A couple of years ago, the slogan, at least outside the dressing room, was “No Scotland, no party”. Now it is different. The core of Andy Robertson’s message was “no regrets”.
No man has captained Scotland in more games, nor led them in three major tournaments. But the first two have provided disappointment. Instead of no regrets, there were no wins. Two years ago, Scotland opened Euro 2024, but it was a false start for them, walloped 5-1 by Germany. Performances were more respectable in Euro 2020 but the outcome was the same: one point apiece.
Now the objective is to go one better and win a game, to do something that has eluded every previous Scotland side and reach the knockout stages of a tournament. “We want to do something special,” said Steve Clarke, a manager who often deals in cautious rhetoric allowing himself to dream.
A first game against Haiti provides the kind of opportunity that facing Germany two years ago did not, to get an early win. “The last Euros was quite unique,” recalled Robertson. “We were in the opener against the host nation which is never an easy task. When it came we maybe weren’t ready to go and strike. Now we’re locked in, we’re ready.”
Ready, he hopes, to go where no Scotland team has gone before. “Don’t come home too soon,” the title of Scotland’s 1998 World Cup song, had a depressive realism too it; every Scotland side have come home too soon. This time, Robertson urged, when they return to Glasgow, it must be with a sense they have done their utmost.
“I don’t think we want any regrets,” he said. “When I look back at the last two Euros you potentially look at certain games with regret. You never want to leave any match with regrets. That’s the aim.”
He could leave Liverpool with none, with the feeling he had given his all over nine years that brought remarkable success. The left-back played in three Champions League finals. Winning in 2019, he said last month, was about the best 24 hours of his life, family apart. And yet one ambition will only be belatedly realised now, at 32.
“I’ve been very fortunate to play in big games, win trophies, play for the biggest club in the world but for me playing for your country is that one step above,” he said. “To do it at a World Cup is a dream come true.”
Scotland got there in a manner that brought reminders of their World Cup history. Archie Gemmill’s wonder goal against the Netherlands in 1978 stood almost unchallenged as Scotland’s greatest strike, until, on the same surreal evening, Scott McTominay went airborne with an overhead kick against Denmark and Kenny McLean completed a play-off win from the half-way line.
Gemmill’s goal was immortalised in Trainspotting; the words of Ewan McGregor’s monologue – “Choose Life” – have been customised in a new advert, read by Lewis Capaldi, devoted to McTominay, with the message: “Choose Scotland”. McTominay, born in Lancaster, did.
The Napoli midfielder provided a scare when he missed training on Thursday due to illness. Clarke allayed fears about a talisman. “Ready to go,” he pronounced.
He nevertheless sought to relieve the pressure on McTominay to be the matchwinner. “I think I have 26 superstars here,” he said. “If you try and put so much on to one player is not fair. Some daft coach put him as a centre-half five years ago, obviously he’s not a centre-half.”
That was a self-deprecating reference to his deployment of McTominay in a back three in Euro 2020. Now McTominay and John McGinn seem to represent Scotland’s best chances of victory, as Gemmill once did.
“We hope we inspire the next generation to go out and kick a ball with their brother, mates or sister,” said Robertson, seemingly referencing the commercialisation and costs of this World Cup. “I did that with my brother in the back garden and with my mates.
“Society and football has become more expensive, but people can always kick a can down the road as they say. This is obviously on the world stage. We see back home how excited kids, parents and grandparents are.”
Some of the excited relatives are in Boston. “A big Clarke clan here,” said the Scotland manager, who has brought his wife, three children, two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. Boston is a city with a huge Irish influence. For a week or so, however, it may have been taken over by the Scots. After Haiti, it is Morocco in Foxborough, too, with Brazil in Miami and then, Scotland want, at least one more game.
And after that, if Robertson gets his way, a legacy. He added: “We just hope after the World Cup the buzz is still there.”
