Let us be brutally honest from the off. Steve Clarke and his players would have bitten your hand off for this outcome when the clock struck seventy se...
Let us be brutally honest from the off. Steve Clarke and his players would have bitten your hand off for this outcome when the clock struck seventy seconds. Morocco, a side dripping with technical quality and youthful bravado, had already stormed ahead through Ismael Saibari. The men in kilts stood frozen, gulping under that blazing Massachusetts sun, a stark contrast to the party atmosphere that had preceded kick off.Saibari's strike was a brutal piece of clinical finishing. It exposed a vulnerability that has haunted Scotland in big moments for decades. Yet here is the strange beauty of tournament football. Scotland may privately, and perhaps even publicly, have accepted a narrow defeat before a ball was even kicked. Why Because this result, however painful in the moment, leaves the door to history ajar. Avoid a comprehensive beating against Brazil, the undisputed heavyweight, and the arithmetic becomes tantalisingly simple.Value. That is the word that rattles around Steve Clarke's tactical notepad right now. The value in beating Haiti by a single goal. The value in losing to Morocco by only this margin. It is a grim calculus, but one that keeps the dream of becoming the first Scotland team to progress from a major tournament group stage very much alive. The Tartan Army will need calculators in hand come the final whistle on Wednesday.Onwards then, to Miami. The spectacle promises to be quite something. Clarke's side must show tactical flexibility, shifting from a reactive low block to something far more proactive against Brazil. They cannot simply park the bus and hope. They must defend with organisation, yes, but also with a belief that a single moment of transitional play can swing a nation's fortune. This was not a party ruined. It was a sobering dose of reality that, paradoxically, keeps the party from ending prematurely. Squeaky bum time Absolutely. But Scotland are still in the mixer.
