Subject: World Cup Thread

Eesti up next and a moral dilemma for Scotland.
With qualification as table toppers already secured do we avoid injuries and suspensions and play our U21's to get them expierence for the forthcoming WC or do we give USA and Italia a fighting chance?


Heh, i was going to leave the post like that for a few hours and see how many bites were forthcoming but maybe too cruel :)


Here's the plan.

We are already missing 4 key players due to injury or suspension so Scotland will not be at their strongest regardless, however, Scotland will field a team to try and take points from Eesti which wont be easy as it is a must win game for them and i have a feeling that we are going to get a look at their 2 monster strikers. Even at full strength Scotland may very well struggle against such good opposition so for any interested third parties, we'll try our best but dont expect too much :)

i beleive its in our interests to go for a win/draw if possible.
we have already won the group, but our seeding for the next round will be based on our points and goal difference.

I have a suspiscion that it may even be possible for us to fall out of the top half of seeds and be overtaken by a group runner up if they end up with more points/goal differnce than us... though i could be wrong on this point.

Yeah, our current run has also seen us rise to world rank 20 and we also have to think about seedings for the next WC qualifying campaign.

I have a team in mind but nothing will be set untill after tonights cup matches and the next form updates.

those world rankings are very misleading.

we are actually MUCH better than that. Its just our U21s that bring us down.

Think we were easily in the top 10 in the days before we started playing those U21 matches

we are actually MUCH better than that. Its just our U21s that bring us down.

Shh, dont go telling everyone :)

Besides, our u21's are improving now, nowhere near the level of the Poles or Belgians but definately improving.
Unfortunately this upcoming WC is going to come too soon for most of these guys but in two seasons time i really think that Scotland will be able to compete at this level.

England are in the same boat really, maybe a season further ahead than you guys, but not that big a gap. Our u-21's let us down in the rankings too, they should have got the official u-21's sorted by now surely? Taking far too long if you ask me.

Better go for group victory and thus have a great chance of not having Polska, Belgium, ... as opponent next round ;)

Yep, Polska would be tough ;p

not with that coach that they have ;P

Game kicks off at 11.00am sk time.

The fate of the USA and Italy could be known before they kick a ball....or it could be game on :)

1 hour to your kick-off, good luck lads :)

looks good so far!

Yup, Eesti's defending is terrible! Lappin is running the game from midfield.

Scotland could have had 3 in that first half, from a slightly biased perspective. |:)

slightly ^^ :p

2-0 now, just as Eesti seemed to be getting back into the game too!!