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22 hours ago
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Key events
28 min: We are reminded that Bolivia beat Brazil last year, and got as far as the playoffs for the finals. This is a performance to lend plenty of confidence to the Scots.
26 min: Back underway, everyone refreshed and towelled down.
24 min: The goalie was not much cop for that goal, but champagne stuff played there by Scotland. At the moment, water is being taken on. This essentially breaks games down to quarters, right?
Goal! Bolivia 0-2 Scotland (McTominay, 23)
Lovely goal, more great link-up play from Shankland, who lays it to McTominay to smash home.
22 min: More galloping down the flank from Robertson. Don’t tire yourself too soon, to invoke Del Amitri.
20 min: Shankland and Adams are linking well, the former laying up Adams to blam a shot just wide. Good chance, well created. Perhaps Adams’ finish might have been better.
19 min: The pitch looks OK, better than that England are currently playing on in Tampa. Shankland is playing very well, and almost directed a flick to Christie.
17 min: Scotland’s initial brio has died off a little. Let’s hope it’s not the climate already.
15 min: Tony Barr gets in touch: “Wash your mouth (well, keyboard) out John!
No less an organ than the Guardian itself anointed the Scotland away kit as one of the best at the tournament. Speaking personally, I preferred the bright pink Earl of Roseberry number that got so many culture-war idiots’ knickers in a twist. This one’ll do until the Euros come around.”
James Humphries is back in touch: “I realise of course that this is a bit, but if you could avoid deliberately angering the football gods/ghost of Ally Mcleod’s dog that’d be great, aye?”
14 min: More careful passing from the Bolivians, for whom both full-backs play in Russia, Akron Tolyatti, a club formed in 2018.
12 min: Bolivia get a corner as a bagpipe wails in the background. The corner is poor, looks like they need a Nicolas Jover to sort this. Austin MacPhee, a Scot, will be helping out Portugal on set pieces at this World Cup.
10 min: Aaron Hickey is caught out and Gannon-Doak fouls Terceros. The resulting free-kick is a shambles, and cleared easily.
9 min: Gannon-Doak on the outside, and he pings in a cross, that evades everyone. Andy Robertson is playing very well. Are Liverpool quite sure about this?
7 min: Scotland look full of fizz, is it time to do an Ally MacLeod and suggest they are going to win the World Cup?
6 min: It’s a great start for Scotland, Christie and Robertson in tandem, and then Adams gets a shot in, that Viscarra can only parry away.
Goal! Bolivia 0-1 Scotland (Shankland, 5)
Gannon-Doak seems to have licence to go forward while Ryan Christie is tucking in, with Scotland playing an old-style 4-4-2. And you know what, it’s working, as Robertson overlaps and loops a ball from Christie to the back post and Shankland heads in.
3 min: Andy Robertson, the skipper, runs to a flick from Shankland but then fouls the opposing defender. It looks hot, and Bolivia look comfortable in passing the ball around.
Away we go in Harrison
1 min: It’s not a packed stadium, and Scotland being in red feels unfamiliar. The kit resembles that of Chile, or a lower-ranked La Liga team. It’s Bolivia who set off at a rate, Villamíl to the fore. Gtant Hanley has to head clear.
Flower of Scotland rings out, the bagpipes made it through customs at JFK.
Tony Hughes gets in touch: “As a teenager a million years ago at Kirkcaldy High School, the euphoria of Mexico ‘86 was such that 8 of us in our Physics class held a sweepstakes, whereby each of us paid in two pounds and got 3 randomly assigned Scotland players, and whomever came out collectively with the most goals, for Scotland, got to keep all 16 pounds. And 22 doesn’t go into 8, so unfortunately we had to add Alex Ferguson and Craig Brown (along with the goalkeepers). Some of us were really unlucky. I got Graeme Sharp, Arthur Albiston and Maurice Malpas, none of whom scored, and obviously the kid that had Gordon Strachan won the lot.”
I completed Mexico 86, it was the last one I completed.
This stadium in Harrison, New Jersey is home to New York Red Bulls; I’ve been, back in 2010, it was a short train ride from the World Trade Center, and from memory, not a great deal around it. Looking up famous people from Harrison and the best I came up with is Tab Ramos. I saw Juan Pablo Angel playing for the Red Bulls, so there’s that.
Ben Gannon-Doak spoke to the BBC in New Jersey: ““I don’t really know until the game gets started, but I think me and the rest of the lads have had a good week to prepare in my opinion in harsher conditions down in Florida, so I think we’re more than equipped to go out and play the football that we want to play. [We want] a good result to go into this World Cup with confidence, to go and play well as a team, play some nice football and aye, just to go out there and enjoy myself. No one would have thought we would have been here.”
Last time out for Scotland, the win over Curacao, which proved costly for Billy Gilmour and an opportunity for Tyler Fletcher.
Of those Bolivian players, the striker, Paniagua, plays for Wydad Casablanca, and Terceros plays for Santos in Brazil. It’s a real mix of home-based players and emigres.
This is the first time Bolivia have met Scotland.
The Bolivia team: Viscarra, Rocha, Haquín, Morales, Fernández, Matheus, Vaca, Villamíl, Terceros, Ribera, Paniagua. Subs: Arroyo, Centella, Govea, Lampe, López, Macazaga, Melgar, Nacif, Tórrez, Viviani, Zabala
James Humphries gets in touch: “Not that I wish mini-Fletch any ill - his dad was, I think, one of the most underrated players of his generation - but whose chips has Lennon Miller pished on such that Tyler gets called up ahead of him?
“Played 25 games for udinese this season, several years of bossing games at senior level for a pretty ropey Well side, and he plays (or played) a fairly similar role to Gilmour, too. But, no, let’s call up the guy who’s had about half an hour of senior football. And folk say Steve Clarke doesn’t like taking risks, eh?”
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For Scotland, Angus Gunn is in goal, Lawrence Shankland, Andy Robertson, Aaron Hickey, Ben Gannon-Doak and Ryan Christie remain from last weekend’s game against Curacao. Though expect plenty of changes. Gunn, Grant Hanley, Jack Hendry, Lewis Ferguson, and Che Adams are the players coming in.
The Scotland team
Scotland: Gunn, Hickey, Robertson, McTominay, Hanley, Adams, Christie, Hendry, Gannon-Doak, Ferguson, Shankland. Subs: Kelly, Gordon, Tierney, McGinn, Fletcher, Dykes, Stewart, Souttar, Hyam, Hirst, Patterson, McLean, Ralston, Curtis, McKenna
Ewan also wrote our Scotland preview.
Clarke is pragmatic in approach but it will be a shock if he does not start with two strikers for game one against Haiti. Victory there and Scotland have a genuine chance of progression from the first round for the first time. There is also a lingering reason for Clarke to at least appear bold; he was castigated by supporters for negative tactics in a must-win match against Hungary at the last Euros.
A more defensive style is likely and understandable against Morocco and Brazil, who simply put are better teams than Scotland. Clarke’s team can be useful in such a situation; they are excellently drilled and carry a counterattacking threat.
Ewan Murray is following Scotland at the World Cup, and he will be reporting on this game from New Jersey. All eyes are on Haiti.
Clarke insists he cannot alter plans on account of potential fitness setbacks.
“Do you want to wrap them in cotton wool and [they] don’t train?” Clarke asked. “You need to work. Injuries are part and parcel of football. When it happens, especially when it happens in the circumstances it happened to Billy, it is really disappointing. Everybody has got to take a deep breath and move forward again. That is what we will do.”
Preamble
Harrison, New Jersey hosts this warm-up for Steve Clarke’s Scotland. Expect to see plenty of substitutions, and hope for no more injuries after Billy Gilmour was ruled out last week. This is the final match before Haiti, a week from now, a chance to acclimatise, and get used to the conditions. Bolivia are not one of the 48 finalists, having lost to Iraq in the intercontinental playoffs; they were last at a final in 1994, and it’s been a long time since Erwin “Platini” Sanchez and Marco Etcheverry, the latter a legend of MLS lore. Scotland are back at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, and this is the last step before Haiti.
Kick-off is 9pm Scotland time/4pm Eastern time
