Scots expect nothing

Thursday 26 March 2009

The Tartan Army, the nickname of the supporters of the Scottish national football team, will contain some 15,000 soldiers on Saturday.

Many of them will get aboard a boat or an airplane with three missions in mind.

They want to drain the pubs to the last drop, of course they will visit the red light district in Amsterdam and in-between Scotland should defeat the Netherlands.

"When achieve two of these it will be all-right," says a Scottish supporter who arrived in Amsterdam on Wednesday, pint in hand at a bar in the heart of Amsterdam.

"You can take it from me that few will count on a victory over Holland. A draw would feel like a victory. Even though it doesn't do as any good."

The gap between Holland and Scotland already is five points with only three games played.

The Scots lost at Macedonia (1-0), dropped two points against Norway (0-0) and squeezed out a narrow win in Iceland (1-2).

Under the new boss George Burley Scotland are back where they started.

Not once has the team resembled the team that twice beat France when Alex McLeish was in charge trying to qualify for Euro 2008.

Scotland have an offensive problem.

Kenny Miller is the only forward who plays at an acceptable level at Glasgow Rangers.

David Clarkson (Motherwell), Steven Fletcher (Hibernian), Chris Iwelumo (Wolverhampton Wanderers) and Ross McCormack (Cardiff City) have one goal between them for the national team.

James McFadden (Birmingham City) is is still injured and Kris Boyd (Glasgow Rangers) does not get along with manager Burley.

David Weir, 61 caps to his name and the most experienced Scottish international, is out with a knee injury for Saturday's game.

Paul Hartley (Celtic), Kirk Broadfoot (Glasgow Rangers) and Kris Commons (Derby County) have also stayed behind in Scotland with injuries and so the Scottish hopes, more than ever, rest on the shoulders of Darren Fletcher and Barry Ferguson.

Fletcher is the only Scotsman playing at top level at Manchester United.

Ferguson (Glasgow Rangers) rarely fails the national team.

Besides that Scotland build on their known weapons: passion and fighting spirit.

They did so when they last visited the Amsterdam Arena on 19 November 2003.

In the playoffs for a place at the European Championships in Portugal Scotland defended a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

Holland won 6-0.

Ruud van Nistelrooy scored three and Wesley Sneijder achieved his definitive breakthrough with a goal and two assists.

Even after a decent session and a good visit to De Wallen that result will certainly not be acceptable for the soldiers of the Tartan Army this time.