Haiti v Scotland

[swaddon]

I would take a nervy 1-0 all day long.

And anyway, the World Cup winners always start slowly.

[Radiored]

Top of the group after 1st game, sittin' atop the might Brazil .... disappointing goal difference .... shades of 74? 

[wee toon red]

A win was needed and achieved.

That 4-4-2 doesn’t work as it’s too lopsided with Gannon Doak high on the right side and McGinn tucked in on the left. I assume it’s designed to allow our full backs - especially Robertson - to bomb on but when we don’t dominate the ball it actually just exposes them. Hickey especially was under the cosh all night and it got better down that side when Patterson came on but I think much of that was to do with Christie also coming on for Doak and playing a bit deeper.

Fine against 10-man Curacao and Bolivia’s summer holiday squad but I don’t expect we’ll see it again at the start of a game, with Shankland making way for Christie I would think.

Edited 10 hours ago by wee toon red

[manc_don]

Shankland was woeful. A truly abject performance from him. I was glad I didn’t need to stay up for it, and it was a post lunch game here as I have no idea how some of you did it. So, so lucky but the points are what matter. Hopefully we up up our performance level as we cannot play like that against either of the next two teams.

[RicoS321]

12 minutes ago, manc_don said:

Shankland was woeful. A truly abject performance from him

I don't agree. He worked very hard, and a few times he was back helping out the defence and breaking things up in his own half. He didn't get any service up front of note, a couple of half chances aside. He wasn't worse than Hickey or McGinn if we're picking out individuals. Up front in internationals can be a fairly thankless slog, as Adams has found out on numerous occasions. Being disciplined is a huge part of it, which he was. Had we created any actual chances then we'd be in a position to blame, or otherwise, his performance.

[tlg1903]

My voice is absolutely fucked after that.  Hell of a stadium though even if it did take two and half hours to get back into Boston.  

We were shite but we won so I don't care we were shite. Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in their opener in 22 so I'm really just not going to get too stressed about it.  It's not uncommon to grow into tournaments and the pressure last night was huge.  It can't be overstated at just how much of a monkey off our back it is to get a win at a World Cup given our last one was 36 years ago.  

 

[Jupiter]

So we're going to get knocked out on goal difference again. I can't decide if we should blame Clarke for being a negative nelly or the players for being incompetent. Maybe both.

[STFU_Donny]

Brilliant to get the win last night and ultimately 3 points is what matters but I did not enjoy that one bit, kept thinking the worst was going to happen.

Well, I did enjoy the walk out and anthems. The saltire looked spectacular on the pitch.