How agonising/heroic will Scotland's failure to reach the World Cup be?

[Tooting Gull]

Oh yeah, in this thread another possibility - play against ten-man Slovakia for 70 minutes and fail to score?

 

[GT49er]

Jocks have no excuse now, Slovakia down to 10 with Mak OFF for diving

'It's much harder to break down ten men'. So it is often said................................

 

[hans kraay fan club]

2016 Euros

England fail to qualify from a group of Wales, Slovakia and Iceland

.

Not so.

The group included Russia. The inept showing against Iceland was next round.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

ITs going to be GD isn't it

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Scotland historically tend to do just enough to fail. So if they need to win by 3 goals, they'll win by 2...if they need to win, they concede a late equaliser....if they need to draw they concede a late winner- that kind of thing. I agree that they're more entertaining than England as they rarely go out with a wimper- it's usually quite dramatic and you know that they've worked REALLY hard but just aren't good enough.

I was trying to remember the last time they got close to qualifying for a tournament- I know they lost to England in the play-offs for Euro 2000 (losing by 1 goal, obviously) but I have memories of them also losing to Holland in a play-off....they won the first leg but were utterly demolished in the second. Can't remember what tournament it was but I'd plump for either 2004 or 2006

 

[whitelion]

1-1 after a last minute Slovakia goal tonight - either off side/handball/dodgy pen - combination of all three.

Good call

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I hope Scotland qualify. I like Strachan and McGhee.

 

[Jimmy Come Lately]

Well done to the lads for keeping our hopes alive for one more game. Has any other team ever kept qualification / getting out of the group stage mathematically possible in so many tournaments for so long and failed so many times?

There's something wrong, though, in that we're not hoping for a favourable result elsewhere. We just need to win our remaining game to finish second. It's in our hands. This makes me think that we're likely to do it, so that we then become dependent on how the other groups finish and the luck of the play-off draw. The random factor will creep back in that way, and it will end in heartbreak somehow.

 

[Simster]

I know that laughing at Scotland is part of an Englishman's DNA but I'd absolutely love to see them back in a big tourney. They are an old school footballing nation, remarkably so considering their population size, and they've not been good enough for nearly two decades now.

They'd turn up in huge numbers in Russia (let's face it, you wouldn't want to follow England there would you?) and they'd make a mess of their chances by losing to a minnow, it would all be very entertaining.

But the best thing as far as I'm concerned, is that you can be sure none of their players would be demanding 200k a week, three weeks after being absolute gash at the world cup like all of our international failures down the years. That sort of money should be reserved for world class players, of which we have ONE.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I know that laughing at Scotland is part of an Englishman's DNA but I'd absolutely love to see them back in a big tourney. They are an old school footballing nation, remarkably so considering their population size, and they've not been good enough for nearly two decades now.

They'd turn up in huge numbers in Russia (let's face it, you wouldn't want to follow England there would you?) and they'd make a mess of their chances by losing to a minnow, it would all be very entertaining.

But the best thing as far as I'm concerned, is that you can be sure none of their players would be demanding 200k a week, three weeks after being absolute gash at the world cup like all of our international failures down the years. That sort of money should be reserved for world class players, of which we have ONE.

England players donate their match fees to charities.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/england-players-paid-play-country-11294269

 

[Jim D]

I expect Scotland to beat Slovenia and be drawn against Italy in the playoffs, losing 3-2 on aggregate.

 

[Ecosse Exile]

England players donate their match fees to charities.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/england-players-paid-play-country-11294269

I dont think that is what Simster was alluding to but it is good to know.
I watched the interview on Sky yesterday that the article was taken from and although he was trying to defend the players against accusations that they dont care, rightly so i might add, i couldn't help but laugh at the thought of a squad of 25 millionaire's sitting in a room and imagine which medals they would like to win. Of course they are going to give the answer that was expected of them, but i bet half of them were imagining their next supercar whilst mumbling to each other "i cant believe were doing this" whilst the majority of the others were trying not to fall asleep.
It sounded like the sort of thing a teacher would ask a bunch of 5 year olds to do.

Apart from that (and obviously, im biased) but totally agree with Simster that the world cup will be a better tournament with Scotland in it, same goes for Holland, Brazil, the Irish, etc, they bring much more to the tournament, the colour, the numbers, the passion, silly ginger wigs, tartan bunetts, kilts, bagpipes etc. The world cup will be better with Scotland in it.
England obviously travel in huge numbers too but unfortunately, despite most England fans being their to enjoy themselves, all the media will be interested in is how many arrests are made between English and Russian nutters. Sad.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There are no easy matches at this level of competition...

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Mr Krabappel- who, unfortunately, is a Welsh- was explaining to me yesterday that the play off teams are comprised of the eight best runners up (from the nine groups), so somebody who finishes second misses out.

They determine the play off qualification on a points basis, but not including games against the teams who finish bottom, thus ensuring you can't get through simply because you had the good fortune to play Gibraltar, for example. It seems that Wales are currently bottom of the league of potential play off candidates, behind Bosnia on goal difference (or at least they were before the current round of games. They still have to play the ROI, who have their own interest in qualifying, so that could be an interesting game. They won't have Bale to carry them either.

So long as Scotland win in Slovenia to claim second, they'll be in the play offs, as their record is better than Wales or Bosnia. Would be amusing if Wales ended up playing off against the Brave Scots to qualify for Russia

 

[Ecosse Exile]

Mr Krabappel- who, unfortunately, is a Welsh- was explaining to me yesterday that the play off teams are comprised of the eight best runners up (from the nine groups), so somebody who finishes second misses out.

They determine the play off qualification on a points basis, but not including games against the teams who finish bottom, thus ensuring you can't get through simply because you had the good fortune to play Gibraltar, for example. It seems that Wales are currently bottom of the league of potential play off candidates, behind Bosnia on goal difference (or at least they were before the current round of games. They still have to play the ROI, who have their own interest in qualifying, so that could be an interesting game. They won't have Bale to carry them either.

So long as Scotland win in Slovenia to claim second, they'll be in the play offs, as their record is better than Wales or Bosnia. Would be amusing if Wales ended up playing off against the Brave Scots to qualify for Russia

I think the top 4 are seeded to play the bottom 4, possible but not sure either Scotland or Wales will be in the top 4 so unlikely to play each other, shame, would bring back wonderful memories of qualification for the 1978 world cup in Argentina, when big Joe Jordan knocked Wales out single handedly (literally).

 

[Triggaaar]

The days when we could laugh at Scotland are long gone imo, we are nearly as shit.

That's ridiculous. We qualify for all tournaments while they qualify for none, because we beat teams while they lose. We're nowhere near as shit as them.

Fair comment but I no longer enjoy watching us **** up in the finals. I am struggling to remember the last time I enjoyed watching England in the finals. When Venables or maybe Hoddle were In charge?

Well yes, that's fair enough, I feel the same. But that doesn't suddenly make us close to Scotland's level of shit.

 

[Stat Brother]

That's ridiculous. We qualify for all tournaments while they qualify for none.

So England play 3 games more than Scotchland every 2 years.

Hardly seems worth all the effort.

 

[Jim D]

I think the top 4 are seeded to play the bottom 4, possible but not sure either Scotland or Wales will be in the top 4 so unlikely to play each other, shame, would bring back wonderful memories of qualification for the 1978 world cup in Argentina, when big Joe Jordan knocked Wales out single handedly (literally).

Aren't Switzerland and Wales ranked number one and two in the world?

 

[Ecosse Exile]

Aren't Switzerland and Wales ranked number one and two in the world?

No idea jim tbh, but is it seeded that way or by qualification standings? Switzerland and Wales? Really? Bloody hell!!