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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.
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