 draw was an eye-opener as well for me. I have no interest in pishing on these folks parade, good luck to them and everyone, but I think it will have surprised a few (more than just me). Expectations have really fallen.

the sad thing is england were there for the taking, 0-0 was good but ppl celebrated it like it was a win. 

[Third Lanark]

Just read that Perisic has tested positive and is out of the Spain game. Just our luck. Surely he would have been positive before we played them?

[Texas Pete]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

Just read that Perisic has tested positive and is out of the Spain game. Just our luck. Surely he would have been positive before we played them?

It’s a sad state of affairs if we are wishing players had Covid earlier so they couldn’t play against us. 

He could’ve caught it on the plane back from Glasgow anyway. 

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

Just read that Perisic has tested positive and is out of the Spain game. Just our luck. Surely he would have been positive before we played them?

Why do you think that?

[Third Lanark]

5 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Why do you think that?

Just because they are supposed to be in a safe bubble, I don't know for sure. But we did have the bad luck to lose Billy.