For any team, there comes a moment at a World Cup when merely being there stops feeling like enough. Scotland’s return to the tournament has been a genuine source of pride — they had not been part of it since 1998 — but sport has a way of stripping away sentiment quickly. Once the games begin, defeat still carries the sting of failure.
That is the uncomfortable place Scotland now occupy: caught between a significant achievement and the threat of a deeply frustrating early exit. After beginning the tournament with victory over Haiti, leaving at the first stage would feel like a missed opportunity. It means Steve Clarke and his squad will head to Miami to face Brazil knowing they have something valuable within reach — and something they cannot afford to squander.
When the draw was made in Washington last December, it brought Scotland and Brazil together in competitive action for the first time since the opening match of France ’98 in Paris, when Brazil won 2-1. This time, the equation is slightly different. Scotland know a draw would, in all probability, take them through to the last 32. Even a narrow defeat, similar to the one they suffered in the French capital, might yet be enough.
The margin, though, matters. Scotland may have room to lose narrowly, but they do not have room to be overwhelmed. Clarke’s task now is to make sure his players understand that delicate balance before facing the most famous footballing nation in World Cup history.
What is far easier to grasp is that Scotland must produce a much better performance than the one they delivered against Morocco at Boston’s impressive Gillette Stadium.
Scott McTominay and Scotland’s World Cup hopes are on a knife edge after the defeat
They cannot afford another opening spell as nervous, passive and disjointed as the first half hour on Friday night. They must not look like outsiders overwhelmed by the stage, or like guests at the tournament simply waiting for their invitation to be withdrawn.
Instead, Scotland need to find the conviction, tempo and clarity they showed in the final 20 minutes in Massachusetts. In those closing stages, they finally played with purpose, pushed Morocco back and threatened to force an equaliser that had earlier seemed unlikely.
Scotland are heavy underdogs not only against Brazil but in the wider picture of this tournament. It pays to remember how they qualified.
They were largely dominated by Denmark in that stunning and decisive victory at Hampden Park last November. Clarke’s team had 30 per cent of the ball and five shots on target. Four of them went in and three will be remembered as among the greatest goals ever scored by a player in dark blue.
It was wonderful and exhilarating and uplifting. But it was also freakish, something of a fluke. If the game was to played another 99 times in the same pattern, the Danes would win every time.
So it’s a gift that Scotland are even here. Their supporters have left their mark over a week in Boston and it has been in all the right ways. This wonderfully confident and intelligent city has been dressed in summer tartan and frankly it’s been a picture. It was just a shame that Scotland’s football for the first hour against Morocco lacked any such swagger.
So how does Clarke approach the game against Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil? He was still doing media duties as the South Americans tore Haiti apart in a riotous first half in Philadelphia on Friday and it’s probably just as well. Brazil’s football would have kept him awake.
Against Morocco – who today sit 6th in FIFA’s rankings and 35 places above his own team – he stands accused of being a little over-cautious at the start, of picking a team not to lose rather than to win. He arguably doesn’t have good enough players to do that.]
Scotland will view Casemiro as a potential area of weakness for Brazil next week
Scotland didn’t so much draw the AFCON champions on to them in the early stages but open the back door and stand aside.
In Florida against Brazil they must find a way to be more assertive, because they won’t get away with such compliance again. Scotland have fashioned only two shots on target in two games and one of them went in against Haiti, via two deflections.
Clarke himself tried to set the right tone late on Friday evening when he said: ‘We want to win the game and if we don’t win the game, we don’t want to lose it. We take on another side from the world’s top ten.’
Reasons for hope come in several forms. Brazil are capricious and emotional and have clear weaknesses.
Despite their disposal of Haiti on Friday, they were vulnerable in the centre of midfield against Morocco six days earlier.
Casemiro, at 34, has started both games and such has been his ponderous football that Scotland’s Scott McTominay – once a Manchester United team-mate of the great but ageing Brazilian – should look forward to winning that contest.
Against Morocco, McTominay imposed himself late in the game by playing further upfield. He is Scotland’s best player by a distance and such has been his improvement since joining Napoli that Casemiro may struggle to recognise him.
Ben Doak must start against Brazil – his speed and directness will cause them problems
Substitute Ben Gannon Doak also carried a threat against the north Africans. He is impish and direct and Clarke must start him against Brazil.
In some ways, it’s a free hit for Scotland. They have exceeded expectations by even being here in America. They have already won a game and as such have made some memories to erase some of those scars left by an inept showing at the 2024 European Championships.
The trouble with victories, though, is that they breed hope and even expectation. Scotland travelled west a fortnight ago hoping to still be in the mix come game three against Vinicius Junior and his friends.
They have achieved that. So why is it that qualification for phase two now feels like the only palatable outcome?
