Achievements had raised expectations, Kieran Tierney was missed – and the manager made some errors against UkraineSteve Clarke seemed slightly irked at entering Hampden Park’s auditorium to strains of laughter. Scotland’s World Cup push had, after all, just been comprehensively halted by the outstanding players of Ukraine. What had been pointed out among journalists was that the sides must meet again on Nations League business. “I forgot about that,” said one. “That’s another couple of humpings to look forward to.”Dark humour used to be essential when following Scotland. Continue reading...
For 94 minutes these bruised and grieving men managed to shut out the world and throw themselves into their sportTrauma can produce a devastating clarity. It paints the world in new and shocking colours, ruthlessly strips away what matters from what doesn’t, dulls the pain with pure adrenaline and primal instinct. Car crash victims talk of calmly strolling away from a burning wreckage. Survivors of dreadful accidents often chat lucidly away to the paramedics while lying in their own blood. When pushed to extremes, humans have a limitless capacity to endure, to carry on, to do the thing that is needed.A lot of the speculation ahead of this game centred on how Ukraine’s footballers would cope with their first international...
Wednesday’s World Cup playoff against Scotland might offer at least some comfort to those struggling back homeA cold night towards the end of 1993. A group of eight men huddled behind a pile of snow at the airport, waiting, anxious. The sprint was only 200 yards. They were professional athletes, physically fit. It should have been easy. On the other side of the airfield, one run through the darkness away, lay freedom and their mission. But they knew they were within range of Serbian snipers.This was Fuad Muzurovic’s grand idea. He was the coach of FK Sarajevo and as the siege of his city dragged on he realised his players had a value beyond taking up arms and fighting on...
If future generations of female sport writers are to flourish, we must be united in confronting gender-based discriminationIn the depths of a Scottish winter last year, a group of female journalists – myself included – huddled in front of our laptops to discuss our annual mentoring scheme for up-and-coming female talent.To address the fact that so few sportswriters applied previously, we decided to ringfence five places for them. But we ran into a problem: it was impossible to find enough journalists to fill the slots. Continue reading...
Scotland are a decent side and can build on their Euros performance, but they need a top-class, final-third resourceThe inquest attached to Scotland failing to exit the group stage at a major tournament is at least novel. For too long, grim analysis surrounded an inability to reach championships in the first place. Steve Clarke’s team bucked the trend before being swiftly reminded of unforgiving environments; including in respect of ferocious criticism. November’s national heroes are June’s dinosaur-led duds.By the time the kind of petty and parochial rows that often define the Scottish domestic scene return – we are talking a matter of weeks here – Euro 2020 will be long forgotten. That is a shame. Clarke’s side raised the spirits...