Squad announced today. Good to see Cowie keep his place after grabbing his chance when so many others couldn't be bothered going to Japan.

For the first time, we have 2 ex-ICT players in a Scotland squad.

Goalkeepers: Craig Gordon (Sunderland), Jamie Langfield (Aberdeen), David Marshall (Cardiff)

Defenders: Christophe Berra (Wolves), Gary Caldwell (Celtic), Steven Caldwell (Burnley), Danny Fox (Celtic), Alan Hutton (Tottenham), Stephen McManus (Celtic), Lee Wallace (Hearts), Steven Whittaker (Rangers)

Midfielders: Don Cowie (Watford), Graham Dorrans (West Brom), Darren Fletcher (Manchester United), Ross McCormack (Cardiff), James McFadden (Birmingham), Barry Robson (Celtic), Kevin Thomson (Rangers)

Forwards: Steven Fletcher (Burnley), Kevin Kyle (Kilmarnock), Kenny Miller (Rangers), Steven Naismith (Rangers), Derek Riordan (Hibernian).

Yeah Scottish fitba's in a dire state at the moment, didn't know Canada were doing quite so badly though.

Burley - pick a windae! Yer leavin'!!!!

Canada has been a crap team for years. The only thing they have really done is win the Gold Cup that time when Hastings got rookie of the tournament so that tells you how long ago it was.

However, with Canadian interest in MLS increasing (TFC already in, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa all interested in getting in), and the rule that dictates MLS teams must form youth academies, as well as the fact that it is the #1 co-ed sport amongst kids of school age ..... look for Canada to be consistently climbing the rankings in the next 5-10 years

PS, now Wales 3-0 Scotland

Is the yawn fest over then........

To be fair to George he didn't have Terry at his side to advise on tactical changes :023:

Aye right........as they say in some parts...................fekk this, I'm off to get drunkeeee

To be fair to George he didn't have Terry at his side to advise on tactical changes :party01:

Aye good job it could have been 6 :dancing03:

Scotland - :dancing03:

As someone old enough to remember the likes of Law, Bremner and Baxter wearing the dark blue with disctinction followed later by Dalglish, Souness and Miller what's happening now is just too depressing for words.

Back in those days you could make a credible case for a Scotland/England select having a majority of Scots. Now we don't have a single player with the ability to make the England squad far less the starting XI.

It may be partly about money but that's far from the whole explanation. The likes of Portugal, Serbia and Croatia hardly have the richest FAs in the world but are not toiling like we have been for years.

Edited November 15, 200916 yr by Kingsmills

I agree with that fella named after the loaf.

If every kid played football at school, after school, on the weekends, then there wouldn't be a problem

There are two problems:

a) we dont have many boys (4m population, aging population)

b.) Boys here prefer to play PS3, Nintendo DS, XBox, World of Warcraft.

In my mind, there is a clear link between size of population and hours spent playing football.

In China, all kids play basketball. 1.3 billion but can't beat an egg. Japan, all kids play baseball. 127 million, can beat Scotland. USA, Basketball, Baseball, American Football, 300 million, mediocre.

Most of the worlds greatest players played football 12 hrs a day. If Scotland wants to have the next Didier Drogba or Maradona, we have to scrap school, ban TV and video games, and just have our kids play football solidly.

The best teams in the world will be from developing nations where football is number 1. End of.

Edited November 15, 200916 yr by Kirishima

We are not the only nation in the world where kids have games consoles !

As someone old enough to remember the likes of Law, Bremner and Baxter wearing the dark blue with disctinction followed later by Dalglish, Souness and Miller what's happening now is just too depressing for words.

Back in those days you could make a credible case for a Scotland/England select having a majority of Scots. Now we don't have a single player with the ability to make the England squad far less the starting XI.

It may be partly about money but that's far from the whole explanation. The likes of Portugal, Serbia and Croatia hardly have the richest FAs in the world but are not toiling like we have been for years.

Back in those days the OF didn't have the stranglehold on the finances. Football was taught in schools. Every BB company, scout troop, school, etc. had a team/teams and competed in their own leagues. A good young player could find himself in two or three teams competing in different organised leagues.

This is not a football issue but a society issue, things are changing and not for the better.

Yeah but none of those points explain why we get trounced 4-0 by Norway and especially 3-0 by Wales. I'm quite sure they have similar problems.

By all accounts Burley wont be in the job for much longer .

Hasn't he just been given a contract extension to 2012?

And presumably if he goes, Butcher goes too.

I'm hearing the SFA will be meeting in the next few days to discuss Burleys future , get shot of the lot of the clueless idiots .

Hasn't he just been given a contract extension to 2012?

And presumably if he goes, Butcher goes too.

Funny i was thinking that earlier today, if Burley goes it is curtains for Butcher in the national set up.

That will be a good thing for us meaning he will be able to concentrate more on his REAL job.

That will be a good thing for us meaning he will be able to concentrate more on his REAL job.

The one he has with STV?

It's a numbers thing. With only 5 million of a population Scotland are never going to be world beaters. But these things come in cycles. Teams with Law and Dalgleish were better than average and the team today is worse than average. Don't worry, in a few years time Scotland will rise once again to the heady heights of mediocrity.

We have a bigger population than either Norway and Wales, a richer league and full-time professional teams. I think most neutrals would also say that, aside from a couple of exceptional players, Scotland has a stronger team overall than either of those.

And yet...

4-0 and 3-0!

Nothing to do with being world-beaters. Smith and McLeish did well with largely the same players. We're not punching our weight with Burley, never mind above it. Get going George. Have some pride. Don't wait for the sack.

Sounds like Burley could be on his way out according to the news on Radio 1 this morning