Scotland’s matches are starting to become a temptation again, rather than a cause of disappointment and apathy. The tortuous history of the national team comes all too readily to mind, but that can never divert people entirely from being absorbed in it. Tomorrow will see Gordon Strachan’s men play Germany in Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion at the start of their qualifying campaign for Euro 2016.
No one should be deluded by a clearly dubious hope. There is no cause, for instance, to believe that Germany are on the verge of collapse. The countries that reached the 2014 World Cup final met again this week for a friendly.
In a reversal of that final, the victory came to Argentina instead of Germany. Joachim Löw’s alterations to his line-up pointed, however, to the relative unimportance of the friendly in Düsseldorf.
Scotland will expect the full force, with no courtesies thrown in. Nonetheless, the moment has come to see how Strachan’s impact will be felt on the pitch in such a challenging fixture.
To date, he has exceeded expectations. Having taken the job after the departure of his predecessor, Craig Levein, Strachan engineered those notable victories, home and away, over Croatia.
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After such results, the manager has unquestionable status. There were few who grumbled about the 3-2 defeat by England in the friendly at Wembley in August of last year when his side had contributed so much to the occasion. There was an indication that Scotland can make an impact. Difficult as it is to foresee exactly how much confidence and hope the squad can take from its better days.
In March of this year, Scotland beat Poland 1-0 in Warsaw, but that was a mere friendly. The squad will have to assert themselves in more severe circumstances now that the teams are pitted against each other in group D for the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. Consistency is always a concern where Scotland are concerned, but there are hints of both stability and progress.
The next World Cup finals, awarded to Russia, are all the more alluring when the decision to give the 2022 tournament to Qatar continues to cause trouble because of the disbelief that many of the greatest players on Earth will be capable of giving their utmost in such heat. These topics, however, are distant thoughts for most people. It is enough to suggest, tremulously, that Scotland can go on improving. These are vague notions, but Strachan’s shrewdness and know-how are substantial. Following the encounter at Wembley, England are to reciprocate when they meet Scotland at Celtic Park on November 18. Despite the willingness to get themselves to Glasgow, it is unlikely to lead to a true revival of the fixture that used to have a hallowed place on the game’s calendar. Where football is concerned, there is no commitment to reinstating the game as an annual, sometimes troubling, phenomenon. The sport has changed wholly from the days when Scots saved their money for the biennial adventure that took them to Wembley. Excitement now will only come through the dedication that ultimately improves the calibre of the players at clubs where coaches have a gift of advancing their technique, attitude and understanding of top level football.
Strachan, for his part, has all of those attributes. A Scotland coach who has a record of guiding players who have the sense to listen to his advice. The influence has to be applied immediately. An international manager and his players have to make the most of the squad meetings which do not come around all that regularly.
The limitations are clear. Players who turn out for their country are snatching days from clubs that, in many cases, make them astonishingly wealthy.
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It may well be that international football acts as a corrective to the materialism, even if that appears ridiculous when there were few more than 40,000 at Wembley for England’s 1-0 win over Norway this week.
Considering the modest nature of the visiting team and the focus on the early days of the domestic season in the Premier League, we should honour those who constituted that attendance. The numbers, in any case, will no doubt climb to their normal level in most of the established leagues.
Football depends on the enduring fixation with the game. It relies, too, on those international matches that bring a gladdening interruption to the domestic games in countries like Scotland. They make us turn away from the cosmopolitan line-ups and feel the football bonds that are forged with countrymen who recall the disappointment and the elusive joy that we all pursue.
• Players are supposed to benefit from an enlivening change of scene, but there can also be grave demands. Everyone knows how stiff those demands will be in Dortmund. Perhaps, however, there may be a brief sense of relief at kick-off. Gordon Strachan referred to his squad having four training sessions in a two-day period and also spoke of the coaching staff labouring from 8am to 10pm. It does no harm to assure supporters that nothing has been neglected in the preparations.
• While the focus is on Germany for the time being, there should come a time when Scotland may just feel they can also advance from the group as runners-up, ahead of Republic of Ireland, Poland, Georgia and Gibraltar. That would take them to the finals of a major tournament for the first time since the 1998 World Cup. Few anticipate glory, but it may be feasible to improve Scotland’s status.