Pleased to hear it Jambo. Believe you me there's nothing I'd like more than to see Scotland qualify for 2006, get all the way to the final and then lose. Rooney! Rooney!Jambo Seagull said:Actually, we do have some half decent players coming through. Fletcher is a good player as is McFadden. Pearson's not bad. Webster, who had a mare last night is only 22 and will be a good defender in time. As for Marshall, he is not half as good a goalkeeper as Craig Gordon of Hearts. Marshall played last night for the full 90 mins partially to give him a full game, partially to assuage the Weegie media/public. Gordon will become the no 1 Scots goalie within the next couple of years and will probably be playing in the Premiership before long. He is only 22 and has learned a lot from Niemi, now regarded as about the best goalie in England. Hearts have had a long line of international goalies (their last regular goalie not to have been capped was in about 1980) and Gordon is regarded as being better than any of them apart from Niemi. He has the potential to be as good if not better than Niemi and in this team will have plenty of practice.
What we desperately need to uncover is someone to score goals at international level. Neither Miller or Crawford have got it at this level.
fatbadger said:Not very good at geography, are you?
Afraid so.whitelion said:Surely Scotland should be able to improve upon their current FIFA ranking and at least make the finals of the 2006 World Cup. Is this wishful thinking?
Easy 10 said:Afraid so.
There is absolutely no way I can see Scotland finishing above Italy and Norway in their qualifying group (other teams are Slovenia, Belarus and Moldova). Even if they did somehow scrape into 2nd place behind the Italians, they'd have to get an extremely fortunate draw in the Playoffs to have any chance.
Its sad, I genuinely would like Scotland to qualify. I like to see as many of the home nations at the World Cup as possible cos it just adds interest. But Scotland are just making up the numbers in the qualifying group now.