World Cup Warm-up Games

[swaddon]

Scotland take on Curaçao on Saturday at Hampden. It kicks off at 1 pm, presumably to avoid a clash with the moneybags league final at 5.

Curaçao is located in the Carribean, to the north of Venezuela. They qualified for their first World Cup this year. Ex-Hun manager Dick Advocaat resigned as their manager earlier this year, but was re-appointed a couple of weeks ago.

They can't be all bad if they qualified for the World Cup, so I predict a 1-1 draw on the basis that we never win friendlies.

[Jute]

4 hours ago, swaddon said:

Scotland take on Curaçao on Saturday at Hampden. It kicks off at 1 pm, presumably to avoid a clash with the moneybags league final at 5.

Curaçao is located in the Carribean, to the north of Venezuela. They qualified for their first World Cup this year. Ex-Hun manager Dick Advocaat resigned as their manager earlier this year, but was re-appointed a couple of weeks ago.

They can't be all bad if they qualified for the World Cup, so I predict a 1-1 draw on the basis that we never win friendlies.

Qualifying for them made easier by Canada, Mexico and USA all qualifying as hosts. 

[Jupiter]

I suppose this game is preparation for our embarrassing 0-0 draw with Haiti

[Jute]

[tom_widdows]

Mr C Marin to come on in the second half?

[RicoS321]

Red card for that? Fuck sake. That lad will probably miss out on a world cup game. Fucking nonsense. A yellow card. Easy decision, no requirement for anyone to get involved.

[OrlandoDon]

Can we sign Chong instead of olasanya?

[swaddon]

4-1 with a saft penalty.

[RicoS321]

Yesssssssssss.

We're winning this

[swaddon]

17 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Yesssssssssss.

We're winning this

Let's not get too carried away.

Ah, fuck it. Let's get carried away. It's coming hame.

[Jupiter]

So we lost 1-0 to 11 men and won 4-0 against 10.

[RicoS321]

7 minutes ago, Jupiter said:

So we lost 1-0 to 11 men and won 4-0 against 10.

That's not how football works 

[OrlandoDon]

Lucky, the red changes the game, but I still think we’d have won. Boost for the fringe players, some getting needed minutes for match sharpness,  Shankland and Curtis two pluses, I hope shankland is our 9 and id like to see doak and Curtis on the wings against Haiti.

[swaddon]

Next up for Scotland is Bolivia on Saturday 6th June at 9 pm Scotland time. It's being played at the Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey.

As long as everyone comes through it without getting crocked, I don't mind what the score is. But I predict a 0-2 defeat.

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Lucky, the red changes the game, but I still think we’d have won. Boost for the fringe players, some getting needed minutes for match sharpness,  Shankland and Curtis two pluses, I hope shankland is our 9 and id like to see doak and Curtis on the wings against Haiti.

I think Curtis might take over from Doak. We're not playing both, with McGinn, McTominay, Christie and Ferguson to accommodate. Doak was pish today and could have played himself out of a start.

[Jute]

12 hours ago, swaddon said:

Next up for Scotland is Bolivia on Saturday 6th June at 9 pm Scotland time. It's being played at the Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey.

As long as everyone comes through it without getting crocked, I don't mind what the score is. But I predict a 0-2 defeat.

Live on BBC 2. 

[Ajja]

14 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I think Curtis might take over from Doak. We're not playing both, with McGinn, McTominay, Christie and Ferguson to accommodate. Doak was pish today and could have played himself out of a start.

Agree with this. BGD is great when he’s on it but has no end product and he’s been poor recently. I like Curtis, he likes to take on defenders like Gannon-Doak does but he’s more of a ball carrier and has a finish. Playing one of them also allows us to play 2 up front in first game. 

[Jute]

20 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Can we sign Chong instead of olasanya?

Sadly he is at Sheffield United so well outside our price range. Thought he looked a really good player yesterday. Doubt he will be at Sheffield much longer. 

[swaddon]

Morocco pumped Madagascar 4-0 in a friendly.

[OrlandoDon]

On 31/05/2026 at 04:55, Ajja said:

Agree with this. BGD is great when he’s on it but has no end product and he’s been poor recently. I like Curtis, he likes to take on defenders like Gannon-Doak does but he’s more of a ball carrier and has a finish. Playing one of them also allows us to play 2 up front in first game. 

Im not so sure. We desperately need width and creativity and two wingers against Haiti will stretch the field, create space for Ferguson mctominnay and mcginn inside. Mctominnay at 10 supporting shankland hopefully. The width/wingers will create chances for shankland too.
Doak has proven he’ll benefit Scotland, and he needs minutes for sharpness. Especially with gilmour injured, having Christie off the bench to come in to the deeper role isn’t a bad thing either.
I’ll also add, don’t think we want to require the full backs to be bombing up and down being our attacking width in the US heat and humidity either, especially an aging Robertson in the first of three games in just over a week.

saying this, I don’t see doak and Curtis both starting the other two group games. Expect a more compact midfield against Morocco, esp if we can get a draw or win in game two after beating Haiti, that takes us out of the group!

Edited 14 hours ago by OrlandoDon

[Ajja]

I actually think we might have a better chance of nicking something against Brazil than Morocco weirdly. Assuming Morocco lose to Brazil they are then battling against us to get points on the board. Brazil are potentially cruising by the time they play us. Morocco’s pace and technique will be really tough to contain in a very competitive game.  

Edited 8 hours ago by Ajja

[RicoS321]

24 minutes ago, Ajja said:

Morocco’s pace and technique will be really tough to contain in a very competitive game

They've never faced Grant Hanley, pishing with sweat and angry in 30 degree heat. 

[tlg1903]

3 hours ago, Ajja said:

I actually think we might have a better chance of nicking something against Brazil than Morocco weirdly. Assuming Morocco lose to Brazil they are then battling against us to get points on the board. Brazil are potentially cruising by the time they play us. Morocco’s pace and technique will be really tough to contain in a very competitive game.  

Yeah I've been thinking along similar lines Ajja though I actually wouldn't be at all surprised to see Morocco beat Brazil.  Defo think our best chance of finishing second is Brazil to beat Haiti and Morocco then rest a few for us on the final fixture. 

[OrlandoDon]

See Haiti beat New Zealand 4-0 last night, no clue of the level of either.

[OrlandoDon]

4 hours ago, Ajja said:

I actually think we might have a better chance of nicking something against Brazil than Morocco weirdly. Assuming Morocco lose to Brazil they are then battling against us to get points on the board. Brazil are potentially cruising by the time they play us. Morocco’s pace and technique will be really tough to contain in a very competitive game.  

I think there’s a decent chance Morocco draw or beat Brazil. Brazil have been poor over the last year or two and didn’t impress in qualifying, although ancellotti may have improved things.