Starting this one early, as I happened to watch the Haiti v Peru highlights from last night. Haiti weren't amazing, but they have pace on the counter attack. Isidor looks like a good player and Pierrot looks like a very good athlete. Both will cause us big problems, and I worry about Hanley in a back four when we're defending high up. I wonder if we might go back three instead? 

Defensively they weren't great, and their midfield could be passed through with ease. Gilmour would have been absolutely perfect for this game, and, to a lesser degree, Lennon Miller. Without those two, it'll almost certainly have to be McLean, who is by far our best option at slowing down counter attacks as well as moving it quickly forward. That means a decision to be made between McGinn, Christie, Doak, Curtis. Because of that, I'd expect us just to play one up front, so that we can get as many of the preferred players in. I'd much rather we played two, Dykes and Shankland, but I suspect it'll be just Adams on his own. 

I just checked out the rankings re. our WC group.

Just to give a bit of perspective, having previously learned the rankings of our '98 group, I concluded that our 'failure' to progress was not as embarrassing as it felt, and def not as was reported.

Brazil were ranked '1' ... Norway '7' .... Morocco ... '13' ..... Scotland '41'  ..... Apply that to any 4 countries you like, and you'll conclude that any team ranked 41st had no chance of a point! .... let alone progress.

Perspective? .... if the World's best 42 teams were arranged in terms of the Scottish league .... 
Brazil are Prem champs.
Norway are top of the bottom 6.
Morocco are celebrating automatic promotion to the Prem.
Scotland are second bottom of Scots League 2 - one place above being demoted to the Highland League! 

This year? ... (latest FIFA rankings) with 2 of the same nations as last world cup? 

Brazil '6'
Morocco '7'
Scotland '42'
Haiti '83' ...... Eighty fkn Three! 

..... So .... using the 'perspective' model above ..... per the Scottish League, Brazil are Falkirk ... Morocco are Dundee United, Scotland are Edinburgh City and Haiti? .... I dunno how many divisions in the Highland/Lowland/Other leagues, nor how many teams in each, but ..... in terms o' rankings ... we're lookin' at a team droppin' out of the Scottish League goin' up against a poor pub XI .... so it's anybody's game   

..... Perspective can be skewered, but expectations are best carefully managed  

 

So McTominay has a stomach bug and is travelling separately to the rest of the squad, as a precaution. It would be oh so typical Scotland for the squad to be hit with the shits right before their first WC group game in 28 years. 

McTominay is feeling better now according to the manager.

2 hours ago, swaddon said:

McTominay is feeling better now according to the manager.

That because he’s a machine!

The 4th US goal was very like the one Nisbet scored against Dundee at Dens when we won 3-1

44 minutes ago, dons8321 said:

The 4th US goal was very like the one Nisbet scored against Dundee at Dens when we won 3-1

Aye, I heard thon Yank laddie is a massive Dandy and has been studying footage of Nisbet to see how he could improve. 

Wake up!!!

Decent lineup. Play like we did against Bolivia and we're good. Harsh on Christie, who I thought was excellent in that game. 

Just on to coffee to keep me going. Getting nervous now. 

Ah'm in ..... nae lang hame fae daein' a gig near Forfar, now on the home made wine tae keep ma weel stimulated .... here we go! ;) 

Can’t help but feel a wee bit nervous!

Not a great start. We are letting them dictate pace of game. 

FUUUUUCKKKINNN YAAAASSSSS!!!!!

YYYAAAASSSS!!! McGinn!

Thank fuck for that. Need to get finger out and get more as we will need a healthy goal difference to cover the two hammerings that are coming our way in Morocco and Brazil games. 

Need to be much quicker in attack, far too slow. Nothing from hickey and Robertson in attack and we need that, but you can tell we are wary of their pace going forward. We definitely need a second at least.

Decent half. They're not shite, and we're a bit nervy. We started moving the ball quickly, hopefully we'll do the same again this half.

Not much in it at all, is there? All very cagey.

Very cagey, not a great performance at all. Need a second.

My nerves won't take this last bit of the game.

Yasss. Set us up perfectly to go home on goal difference 

That was painful. Not a good performance. Good defending, but a win is a win!!

That wasn’t much fun, was it? Onwards and upwards. Off for a lie down…

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

And anyway, the World Cup winners always start slowly.