OUT OF AFRICA

SCOTLANDS WORLD CUP DREAM DIES AGAIN

Scotland 0 Netherlands 1

Scotland learned a vital lesson at Hampden Park this week, that pride and passion is not enough to get you to major football tournaments, following a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat in the final match of the World Cup qualifying campaign against runaway group winners, Holland.

In what had been a campaign to forget, Scotland had more than enough problems to seek with poor performances on the road against Macedonia and Norway.

There was also the headache of losing key player from the previous Euro campaign, Lee McCulloch, Kris Boyd and not forgetting the infamous “Boozegate” scandal which ended the international careers of Barry Ferguson and Alan McGregor.

But with the last two games of the campaign at home, the Scots still had a chance to grab one of the elusive playoff spots.

And following their moral boosting win over Macedonia a few days before, the national side suddenly found themselves a way of resurrecting their World Cup dream if they could do what no side has done this season – beat Holland, ranked the third best team in the world and once of the few teams to go through their qualifying campaign undefeated.

Even though there was an element of nervousness around the nation, there was no doubt from under Scotland Manager, George Burley that this was a game that was there for the taking

“Our team are so £$%^&*£ up for it,” said the Scotland Manager, who broke away from protocol but it certainly got the message across.

Scotland on the whole has had a good record against Holland in the past, especially at Hampden and despite their past failings, there feeling was that maybe this could be a night for the history books.

Results still had to go their way, but the bottom line was that this was a win or bust game. The Dutch had already qualified, but no one was kidding themselves to think that they would take the foot of the gas as these players still had their own World Cup places to play for.

But if the Scots were to triumph, it would not just require the full support of the tartan army, but also a display of from the players of grit, determination and courage not seen on the national stage since the days when we used to qualify for major tournaments.

“This is a time for heroes,” boomed the stadium announcer as Burley's Bravehearts braced themselves for the biggest game of their lives, with the Hampden Roar up at full volume.

Burley did make some changes to his starting line up, some of them enforced, with Shaun Maloney in for the suspended James McFadden, David Marshall, the late replacement for Craig Gordon, who filed a late fitness test, Paul Hartley boosting up the midfield in place of Graham Alexander.

But Burley would not be Burley if he did not pull out a surprise selection. Some of them in the past have been gambles that failed, but this was on inclusion that he was hoping that would reap the rewards, with Steven Naismith, making his first Scotland start in place of Steven Fletcher.

The omens did not look for the Scots during the opening minutes as they sat back and let the Dutch come at them and they had a narrow escape in four minutes when Dirk Kuyt unleashed a ferocious shot from the edge of the box which bounced off Marshall's left-hand post.

This seemed to give the home side the wakeup call that they needed and started to get amongst the Dutch putting them on the back foot and came close when Alan Hutton sent a terrific cross into the box with Scott Brown at full stretch did not get a good connection, sending the ball wide of the posts.

Scotland stepped up the pressure but could to find the killer touch in front of goal and almost got caught with sucker punch.

But any doubts of Marshall standing in for Gordon was soon put to bed, with the Cardiff goalie, kept Scotland in the game when at full-stretch, tipped a well-struck shot from Wesley Sneijder over the crossbar.

Marshall came to the rescue again moments later, this time blocking from Arjen Robben from 10 yards after he had been played through on goal by Robin van Persie.

Scotland were playing as a team full of belief, with Darren Fletcher leading from the front, not shirking form any challenges and determined to push forward any opportunity that he got.

Holland appeared to be rattled as the Scots continued to push hard for the opener and they had a lucky escape of their own on the half hour when Brown flicked the ball to Kenny Miller, who managed to shrug off the challenge of Joris Mathijsen, with the final shot sending the ball bouncing of the cross bar.

The Rangers striker then squandered the best chance of the half when a long range shot from Naismith was blocked by Michel Vorm with Miller quickly on hand for the rebound, but shot the ball into the hands of the keeper instead of trying to lift it above his body.

At the break, you could not have asked for a better first 45 mins from Scotland –maybe there was still enough fuel in the tank, to hold on to the dream and to ease the pressure of their Head Coach.

The pace was not as frantic during the early stages of the second half, which seemed to suit the visitors more.

The Dutch had were the first to threaten when Sneijder's corner was met by the head of Dirk Kuyt but knocked it over from close range.

It then became obvious that no lessons had been learned from the Celtic v Arsenal Champions League match when diving in the penalty box was had been the talk of the sports pages after Liverpool man Kuyt was booked for diving by Danish referee Claus Bo Larsen after going to ground under pressure from McManus.

The visitors started to look more comfortable going forward and were denied an opening goal again from man of the match, Marshall, with an excellent stop from Arjen Robben at the post.

Miller blew another goal scoring opportunity when the ball broke to him from10 yards out but it was another poor finish and was easily blocked by Vorm

Scotland still had their chances to go in when Steven Whittaker slotted into the path of Maloney who found himself one on one with the goalkeeper but failed to finish the move off, with the ball once again smothered by Vorm

And despite what had been a heroic performance, the World Cup dream caved in for Scotland eight minutes from time when David Weir was caught flat-footed by a long clearance out of the Dutch defence and the centre-back's poor header was pounced on by Eljiero Elia, who coolly rounded Marshall sending an angled drive into the net.

Once again the dream of playing in a major tournament has died for Scotland once again. But even though they finished in third place on the back of this defeat and Norway's victory in Macedonia, the damage had been done much earlier in the campaign.

Shock defeats, personnel problems all points towards the management of George Burley. However he said that he is learning from mistakes ( and there were plenty - including this game) and wants to carry on, and with the support that was given and the passion and determination showed by the team, maybe there are fans out there that are ready to give the former Hearts Manager time to have another go at taking his country forward, judging by the fact that the players were applauded off the field at the end of the game.

Whether his bosses, the SFA are willing to give him that chance remains to be seen,

But things will no doubt be clearer when Burley will meet up with the board to review the past events next week.

Watch this space !!!

Scotland : Marshall, Hutton, Weir, McManus, Whittaker, Hartley (Commons 67), Naismith, Brown, Darren Fletcher, Maloney (O'Connor 83), Miller.
Subs Not Used: Neil Alexander, Graham Alexander, Gary Caldwell, Steven Fletcher, Rae.

Booked : Naismith, Hartley, Darren Fletcher.

Netherlands : Vorm, Van Der Wiel, Ooijer, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst, Sneijder (Van der Vaart 77), De Zeeuw, De Jong, Robben (Elia 73), van Persie (Huntelaar 84), Kuyt.
Subs Not Used: Velthuizen, Heitinga, Schaars, Braafheid.

Booked : van Persie, Kuyt, Robben.

Goals : Elia 82.

Att : 51,230

Ref : Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)